tag:launcher

Hana & Sarah’s blog

Download from http://launchy.net. It’s a freeware.

Launchy is quite convenient and easy to use. The default shortcut keys are Alt + Space which can be easily changed from the option menu that you can access by right clicking on the border of Launchy.

It provides slick interface design which is skinable. Also, it is easy to add new executable location. You only need to define the parent folder in the Catalog menu and Launchy will scan all sub-folders and index them too. It is smart and self learning so once you executed ‘putty’ ssh by typing ‘pu’, it will show ‘putty’ as default entry next time you type ‘pu’. One thing that I didn’t like was that it consumes about 18 MB of memory. It is little too much for a simple application, but I guess it’s because of the graphic interface. But I couldn’t find better alternative.

Basically I like it because it’s pretty and smart enough to remember my favorite applications.

There are some similar free softwares introduced here at Lifehacker.com site. I did tried recently became freeware Enso. It is less intuitive (with no pretty graphics interface, showing only large bold letters on the left top corner) and hard to learn . Also it uses about 34 MB of memory. It was just not for me.

With the RocketDock and Launchy, I am in full control of my desktop.

RocketDock ( http://www.punksoftware.com/rocketdock) is Windows Application Launcher similar to the Mac OS X’s launch bar.

I was longing for such App launcher for Windows and tried some yahoo widget previously but they were very disappointing. When I first found this free software and I was very excited and satisfied with its powerful features that I always wanted.

Actually there are several similar Dock App for Windows, but this is good enough for me not to try other Dock / Launcher softwares.

• You can add and remove icons by just drag and drop.
• You can change the icon image with the regular image files (jpeg, gif, png)
• Multi language support
• Full control setting of its behavior (Icon Enlargement, Menu hides…)

Take a look at this movie that they made for showcase of RocketDock.
http://one.revver.com/watch/160224/flv

You may need 3rd party ICON images to decorate your dock. Try Everaldo’s free Crystal Icon Series. They are great and comes in various sizes from 16X16 to 128X128. If the above site does not work, try CrystalXp.net. They host many icon image sets, and I believe that they are free for personal use. But I guess you need to contact the author for the commercial use.

Other similar Windows Docking products are ObjectDock and AquaDock.