When it comes to computer software, I have a default bias towards tiny little applications that are built to do one thing and to do it extremely well. I abhor bulky, bloated, and expensive applications that try to do everything under the sun (and end up doing nothing well anyway).

But the downside is that, with so many applications installed on my computer, it was taking me about 30 seconds or more of my life just to locate any application I wanted to launch via the old and rusty Windows Start menu.

There had to be a better way to launch applications in Windows! So I started the hunt … and discovered a great little app, aptly named Launchy.

Launchy is a free and open source windows utility written by Josh Karlin and designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, the so-called quick launch toolbar, and even your file manager!

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and any directory you throw at it, and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

This can save you a ton of time, if you find yourself switching between several applications like I do.

Getting Launchy to Launch Your Applications

For you geeks out there, simply head over to the Launchy homepage and grab the application from SourceForge. Nothing special to worry about.

But for the rest of us …

For the rest of us who need a step-by-actionable-step guide to get things done, here’s how to get Launchy running on your Windows computer and forget about your Start menu for good.

We have to do three things: download the application, install it, and finally learn a few basic stuff to get us started with this super time saver.

Downloading Launchy: First head over to the Launchy homepage, take a peek around, and hit the download link. If you’re super busy, go straight to the download page hosted at SourceForge. The entire application is just about 800k … and should download in no time at all.

Installing Launchy: Installing Lunchy couldn’t be easier. Simply double-click on the downloaded file and the installation wizard pops up. Follow the on-screen instructions, and you’ll be just fine.

Running Applications with Launchy: Now that we have our helper installed, it’s about time we asked it to launch some applications for us. After installation, Launchy registers itself to automatically start whenever you startup your computer. But once started, it hides in the background.

To bring it forward … hold the alt key and tap the space key (i.e. ALT + Space). This is how the default skin looks like:

Now, type in a few keys of the program you want to run and hit enter once it has been found. Let’s say I wanted to start Firefox:

If you type a few keys and don’t get the program you’d like to run, simply wait for about 20 seconds. Launchy then displays a drop-down menu of the list of programs it finds matching the keys you have typed:

After launching your application, you can make Launchy disappear again by simply hitting Escape or Alt + Space.

Customize Launchy to your Heart’s Desire

Yeah, that’s right. You can customize Launchy to your heart’s desire. See the readme.pdf file that comes with the application for details. Here are a few suggestions for you (I won’t go into the details):

• Change your skin, so Launchy looks the way you want it to look
• Add additional folders and applications that you’d like Launchy to index and launch
• Change the hot key from the default Alt + Space to whatever you desire
• Change the number of suggestions from the default 10, or disable it all together
• Make Launchy stick permanently on your desktop, instead of hiding itself.

Yup, that’s pretty it. Needless to say Launchy has really been a time saver for me, and I really love it. Give it a try and share your thoughts.