Program Launchers try to provide a more efficient way of running programs than by using the Windows Start Menu or having your desktop littered with icons.  The approach adopted varies from product to product and ranges from dockable windows to tray icons through to keyword typing.  None of the solutions is perfect; each has its strengths and weaknesses. However for many users, particularly power users, the keyword approach offers the most attractive option.

Launchy[1] is currently the top product in the keyword category class.  Recently upgraded to version 2, it is simple to understand, simple to configure, simple to use, simple to extend, not intrusive at all, open source. And it has a really small memory footprint too.

With Launchy you can not only launch applications, but also with the same keyword philosophy,  launch your preferred media player with a specific MP3 file, invoke your preferred desktop searching tool passing a search keyword, open your preferred browser and tell it to open on a specific bookmark or page in the history. The possibilities are virtually endless.

An alternative to Launchy is Find and Run Robot [2]. It's actually a very similar product. Its interface is not quite as sexy as Launchy but it is a little faster in operation. It also can configured as a powerful file find program. The new version 2 currently in beta looks most promising and when finalized will be a strong competitor to Launchy for top place.

See also: Hotkey Utilities

[1] Launchy
Website: http://www.launchy.net/
Download link: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=132975&package_id=146049
Author: Josh Karlin
Current version: 2.0
Version date: December 18, 2007
Download File size: 3.37MB
License: GPL
Operating systems supported: Windows 98-Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: Can be configured as portable
Non-English languages supported: None
Other relevant information: None