Free Programs

Launchy

This very handy tool lets you open nearly any program, file, folder, or Web site on your system with just a few keystrokes. Launchy is called from the background with a hot key combo, and a small, skinnable box pops up.

Enter the first few letters of a file or program, and Launchy automatically displays the rest of the name. You simply press Enter to open or launch it. If the displayed name isn't the item you want, a few seconds later the tool displays a drop-down list with other likely candidates from which you can choose. In our tests, we were easily able to configure the tool to choose from multiple directories among our system's other users' folders. Besides files, folders, and apps, Launchy also displayed site names from our default browser's Favorites file.

This easy-to-master tool--free and unlimited--performed without a hitch in all our tests, and soon may completely replace our using the Start menu or Windows Explorer. We recommend it for any user.