JetStart - Quickly launch programs in Windows

Posted on February 16, 2008 at 7:22 am

The Windows start menu was quite efficient about 10 years back, before there weren’t too many applications around. Nowadays, its interface is quite clumsy in terms of effectiveness because you have to scroll through and search the apps you want to use on your own. Imagine trying to find an app from 100 Windows shortcuts inside the start menu - it’s just like finding a needle in a haystack.

That is one of the reasons why application launcher such as JetStart was created. This freeware aims to manage your Windows start menu efficiently, so that you can access your favorite applications in just few simple clicks. I also recently wrote abut Enso Launcher, another cool application launcher program that you might want to check out.

JetStart Features

JetStart works right out of the box. At first launch, it will scan all your Windows start menu shortcuts so that you can start accessing your apps right away. You don’t have to manually add your Windows shortcuts with JetStart - each time an application was installed or removed, JetStart will auto-update its record database. Cool!

JetStart provides 5 ways for a user to access Windows applications:
1. Start button hover menu

Put your mouse button on the Windows Start button and a menu will pop-up to show recently used Windows applications, application categories, quick Windows system command and more.

2. Keyword search

This menu is accessible by pressing the “WinKey + S” keyboard combo. To find an application, type a portion of the application’s keyword to search and JetStart will return a list that you can choose from. For example, type “word” and JetStart will return Microsoft Word. Select it from the list and press “Enter” to launch the application. Smart!

jetstart-shortcut-interface-screenshot

From this menu, you can quickly find an application from 3 distinct categories - recently used applications, new applications and system applications. You can even find your apps categorized alphabetically!

3- Edge menu

This menu appears when you move your mouse cursor on edge of the screen. You can define which application to appear on this menu and choose where it should appear - top, bottom, left or right edge of the screen. Useful for quick access to favorite apps.

4- System tray menu

If you prefer to use the system tray to access your recently used application, you can do it with JetStart! JetStart application preference is quickly accessible from here.

5- Toolbar menu

A toolbar menu is a small rectangle box that can be accessed by pressing the “Winkey + A” keyboard combination. You can drag and drop any shortcuts to any of the 5 categories - Tools, Internet, Games, Office and Others. Think of this as a “floating quick launch” menu.

From what you can see, JetStart offers various unconventional ways to efficiently access your Windows menu apps, and it is just a matter of personal preferences to choose one that suits you best. My personal favorite is the “Keyword Search” menu. I was particularly impressed on how JetStart automatically detected all of my Windows shortcuts. It even managed to find application uninstallation executables - which means that you can uninstall programs without having to access the Add/Remove Programs interface! If you are looking for a good application launcher to ditch the Windows start menu, download JetStart and give it a try.

This is a guest post written by Syahid A. from TechMalaya.com

Tags: windows menu, windows start menu, application launcher, windows shortcuts, free software

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One Response to “JetStart - Quickly launch programs in Windows”

Super Sunday Links Episode 2 Says:

[...] you are tired of the default windows XP start menu, then do try out Jetstart which lets you quickly launch programs by Online Tech [...]
February 17th, 2008 at 11:40 am