Program launchers are nothing new to anybody who has been using Windows for more than five minutes. These days, programs like that are a dime a dozen. I have one freeware solution though that I think you will enjoy. The SmartStartMenu makes launching programs less of a pain.

Here is what the programmer behind SmartStartMenu has to say about it:

SmartStartMenu for Windows essentially turns the process of running almost any program into a three or four key-stroke effort. SmartStartMenu does this for you by automatically generating “on-the-fly” alphabetized lists of items from your start menu (or SmartStartMenu’s internal history) based on what you type!

If you ever use the “Start” menu to run programs you will find this tool is a much better way to find the menu item you are looking for. Since SmartStartMenu is based on your “Start” menu there is no “alias” database to maintain, there is no “alias configuration” interface to learn. You can change the keystrokes you use to access menu items through SmartStartMenu by changing your “Start” menu directly.

With a little tweaking of your “Start” menu you can configure any program that you want to be run by any three or four letter keystroke that you want. As you type into SmartStartMenu a type-ahead style list is generated on the fly from your “Start” menu or SmartStartMenu history. Select the item you want (or just press the “Enter” key if the item is already selected) and the program is started just as if you had selected it from the “Start” menu directly.

As you can see, this is one helpful little tool to have. Here are some screenshots of it in action as well. All in all, this is a freeware application that everybody must at least try out once. The shortening of launch time for our applications is something we could all use.

[818K] [Win 2k/XP] [FREE]

[tags]windows,freeware,programs,launcher,start menu[/tags]