Launchy - The open source keystroke launcher for Windows
Recently I came across this product called Launchy - The open source keystroke launcher for Windows. I find this product to be interesting if you like to just type the name of the program to launch the program. For example, Vista has this thing in their default search application above the task bar. Launchy works in Windows XP also.
Once you install this and run, do not expect to see a menu or settings. The application runs in the background. Press "ALT+SPACE" combination to open the application window. Just start typing and you will see launchy offering you application to start. If you like what you see, just press "ENTER" to launch the target application.
UPDATE:
I just came to know that this also does a lot of other things. For example if you type 1+2 it actually calculates :) If you type a web address it knows to take you to the site with your default browser. You can type "Weather" and tab and then type your zip code it takes you to weather.com ... Well thought out application!
