Tip: Launch Programs Quicker With Speed Launch

Microsoft is not the favorite when it comes to software production. Yes they have created the Office suite and Vista and XP and pretty much everything that is on a fresh install of a PC. We always, though, find some major bug with their software that doesn't happen with freeware. Bugs and errors are part of any Microsoft program, and yes they are annoying (This is quite an understatement!), but there are some products that Microsoft makes that are pretty reliable. Anyway, enough with my rambling; let's get to the point. Microsoft Office Labs (I don't know why they are calling it Office Labs since this program has nothing to do with Office) has released a beta program called Speed Launch, and it's aim (Hahaha!! Get it. The icon is a target...never mind) is to speed up access to programs (hence the name Speed Launch, duh!). And remarkably, I haven't had it crash yet (Three days with no crashes, why that's a Microsoft record!!). Read More...

I'll be the first to admit, I love the search feature on Vista's start menu. It just helps me be more lazy!!! Actually, the start search is a great feature that can help you find stuff with less clicks. One thing the start search lacks, though, is the mind reading ability to figure out what a program does. Take this example. If you were completely brain dead and forgot about Windows Media player or iTunes and typed into the start search "Play Music", it wouldn't return any results. What speed launch does is provide a tagging feature of sorts for your programs so you can tell it what they do. Then, when you need to access the program, simply press Windows Key and C and type in a command such as play music. Speed Launch will find a program that you have tagged with these tags and run it.

The best part about speed launch is it's drag and drop capabilities. You may have noticed on the article before this one (List: My Favorite Online Game Sites) there was a little archery target in the bottom right-hand corner of the little screen shots of the gaming sites. This is the speed launch drag and drop feature. Drag any icon, page, file, etc. onto it and it will create a link to the site in the Speed Launch menu. Microsoft has even included a feature to check stocks and even search something on all the popular search engines (Funny they put Yahoo! and Google in this, I thought it would be all Windows Live Search). This little feature is free and still in beta. This means that you can suggest features or improvements and report bugs. The only thing I do not like is when you install, you have to agree that Speed Launch can send "usage data" (Cough! Cough!) to Microsoft. So just be careful what you link to. Speed Launch can be found on the Microsoft Office Labs - Speed Launch page.