Launching applications in Windows

Jared Schwager — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 01:24:11 +0000

People who use Windows daily know that launching applications isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Instead of filling up half of your taskbar with Quick Launch icons, why not try something else? In this article I’m going to focus on a couple of my favorite freeware application launchers, which include Launchy and RocketDock.

Launchy

Launchy is my personal favorite application launcher out of the bunch. The basic idea behind Launchy is to use your keyboard to access your applications instead of your mouse. Using Launchy is as easy as typing the first few letters of the application you’d like to launch and pressing Enter. Launchy is not just limited to applications either. It is capable of finding files and even performing search queries on Google for you.

RocketDock

RocketDock is an application launcher which is very reminiscent of the dock in Mac OS X. Instead of using keyboard access, RocketDock allows you to launch applications in just a single click and in a visually appealing manner at that. Surprisingly, you can also choose to minimize your programs to RocketDock, eliminating the need to manage your open applications using the Windows taskbar.

There are many other application launchers available for Windows besides the two I’ve mentioned. A couple others I’d recommend are Enso Launcher($19.95) and ObjectDock(free).

Are you already using an application launcher? If so, which one are you using and why?

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Launching applications in Windows