Rarely use the Star Menu with Launchy

With over 100 installed applications on my computer at work I can spend a lot of time finding what I need in the Start Menu's Program List. The FREE program I use to find and launch programs faster is Launchy.

"Launchy is a free windows and linux utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!"

Too true. Once installed, Launchy runs as a process in the background. All you do is press Alt+Space Bar to bring up the search box. It comes up on top of other open windows so you can start typing your search right away. Once open Alt+Space Bar hides it.

I know there are other programs like Launchy out there and some others may have more features and search deeper in the system but this program works perfectly for me.

Here are some ways (from the official web site) to use it.

• Search Google
  • Type in google, then tab, then your search query and press enter
• Check the Weather
  • Type in Weather, then tab, then your zip code or city,state and press enter
• Search other sites
  • Other sites you can search include wikipedia, msn, yahoo, amazon, netflix, imdb, and more.
• Browse your computer
  • Type in c:, then tab, then a folder or file, hit tab, and continue
• The Launchy Calculator
  • Did you know that Launchy has a built in calculator? Type in some algebra and see what happens!
• Index your Bookmarks & Folders
  • Directory: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Favorites
  • File Type: .url
• Index your Music
  • Directory: My Documents
  • File Types: .mp3 .aac .ogg
• Index your Pictures
  • Directory: My Documents
  • File Types: .jpg .gif .bmp
• Index your Documents
  • Directory: My Documents
  • File Types: .doc .pdf .xls .ppt
• Index custom Commands
  • Directory: Your Custom Folder
  • File Types: .exe .bat .lnk

Once I got used to using Launchy I had to install it on my laptop. And while I am working at someone else's computer I naturally want to Alt+Space to open Internet Explorer or Paint or whatever.

There are also some great skins for it so you can make Launchy look like it's part of your OS. I hid all my icons and my desktop has never looked better!