XYplorer Beta Club

PStart

I am using the probably not so well known PStart. Great flexibility. Full portability. No installation. Freeware.

Works at least from w2k to Vista (have not tried it under 7). Actually, I stumbled upon it a few years ago, looked at it and forgot it. Something more than a year ago I gave it a second try and found out totally unexpected flexibility features. It was a "Wow!" effect!

It has not been changed since 2007, I think. I would say that in this case that information is not a negative one!

Borut wrote:PStartIt has not been changed since 2007, I think. I would say that in this case that information is not a negative one!

I tend to disagree... Used it for years myself but I've seen several PCs (Win 7 x86/x64) where PStart's icon disappeared from the system tray for no reason (while the task is still running) and never reappeared.

I talked to the developer of Traylauncher a while ago and he implemented a few of my requests and I'm happy with it now.

Website: http://code.google.com/p/traylauncher/

I check out launchers regularly but have stuck with RUNit from magister-lex (http://www.magister-lex.at/RUNit/) (freeware) for more than ten years. It hasn't been updated once in that time. It's discontinued but is still available for download and still works solid-as-a-rock in Win7 64bit.

There are hundreds of apps that let you create customizable launch menus. The feature that keeps me with RUNit is how it is launched (in addition to the obligatory hotkey).

Move your cursor to the top edge of the screen and right-click.
And the menu pops down at that location.

The combination of right-click and screen edge means that it isn't activated inadvertantly like many autohiding toolbars or hotspots/hot corners.

Neither does it interfere with them. I use an autohiding taskbar at the top of the screen. RUNit just pops up over it when asked.

It can also be used without interfering with fullscreen apps and previews.

You can only use one level of nesting but you can have different menus appear when the top, left, right or bottom screen edge is right-clicked.

Tips:
1. Launch RUNit itself from a shortcut with argument:
C:\...\RUNit\Runit.exe C:\...\RUNit\runit.ini
to use it portably, otherwise the ini file is placed in the Windows folder.

2. Combine it with shortcuts to folders using menuApp
http://www.desktopapps.co.uk/menuApp.php

See also
http://www.executor.dk/
http://blaze-wins.sourceforge.net/index.php

Does RocketDock (http://rocketdock.com/) classify as a program launcher? It's even portable and support relative paths.

I use XYplorer for this purpose. Just create a custom button and add new programs to it when needed, like this:
There are probably better alternatives, but this works just fine (for me).

Since Microsoft decided to cripple the start menu and the taskbar, I found Find And Run Robot and Launchy. Actually, I am using the latter now as it perfectly fits Synapse on Linux: Same usage, similar look and feel.

I'm using True Launch Bar for many years now and I simply can't imagine my computer without it.

There is a free version too, but I didn't check it.

And Tordex Wheel is a great little free tool if you own True Launch Bar.

I've tried tons of launchers and finally settled with Autohotkey. This needs a bit coding but a dead easy programming language to learn.
Highly recommend if you're neither noob nor pro in coding.

Thanks to all above for their recommendations. A couple I haven't seen before and may try.
I've been using XYplorer more and more as my launcher since I usually always have it open in the tray anyway. It's been covered a couple of times in different other posts and in one of Don's tips I believe. Instead of assigning to a button though I use the catalog feature a lot and have added a category for my favorite programs. And in the properties set "Action on click:" to Open Item.
This works for most of my favorite programs in Win7 and always does with XP.
A couple of my favorites require I run them as admin in Win7. So in these cases I just set "Action on click:" to go to the location instead of open item, right-click and run as admin.
Whatever method or program is the most comfortable for the user is the main thing.

kodyman wrote:A couple of my favorites require I run them as admin in Win7. So in these cases I just set "Action on click:" to go to the location instead of open item, right-click and run as admin.

There are command line utilities that can run executables with elevated rights. I use this http://code.kliu.org/misc/elevate/

Marco,

Almost forgot
Thank you for your recommendation. I'll give it a try. Also tried putting a check mark in Properties> Compatibility> Privilege Level> Run this program as Administrator and it seems to be doing ok for me now too.

kodyman wrote:Also tried putting a check mark in Properties> Compatibility> Privilege Level> Run this program as Administrator and it seems to be doing ok for me now too.

Does that work portably? (I mean, an executable flagged that way and then moved via an USB key onto another system will still launch as admin?)

I mean, an executable flagged that way and then moved via an USB key onto another system will still launch as admin?

Nope.

It's more or less a registry entry that get's written for the current user, when you use this procedure.

They are stored under:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

I use True Launch Bar and Launchy... and Listary (with FlashFolder and FileBox eXtender... configured to not conflict each other)