MadAppLauncher Review

While every Operation System comes with its own built-in Applications Launcher, it is obviously not quite satisfactory to many users, since there are tons of the programs’ launching utilities on the consumer market, and most are free to use. We are going to present a simple application launcher  MadAppLauncher, which is designed based on an interesting concept and equipped with set of attractive features.

It is design to execute group applications, folders, scripts, etc. with ease, using hot keys, assigned to each item. It supports drag and drop and manual editing. There is no need to remember all those hot keys; just activate the application launcher, press one number key to select a tab (group) and another key(letter/symbol) to launch the corresponding application. The software is freeware, under GPLv3 license.

Objectives of MadAppLauncher

• Reduce desktop and task bar clutter by using tab groups
• Reduce the number of mouse clicks/moves and key presses
• Access applications, files, and folders fast so you can focus on what you need to do

Main Features

• Assign 30 programs for each of the 10 tab pages. A total of 300 per configuration.
• Press a key to find a program; 0-9 to activate tabs and the corresponding letter/symbol to launch a program.
• Organize better by assigning a configuration file to a button - effectively creating a cascading set of programs.
• Option to keep the application launcher window on top of all other windows.
• Option to auto-hide the application launcher window when an application, file, or folder is opened.
• Option to always center the application launcher on screen.
• Option to change the hotkey used to activate the application launcher.
• Drag and Drop applications, files, and folders.
• Check for updates on startup.
• Option to change an application's initial window size and location.
• Save multiple sets of applications.
• Run programs as administrator.
• Duplicate applications assigned to buttons.
• Move buttons across tabs.
• Auto activate tabs on mouse over.
• Option to press a key twice before launching.
• Refresh icons for portable applications, files, and folders.
• Auto-save data files.

Developers Website: http://sites.google.com/site/madapplauncher/

Download Page: http://sites.google.com/site/madapplauncher/download/latest_release

Screenshot:

System requirements:

• Microsoft XP/Vista/Windows 7
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Client Profile (web-installer included)

Unusual computer operations through mouse gestures freeware

How do you launch applications on your computer? Probably, through Start button and choosing your program from the list of utilities. Or, using the advanced application launcher could be easily found on the Web. But is that the only way to start applications? Thinking about the theoretical possibilities to run applications, the first comes to mind voice activated apps initialization. You just say “Word”, and the Microsoft Word utility pops-up on the screen. While the technology has already developed the necessary hardware and software for this approach, and it has been proven for the smart phone applications, using it for PC has not found wide recognition. But what can be used else? In this post, I want to present the programs offering to run the software on your computer through customized mouse gestures.

StrokeIt

What is StrokeIt?

StrokeIt is an advanced mouse gesture recognition engine and command processor. What is a mouse gesture? Mouse gestures are simple symbols that you "draw" on your screen using your mouse. When you perform a mouse gesture that StrokeIt can recognize, it will perform the "action" associated with that gesture. In short, it's a nifty little program that lets you easily control programs by drawing symbols with your mouse.

What can it do?

StrokeIt can currently recognize more than 80 unique mouse gestures and can be easily trained to recognize many more. For each gesture recognized, StrokeIt can execute a user-defined set of commands within the active application. StrokeIt commands are defined within plugin libraries that can be easily created by third parties to do nearly anything.

How do I perform a gesture?

Click and hold down the right mouse button and then draw the mouse gesture you want performed. You can temporarily disable StrokeIt by holding down the Control key, or right clicking on the StrokeIt icon in the system tray. If you want to cancel a mouse gesture while drawing it, simply left click.

Costs

StrokeIt is free for individual and not-for-profit charitable entity use.

Website: http://www.tcbmi.com/strokeit/

Video Presentation:

GMote

About gMote

gMote provides fast access to frequently-used actions via mouse gestures. By default, drawing a gesture is done by holding the right button down and dragging the mouse pointer across the screen. You may record a "W" shape to launch your favorite browser, a circle to enter your name, an "S" to invoke the Start Menu, a "P" to print etc.

gMote Installation

The significant advantage of gMote is a full portability of the problem, so it can be run from the external drives. To activate it, download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Delete uninstall.exe. Launch gmote.exe. To disable auto-update, click on the tray icon, select "Options" and uncheck "Check updates automatically".

gMole Startup

• Run the program, gMote.exe. Note that an icon appears next to your clock on the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen - a small white "g". You can right-click that icon to bring up a popup menu that lets you configure the program or instruct it to start when you log in to Windows.
• In the main gMote window, check that the button labelled "Active" is toggled on. You'll notice that it looks different from the other buttons in this state.
• In the bottom-left corner, click "Create gesture". Draw a shape where indicated. The shape must be one continuous stroke, which should look unique but not be too complicated.
• After you let go of the mouse button, the new shape will appear in the list on the left, next to a button. Click on that to choose what will happen when you draw this shape in the next step. Among the useful actions are media player controls (tested with Windows Media Player and iTunes), web browser functions (tested with Internet Explorer and Firefox) and commonly used features such as the clipboard. You can choose one "main action" for your gesture, and then make exceptions for other programs that you use. For example, a "B"-shaped gesture might format text as "Bold" in your word processor and go "Back" in your web browser. To set the default action, use the drop down list next to "Default action (all programs"). At the bottom of the list are options to choose a program or folder to launch, website to visit or a key combination of your choosing to simulate. This last option means you can access any computer function that can be executed with a keyboard shortcut with a gesture instead! For example, the Windows Search feature has the shortcut [Windows key] + F.
• If you want gMote to know about a few programs you have installed so that you can make special gesture behaviors for them, click "Configure programs" on the main window. You will be able to add programs that were recently used, or browse for others. When you add a program to the list, give it a friendly name. This list is saved inside the gesture set, which has various consequences. For one thing, it means that if you transfer your set to someone else it might not work properly if their installed programs are in different locations. Secondly, it means that when you create a new set you will have to specify a new set of programs. Fortunately gMote lets you export a list of programs as a simple text file. Use "Save list" to do that. When you create your new set, use "Open list" and choose the file you saved. The programs you used in the other set appear in the list.
• If you want one program to ignore all gestures, the fast way is to use the "Excluded programs" tab in the Options dialog (see below).
• Use the "Save set" button to store all the gestures you create in one file. The gesture set that's loaded when you quit the program (or turn off your computer) will be loaded again next time you run it.

Using gMole

• Close the main gMote window (you can show it again using the white "g" icon) by clicking on the standard Windows "x" button in the top-right; the larger "Exit" button quits gMote completely.
• Now hold the Ctrl and Shift keys together (this is the default setting, click "Options" to choose another method), draw a shape and release the keys. Keep an eye on the bottom-right corner of the screen - here gMote will let you know if it recognized your gesture.

Costs: Free.

Website: http://www.handform.net/apps/gmote

Video Presentation:

Applications Launchers - The Best Free Software of 2009 (PC Magazine version)

The article featuring the best freeware 2009, has been posted at the beginning of the year, January 13, 2209. This seven-months old listing will be still interesting for those, who, as I am, decided to completely replace the paid software and services (whenever possible) with the free alternatives.

As the story says, why pay? You've already shelled out money for a computer, there's no reason that what's running on that pricey PC should cost a darn thing. Not in this day and age of amazing freebie software and Web apps. Last year listing covered 157 free utilities and services, while this year coverage has extended to 173 utilities and services.

For convenience, I will split the listing as per categories, adding my comments whenever I have something to say...

Part 1

Applications Launchers

Application launcher is a simple utility that suppose to improve the ability for computer user to access any programs or files on the computer by simply typing the first few letters of the name or clicking the dock icons of graphic interface. Using suitable application launcher can reduce user time for searching favorite program shortcut that they most frequent use, since they are able to can cut down the step of searching for the application executable file again and again. Some of the utilities offer extended functionalities, widening the spec of the software applicability.

There are four items presented in the PC Magazine list.

1. Circle Dock

Website: http://circledock.wikidot.com

OS: Windows

Presentation: Who says a dock has to actually... dock? To the side of the screen, that is. Circle Dock brings up a spiraling launcher interface with all the icons you want to click. Rotate it with the wheel on your mouse and change the skin to suit your desktop.

Overview (My Pick):

Windows application launcher arranges Windows application shortcuts, which you use most often, in circular fashion. The Circle Dock launcher icons arrangement can add or be arrange by dragging them from your desktop or quick launch bar and customize to your heart’s content. Beside that, you can either display your icons in concentric circles, or as a spiral.

What Circle Dock Allows You to Do:
* Launch your programs from a circular dock.
* Drag and drop your files, folders, and shortcuts onto a circular dock that you can resize.
* Rotate the dock with either your mouse wheel or the keyboard arrow keys.
* Change the image shown for the icons and change the skins (compatible with icons and skins for Rocket Dock, Object Dock, etc.)
* The dock appears where your mouse is by pressing a hotkey (default is F1) or your middle mouse button.
* Tested on computers with multiple monitors, Windows XP/Vista, 32-bit & 64-bit, and requires only .Net Framework 2.0.
* Automatically works on all Windows Vista computers and most Windows XP computers.
* A new settings panel that allows you to customize many options. It updates your dock as you make changes. See it change in real time! No need to press an OK button.
* Multi-language capable. Just translate the English.ini file to the language of your choice.
* Change the image used for the dock icons with the easiest method out there: Just set the program to "Icon Replacement Mode" in the right-click menu of the centre icon and you can change all the icon images by just dragging and dropping new PNG images onto them!

* Huge time saver when you are customizing your dock!
* You can now toggle the visibility of the dock by moving your mouse to any edge of your screen. By default, the left and right edges are used for toggling. No need to press a button!
* Reorder the dock items by dragging and dropping them over each other.
* Organize the dock items using dock folders.
* By default, clicking on the centre button does not open the start menu. You can enable this in the settings panel.

Video Presentation:

Circle Dock - Free Apps Launcher in Circle fashion

2. ObjectDock

Website: http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/

OS: Windows

Presentation: Replace the Windows Taskbar and Quick Launch toolbar with this Mac-like animated toolbar of icons for all your programs. It comes with a few "docklets" for displaying info like the time, weather, and a Web search form.

Overview: ObjectDock enables you to have more control over how you organize your desktop. Rather than having a bunch of icons on the desktop, these icons can be put into docks. ObjectDock can also be used to replace the Start bar entirely freeing up valuable screen real-estate. With various interaction modes available, you can get the dock availability that's right for how you work.

Fully customizable, super smoothness in zooming, entertaining alternate mouseover effects, libraries full of high-quality images available for use with the program at WinCustomize.com.

Instead of having a cluttered start bar, you have a nice little picture of all your running applications. Shuffling between applications is much quicker, and you can launch the applications you need without wasting time on the start menu.

Screenshot:

3. Launchy


Website: http://www.launchy.net/
OS: Windows, Linux.


Presentation: "Keystroke launcher" is a fancy way of saying "command line," but if you like to type rather than click for control—a practice that goes well beyond app launching—Launchy is your best choice.

Overview:

Launchy is a free windows and Linux utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

Once Launchy has been started, it hides in the background. You bring it forward by holding the alt key and tapping the space key. You then type in a few keys of the program you are searching for and hit enter once it has been found. You can also make Launchy disappear again by hitting escape or alt+space.

Screenshot:

4. Quicksilver

Website: http://www.blacktree.com/
OS: Mac OS

Presentation: Quicksilver does more from the keyboard than just launch programs. It can act on any item you can find or drag on your Mac. Quicksilver plug-ins add even more functions.

Overview: A unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data. When opened, it will create a catalog of applications and some frequently used folders and documents. Activate it, and you can search for and open anything in its catalog instantly. The search is adaptive, so Quicksilver will recognize which items you are searching for based on previous experience. It also supports abbreviations, so you can type entire words, or just fragments of each. When not in use, Quicksilver vanishes, waiting for the next time you summon it.

Quicksilver's greatest strength, however, is not search. Any item you are able to find, drag, or otherwise pull into its universe is endowed with many potential uses. Hitting takes you to the action field, where you can use the same adaptive search to select what you would like to do. Among other things, files can be emailed, copied, compressed. Text can be modified, transmitted between programs, or searched for on the web. Some actions even support an indirect object, so you can send an item to a person, move files to another folder, or open files with a specific application.

Quicksilver can be given the ability to understand the data inside of files, allowing you to work with data in new, faster ways. Plug-ins add both new items and new actions, allowing you to run scripts, send instant messages, dial phone numbers, look up words in a dictionary, queue up songs in iTunes party shuffle, and much, much more.

Frequently used commands can be bound to triggers, giving you the ability to execute them immediately by hitting a hot key or using the mouse on a corner or edge of the screen.