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Size isn't everything, and Launchy is the perfect example of a program that's miniscule in format, but essential in its functionality. With the simple tap of an alt+enter combination on your keyboard, the application pops up. The only thing you have to do is type in what you want to do next. Want to load Photoshop? Start typing. Want to fire up Firefox? Write it out. Feel like heading over to Youtube? Type that into the input box. It's that easy. Launchy excels at what it does: launching stuff. We'd rather type in four letters than have to navigate through the start bar each time we want to run an applicaiton. This, and the program's seemingly limitless customization options, put Launchy high on our list of must-haves for any PC environment. ...even if this idea was seemingly "borrowed" from an Apple OS. Wink.
(click the picture to hit up Xbmc's official Flickr site!)
Xbmc, formerly known as Xbox Media Center, is a powerful application for streaming video content from one PC (or Mac, or Linux box) to another connected device. Its interface is absolutely gorgeous, but even if you don't agree with us, you can always skin it to whatever you want. The application supports a ton of video formats, which is nice. We like the application's comprehensive plug-ins even more--just describing all the tricks that external developers have coded into Xbmc would be an article in itself. If you've been a fan of Tversity and MythTV, you owe it to yourself to check out Xbmc. And if you have no idea what those two programs even do, don't fret. Grab this application and prepare thyself for a whole new world of media interactivity.
Got any favorite apps that we didn't mention? Post them in the comments section below!
Comments are closed on this article
metric_inch
October 07, 2008 at 11:25am
Launchy kicks ass.
No need to waste time trying to organize the start menu after installing applications.
No more trying to remember the name of some obscure company who decided to put the shortcut in Programs > Obscure Name > The Program nameJust hit Alt + Space (not alt+enter) and up pops launchy.
The best part is that how learns over time. I type f for firefox, t for thunderbird, v for vnc viewer, exc for excel, c for calc, no for notpad++ etc(notepad++ should be on this list, or the free/oss office list you posted earlier today) it kills the default windows notepad in terms of features and usablity.
Tekzel
October 07, 2008 at 12:01pm
Launchy is ok I guess, but it pales in comparison to the greatness that is "Find and Run Robot" or FARR from DonationCoder.com. This launcher gets installed on every machine I use and I get agitated when its not available on someone elses PC. haha
I agree with Notepad++, best text editor I have ever used. Period.
b_boy_69_00
October 07, 2008 at 1:13pm
I downloaded it and it didn't recognize half of the stuff I wanted it too. I changed all the options and added the folders directly to the list and still nothing. So less than half an hour after installation it was uninstalled. To bad, seemed like a great idea.
Tekzel
October 08, 2008 at 6:45am
Are you talking about Launchy or FARR? If FARR, and you are running Vista, I had the same issue. It doesn't have the "Start Menu" location for all users or your profile under Vista in the search folders location. I added it on mine when I upgraded. I really need to talk to Mouser about that so he can fix it, in fact I think im going to go do it now.
vintagegold
October 07, 2008 at 11:04am
XBMC was originally designed to work on a modded first gen Xbox. The shear ease of use and power this application brought made it an essential media streaming device, and why I have one hooked up to every TV in my house (4 in total). The ease with which it handles most media types is astonishing, to say the least. The biggest downfall was always the limitations of the first gen Xbox.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but XBMC has all the codecs built into
the application, so you aren't relying on the server system (wherever your files are store) to transcode
files for you (ala TVersity) but relies instead on host processing
power. With only a 733 MHz processor and 64 MB or RAM, it plays AVI files, MP3's and other standard definition files flawlessly all day long, but throw something encoded in H.264 (without doing a bunch of extra work to the file, I know people claim to have this working great) and it results in dropped frames or stuttered audio. Being able to run this on a more powerful machine should eliminate all of these problems. Now if someone can just get it to run on my Xbox 360, I won't have to hook my laptop or a small computer to my living room LCD.One of my more favorite things about this application compared to TVersity is how it handles files over a network. All you have to do is share a directory on your computer and look for that shared directory (or directories) from XBMC. You can even create shortcuts to specific folders (and title them) like TV, Movies, or whatever else you want. Basically, you don't have to "build" a media library on the server machine, just share the folders or drives on the network and XBMC should be able to find them. If you copy a new file into the directory, no need to rebuild the library, your XBMC machine will just see it over the network.
XBMC is powerful, beautiful, and simplistic in operation and highly recommended for everyone to check out!
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They say the best things in life are free, but are all free thing the best?
SirBC
October 07, 2008 at 11:22am
Just this morning I found myself wondering why Maximum PC has never had an article on Untangle, the open sourece UTM. Anti-virus, anit-phishing, anti-spam, intrusion prevention, webfilter, spyware blocker, protocol control, etc... It's easy to install and has a noob frienly GUI.
WWW.untangle.com
XBMC on an Apple TV unit looks tasty too.
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