keyboard launcher

For years, my Start menu felt like a ritual I didn’t enjoy: click the Windows icon, wait for the UI to load, hunt through pinned tiles and a “Recommended” feed, and hope the search box finally returned the file or app I needed. I stopped doing that. Instead I rebuilt the way I launch things...

Wox’s revival is one of the quieter — but most consequential — stories in the Windows productivity scene: a once-dormant open‑source launcher has been rebuilt for cross‑platform use, shipped a string of 2.0 beta releases, and reintroduced a speedy, plugin‑first Spotlight‑style workflow to...

Ueli is the lightweight, keyboard‑first launcher many Windows users will appreciate — a fast, cross‑platform alt+space experience that feels native, tucks into a minimal workflow, and solves a simple but persistent problem: opening unpinned apps and files without reaching for the mouse...

When the Pocket‑lint writer described Fluent Search as the “second brain” that finally found years of scattered files on a battered laptop, the praise was easy to understand — Fluent Search is a compact, keyboard‑centric Windows search launcher that aims to fix the things Windows Search still...

Raycast’s keyboard-first launcher has quietly reshaped how many power users open apps, manage clipboards and trigger quick actions — and for a growing number of Windows users the Start menu is no longer the center of their workflow. Background Windows’ Start menu has long been the front door to...

Windows search has long been the green-eyed villain of productivity — slow to return results, hungry for resources, and a constant background presence that can chew battery life and CPU cycles. For users who’ve tried to tame or disable Microsoft’s indexer, the trade-off has been clear: fewer...

Windows 11’s built‑in search can be handy, but for many power users it’s long felt sluggish, cluttered with web suggestions, and inconsistent when dealing with non‑indexed folders or massive file collections — which is why dozens of lightweight, keyboard‑first launchers and indexers have sprung...

Google’s experimental Windows app aims to remove the friction of switching windows to look something up — a floating, Spotlight‑like search bar you summon with Alt + Space that can search local files, installed apps, Google Drive, and the web, and that folds in Google Lens and the company’s AI...

PowerToys Run can replace the Start menu, and for a growing number of power users the switch feels less like a tweak and more like a fundamental productivity upgrade. Overview PowerToys Run is a lightweight, keyboard-first launcher included in Microsoft PowerToys that surfaces apps, files...

A prominent tech writer has publicly abandoned the Windows 11 Start menu in favor of Flow Launcher, an open‑source, keyboard‑first app launcher — and in doing so rekindled a long‑running debate about how Windows should expose search, system commands, and shortcuts to power users. The transition...

Microsoft's gradual reinvention of the PowerToys launcher is becoming a serious contender — the Command Palette in PowerToys 0.93 brings measurable performance wins, a cleaner settings dashboard, and a handful of useful built‑in modules — but in practical, day‑to‑day responsiveness and the...

KDE Plasma’s desktop delivers a set of small, disciplined refinements that add up to a very different user experience from Windows 11 — and four of those refinements in particular illustrate why many Windows users who crave control, speed, and muscle in their desktop workflows find KDE difficult...

The Windows desktop landscape has long been dominated by the Start menu—an iconic feature since Windows 95—serving as both a launchpad for applications and a central touchpoint for system navigation. Yet, in recent years, a new breed of power users, productivity enthusiasts, and keyboard...

PowerToys Run has always held a special place among Windows productivity tools—a fast, keyboard-driven launcher that brings macOS Spotlight-like search speed and flexibility to Microsoft’s platform. With its latest update, PowerToys Run leaps forward with the inclusion of three third-party...

For many Windows users longing for the efficiency and simplicity of macOS's iconic Spotlight Search, the native Windows Start menu’s limitations have long been a lingering frustration. Mac users enjoy near-instant system-wide search, app launching, calculations, quick web lookups, and more—all...