When I have an application to launch on my computer, I don’t want to click through a series of menus hunting for it.  Vista has a new search box that makes it easier but consider the following.

My computer has both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 installed.  I almost always want to launch Visual Studio 2008 these days.  Yet on Vista when I hit the Windows key and type ‘vi st’ I get the following (Visual Studio 2005 is always highlighted first):

Now consider Launchy.  I hit Alt+Enter to open Launchy and type ‘vi st’ to get the following:

Because I use Visual Studio 2008 more often, Launchy offers it first.  If I wait for a moment, Launchy gives me a list of other possible matches to my input text:

Launchy even makes blogging easier.  I just type ‘lw’ to get Windows Live Writer:

I also use Launchy a lot to search by typing ‘goo’ or ‘liv’, pressing Tab, and entering a search term.  And there are plugins for Launchy to do other things.  (For Mac lovers:  Launchy is kind of like Quicksilver for Windows.)

Find the download at www.launchy.net.  Donate something to the developer if you like it.  I gave $20, which isn’t much for a utility I use about 100 times a day.

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