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Replacement options desired: Resortlabs Task Commander "self-configuring menu"

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iphigenie:
I found that as I install lots of software to try, and lots of games, and several portable, no installation or command line utilities, I spent too much time cleaning up and managing menus and entries, and still had broken links, removed programs still appearing, and missing entries that I had to go seek in the file system and create and edit shortcuts for.

End up reinstalling a machine and you need to redo it all, or having to artificially reinstall software which would work perfectly directly... just because it is missing shortcuts (and sometimes installation on a new windows wont be able to reuse the old configs so not reinstalling is best) and if you split your time across several PCs, well, you never have quite the same set of apps on each, and it's just far too much time wasted with menus and stuff. And almost every startup or menu utility out there relies on you manually adding every entry. Not fun when you are a software addict.

So when I found Task Commander I loved it - it will add a little menu dot on the task bar which starts the menu. And it autopopulates the menu from every software that is triggered by the user - whether from the start menu, command line, a tool like FARR, or post an installation routine. The software could do that because as a task manager it was monitoring tasks anyway. It would catch more executables than I really wanted (install programs, for example) but I found it was WAY less work for me to quickly hide all these and organise the rest.

It was quirky but made my life easier. All the other features of task commander I didnt really need, but that one I miss.

But it hasnt made sense for them to port the tool to Vista/7 because most of these other features are now covered out of the box and I must be rather unique about the self populating menu

I really miss that, and I wonder, anyone encountered that feature elsewhere?

iphigenie:
Just thought I'd revive this since it sank without a trace back then...

Since there are task monitors that can snoop on things that run and titlebars etc in order to produce timesheets and reports, there has to be a way to capture what is run in a way that then filters out only the "main programs" and creates a start menu, no?

iphigenie:
I guess it is really difficult to capture what processes are started by the user rather than by other things?

Curt:
well, the Hot Launch menu still works in Vista; I wouldn't be surprised if it also works in W7. But why is it impossible to purchase when it is listed with a price? Hmm....

But you're right, there is no other program quite like this. mouser has a program in the neighbourhood to this, but otherwise... maybe one of Dennis Nazarenko's programs from http://www.ordinarysoft.com/ ?

Curt:
Maybe RecentX: http://www.conceptworld.com/RecentX/Features (page 4 and 5)

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I used this program occasionally on XP, but it gave me too many answers. Maybe it has improved - I still have a license key for their various programs - but I cannot allow myself to test it on this borrowed laptop.
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Using this IE9, their site is launching terrible slow.

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