Martin Aignesberger - author of WebSite Watcher, Local Website Archive, AIM-Notebook, AM-Deadlink, and very generous friend of DonationCoder - has just released Portable Start Menu, a freeware launcher for USB sticks:

Portable Start Menu is a simple and free start menu application that can be installed on USB sticks or local PCs.

Organize your programs in a simple menu system and launch them via a tray icon. If you close Portable Start Menu on an USB-Stick, running applications can be closed automatically, too.

Main features:

    * Organize and launch applications via a tray menu
    * Closes running applications on USB-Sticks automatically
    * Checks if an application has been changed before execution
    * Runs on USB-Sticks without leaving any traces on a host PC
    * Portable Start Menu is Freeware

Additional functions on USB sticks:

    * Create an autorun file to automatically launch Portable Start Menu
    * Close running applications when you exit Portable Start Menu

How to install Portable Start Menu on an USB stick:
Simply run the installer and enter the drive letter with setup directoy of your USB stick (for example K:\PSMenu).

Portable Start Menu 1.0  -  25-Sep-2007  -  1 MB

System: Win9x/Me/NT4/2000/2003/XP/Vista
License: Freeware

I tend not to use the mouse to launch things, since I find the keyboard to be so much quicker.  I've tried almost every launcher program out there for almost 2-3 months apiece (Launchy, Slickrun, FARR, etc.) and have found Keybreeze (www.keybreeze.com) to be about the best there is.  I haven't found anything that does as complete of an indexing of programs and as well provides an easy way to add custom commands.

Hmmm an awful lot of them aren't there    I'm using FARR, I haven't discovered many of its uses yet, its mainly a program launcher for me still, and I dont understand these aliases or regex and all the techie mumbo jumbo  , looking forward to the packs when that is all set up.

the mention Hidden Menu reminds me of another similarly titled app-launcher, H-Menu but unfortunately it is no longer being developed..

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I use a series of about 6 toolbars for different major program categories on my desktop and I put the program shortcuts in the appropriate toolbar. I have about 400 desktop shortcuts which are one click away. I arrange these in subcategories within each toolbar. I put my major programs (those I always use) on my quick launch toolbar.

I mostly use PowerPro because it's the only one I know. FARR sounds like its worth a look since so many of you use it. PowerPro is cool because it is so configurable and yet easy to use. I've got a small tiny toolbar full of icons on autohide that pops up if I move the mouse to the top of my screen. It pops up in the middle of the whatever maximized window is on my screen and usually doesn't block anything. It's working fine on Vista. Each icon can hold three programs (L,M,R mouse clicks). The program can do all other kinds of programmable things, but I use it solely to launch apps.  It's become kind of like a tiny QuickLaunch on steroids for my system.

pmcg: Can you please post a screenshot of your PowerPro bar?

* FARR
* Quicklaunch (from truelaunchbar, not that different though)

though i find that FARR gets slower the more directories you add to it.
For example i have all my portable/standalone/no-install programs in C:\Programs, and when i try to find something in it, it takes too long.
Another issue is i don't know when it's done searching.

sometimes then i switch to Copernic desktop search to find programs. though if a better alternative exists i might use that. CDS acts like my giant magnifying glass to find anything i ever need!

here's a screenshot
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I mostly use PowerPro because it's the only one I know. FARR sounds like its worth a look since so many of you use it. PowerPro is cool because it is so configurable and yet easy to use.

PowerPro has a FARR-style "Run Box Tiny" built into it as shipped, and there's a more powerful version in a script called Advanced Run Box, ARB.  I've briefly tried the latter - and it looks like a whole lot more work than FARR...

Here yah go, Sri. This is the left half of my widescreen. That's the PowerPro toolbar at the top with all those tiny icons. I used Truelaunch for a while, but it irritated me just like Quicklaunch did as it kept popping up when ever my cursor hit the screen side. PowerPro is small enough and out of the way enough so that that doesn't happen.

But PowerPro is not plug and play easy. It took me a little while to configure the placement of the toolbar and to figure out how to get icons on it. There is plenty of documentation, but it's one of those programs that does so much that it takes a while to extract the information you want from the documentation. For someone who loves to fiddle with configuring things though, the payback is well worth it. I think I read at the site that the author was stopping further development of it.

http://powerpro.webeddie.com/

The way I launch things is with a toolbar on my desktop and with a program called Hotkeys. The toolbar is easy to make just make a folder on the desktop and name it whatever you want then drag it to the edge of the screen and drop it. Then put all the desktop shortcuts in this folder and instant launch bar. I have mine set to always be on top and auto hide just move the cursor to the edge of the screen and the bar appears. The program is a keyboard mapper. Its available at http://qliner.com/hotkeys/overview.htm

i use 320MPH. cant live without it.

http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic3010.html

i have bblean, i use the pinnable menus, as well as plugins but mostly bbiconbox.

I see I am not nearly geek enough for this group.  I find the standard Windows QuickLauch bar to be sufficient for the majority of stuff I use regularly.  I supplement that with Hotkeys for those that I use the most (a program that is not supported nor updated but continues to work so I continue to use it) and Find and Run Robot for those used less frequently.