Over the past 2 years that I've have a Mac, I've come across a few unique utilities that I've become accustomed to, and probably wouldn't keep a Mac if I couldn't use these programs.

The one I've learned to love the most is one of the 'launcher' applications, like Quicksilver or Butler. For those who aren't familiar with them, these launcher programs make it extremely to access anything on your computer with just a couple of keystrokes. One of my major dislikes about the Mac interface is the difficulty of getting to your Program listing. Sure there's the Dock, but I don't like keeping it cluttered with anything but the essential applications that I use frequently like Matlab, Word, Email, etc.

But for the programs I don't use very often, I find it tedious to open a new Finder window, go to the Applications folder, find the program, open it, then close the Finder window. Instead, I just activate the launcher, type in a couple of letters of the program, and it will immediately load the program for me. Quicksilver, the launcher I prefer, also does some other pretty cool features like the ability to instantly access emails in your address book or bookmarks that could be several folders deep. It's much more powerful than I described, but I just haven't learned all of its capabilities yet.

I was just wondering if there were any equivalent programs that were made for Windows. I spend about 70% of my time using my Windows PC, and if I am so much more productive with the 30% I spend on a Mac, I just wonder how much easier my life would be if such programs for Windows existed.

Thanks

2/4/2006 9:50:03 PM

this will keep you busy with google
http://ablaze.fr/GoogleX.htm


otherwise not really a mac user sorry can't help ya

2/4/2006 10:08:27 PM

not really on-topic since you're asking for Windows utils and are already set on your Mac w/ QuickSilver, but I just throw a copy of my Applications folder in the Dock and use it like the Start menu on Windows for the obscure apps

For your topic though, go to <http://www.versiontracker.com/windows/> and search for "launcher", I saw a few apps you could try

2/4/2006 11:35:56 PM

heh, funny you should ask about Quicksilver - there is a new program called Colibi for Windows that looks and functions (almost) exactly like QS. Well, actually all it does now is launch programs and do web searched, but i think they're going to add more features like QS has - email search, iTunes integration, etc.
http://colibri.leetspeak.org/

Then of course you should be aware of Yahoo Widgets/Konfabulator, the PC's answer to the Dashboard (or should I say, Dashboard is Apple's answer to the original Konfabulator). When i tried Konfabulator a while ago, I find it more powerful than the Dashboard - i don't even use the dashboard any more. But Yahoo Widgets has a launcher widget as well
http://widget.yahoo.com/gallery/view.php?widget=37236

then here's a couple more launches that I haven't used. The first one, AppRocket, looks pretty cool
http://candylabs.com/approcket/
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/findrun/index.html
http://candylabs.com/approcket/

2/5/2006 3:21:53 AM

I like Launchbar for the mac

2/5/2006 2:44:08 PM

there is this thing called the "start menu." and its free

2/5/2006 5:56:33 PM

what is this "start menu" you speak of?

2/6/2006 2:10:55 AM