The launchers that are on the market today are basically designed to help you improve your day-to-day workflow, by allowing you to access your files more easily, and it doesn’t matter what the principles that these pieces of software are built upon are, because the purpose remains the same for each and every one of them.

The app we are going to talk about today is called Ergo Launcher and it was designed to be a simple, small, and easy to use program that would help you access applications, files, folders, shortcuts and URLs a lot easier and faster. The method employed by the developer is the same as the one Windows Explorer uses, the only difference being the fact that Ergo Launcher provides a system tray and a popup menu that give you access to the shortcuts from within the storage folder, and not just by opening the folder and launching the shortcuts.

The user interface consists of two different segments: the system tray launch menu and the popup menu. By default, Ergo Launcher comes with a set of predefined shortcuts for computer management (User Logoff, Turn Off and Restart), but you also benefit from a useful menu that shows the desktop icons and the "My Local Drives" menu. The basic principle that the software was built upon is to have a single folder that contains all your favorite shortcuts, to manage, sort, and launch them whenever you want.

The program is free but in the provided Help file, under Registration, it says that "Ergo Launcher is shareware, so you need to register it if you want to continue to use it after trial period. The trial period is 30 days." The version we tinkered with is 2.2 and has no Registration option, but if you go to the developer's Buy page, you will clearly see that it is freeware.

The app is really simple to work with, and it does not provide any spectacular options or features. Customizing the launch menu requires adding the shortcuts yourself; however this is a simple operation because the application creates a folder in the "My Documents" directory to store all the data. Open the folder using the "Fill Launch Menu" options and create a shortcut manually just like you do it on the desktop. By default, the program comes with the homepage and email address shortcuts included. When trying to erase them from the sort window, failure will be written all over the attempt, but you can do it the old-fashioned way: open the folder and erase them with Windows Explorer.

The first test we made consisted of creating a directory named "Softpedia" (with a corresponding shortcut on the desktop) and adding a few items. Therefore, in the storage folder from the "File" menu we created a new shortcut with Softpedia’s directory path. The problem is that in the launch menu it does not reveal the items in a submenu (like those from the default Ergoworx folder); instead, you must click and open the directory to view and launch them. You can also use separators to sort the items in the launch menu for a better view.

Ergo Launcher also supports URL shortcuts, but again you must have the addresses saved on your hard drive; a great improvement would be to just enter the URL address you want to store. Needless to say that the web address will be launched in your default browser. Another way to add shortcuts is to drag and drop them to the storage folder, although we wouldn’t recommend this because Windows Explorer will move your shortcuts to the storage folder.

From the "Settings" window you will be able to set the tray icon mouse click actions, the storage folder path and also the hotkey to call the popup menu, which shows the exact items as the tray icon but it can be called using your keyboard. One thing that needs to be mentioned here is that the menu will snap to your mouse position, which is useful if you are working with a multi-monitor environment. The application can be sent to Windows startup to launch with the operating system.

The Good

Ergo Launcher provides a very simple way to access your shortcuts, and it is very easy to work with. The popup menu comes in handy after you have customized your launch menu. The application is free of charge and you can barely feel that it is running (the resource usage is enough proof of its low requirements).

The Bad

The program does not provide any other way to add shortcuts besides what Windows Explorer does, like a "Send To" shell registration item. Another thing that needs to be mentioned here is that the only way to save or back up your configuration is to copy the storage folder.

The Truth

Ergo Launcher is a simple, easy to use, application that does not provide too many options to choose from, but it can help you access your files using the popup menu (my favorite) or the system tray launch menu, and adding the items could not be any easier than that.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: