Do you have more than one web browser that you work with, or more than one music player that you like? And you don’t want to use only one player or browser because each application provides different features that you like, want or need. We often discover applications that are much more helpful than the old Winamp Player, but we are not ready yet to give up on it. Not a few are the situations that I find myself in when I want to just erase Winamp from my PC, but I’m still using it. If your system hard drive supports, of course, you can install and select to play your music files with as many players as you want. The problem comes when you must select the one you want to start. To leave all the icons on your desktop is not a solution, like is not a solution to start the application that you want using the Windows Start Menu. Launchers, Shortcut Managers or Hotkey Managers are what you need.

The Fast Launcher application was designed to help you launch your applications, files or folders much easier. With Fast Launcher you will be able to sort you shortcuts in groups, so that if you have more than one application, let’s say for playing music, you can choose the one you want to start all from one place. The process is extremely simple. In the main window, select to create a new Group from the right-click menu or press the CTRL+G key combination to enter the Groups menu. Group’s menu window is where you can add new groups to your list, edit or delete the existing ones. The list can be rearranged as you wish. After you create the Group, you must add new items.

For an existing Group, from the right-click menu you can select Items (or press the CTRL+I key combination) and rearrange the order which the shortcuts appear in. Here you can add new items, edit or delete the existing ones. To insert new shortcuts, you can just simply drag and drop the items over the window, press the INS button on your keyboard or select Add Items from the right-click menu window. The shortcuts can refer to any file, folder, or even drive.

Item Properties window is where you will be able to customize the program and shortcut properties. You can select the icon that you want to use, and enter a title. Fast Launcher application can be called using a key combination (change the key combination under the activate tab from the preferences window) or using the middle mouse button. Particularly for every item you can select the key combination that you want to use. One interesting option that Fast Launcher application provides is the possibility to create an item that launches other items, so that you can create, let’s say under Office Group, the Text Editors item and add more than one text editor application to start simultaneous. The items that you add can be customized to launch in Minimized, Normal, or Maximized state, start using parameters or with Administrator rights.

After you configure Fast Launcher the way you want you will be able to backup your configuration settings so that you will be able to restore them in case something goes wrong, or you want to create another configuration. You can adjust and modify the way Fast Launcher looks. The order of the Groups can be changed, or the Group icons and appearances. If you like you can use a certain transparency level for the main window. The application comes translated in 8 languages. Although from the beginning you would think that this is a simple, with no purpose application, you can find that it can be very useful if you are looking for a small, easy to use launcher. One important and useful feature is the possibility to remember relative paths which are not present. Simple launchers, like this one, do offer this feature.

The Good

With Fast Launcher you can launch almost any file, folder or application. Just Drag and Drop the items over the main window and select the Group. A great option that Fast Launcher provides is launching multiple items simultaneously.

The Bad

The lack of features and options can and will situate Fast Launcher application one step further from Windows Quick Launch and Start Menu.

The Truth

If you are looking for a launcher with limited options but doing its job and fast responding to your commands, than Fast Launcher is worth trying. It does not offer much but it can be easily customized and provide quick access to your files or start applications.



Here are some snapshots of the application in action: