App Launcher

More often than not, developers have to face the difficult challenge of striking a balance between executing a faithful recreation of their artistic vision and ensuring a friendly user experience, all while trying to accommodate as many types of personal tastes and intermittent industry trends when designing their product. Luckily, when it comes to unrestricted ecosystems, third-party programs such as App Launcher can fill the void for niche needs.

PC hardware and software remain closely interconnected to this day, given the way the former’s improvements directly influence the development of the latter, with a prime example being the transition from terminal-based layouts to the graphical interfaces that power most of the modern consumer devices.

Throughout the years, Windows’ own app tray known as the Start Menu went through drastic changes when moving from the 7^th to the 8^th version by incorporating tiles with customizable icons and sizes that fit a touch-screen powered user experience. This Metro-styled system was replaced with the current non-resizable app drawer that resembles a simpler mobile-friendly version with less padding regarding the icons.

In seeing the community’s initial difficulty to adapt to the tile-powered full-screen version of the Start Menu in Windows 8, Microsoft provided users with the ability to toggle between it and the more traditional variant when the 10^th iteration shipped. Unfortunately, this option is gone in Windows 11, leaving touch-screen users with less customization possibilities.

This is where the app comes into play, featuring a minimalist dual-pane layout that lists the app categories on the left and displays the relevant programs on the right with enough padding for use with touch-powered monitors. Users with different versions or release branches will be able to differentiate between them thanks to the app’s ability to point out the path of the listed utilities by default.

As long as the lack of built-in dynamic dark mode and support for custom icons is not an issue for your workflow, App Launcher may be a good alternative to the existing Windows Start Menu.