Maxlauncher - program launcher

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webfork
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Maxlauncher - program launcher

#1 Post by webfork »

Posting this to discussion as I don't recommend adding to the database.

Short version: still beta. I'd wait before playing with this.

Version tested: 0.9.0.0
Requires dotNET 3.5
License: GPL V3
Portable: Yes
Stealth: Untested

Good

* Drag and drop mode works well
* Lots of promise, could easily become an easy and popular launcher with a lot of flexibility in the future.

Issues:

* Window start position option didn't seem to work
* Main window can be re-sized but not moved (very odd)
* Doesn't initially support drag and drop (when you click off window it disappears)
* Odd interface, took me some time to get programs into the boxes using the Edit menu
* Website screenshots show a whole lower section that I couldn't seem to get working:  http://a.fsdn.com/con/app/proj/maxlaunc ... window.png

Sites:
http://maxlauncher.sourceforge.net
http://maxlauncher.sourceforge.net/about/index.html
http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-S ... cher.shtml (hosts an old version)

romulous
Posts: 76
Joined: Fri Feb 25, 2011 5:51 pm

Re: Maxlauncher - program launcher

#2 Post by romulous »

I'm not the dev, but...
webfork wrote: * Window start position option didn't seem to work
From my experience with other programs, whether this works or not would depend entirely on the program you are trying to position. If it doesn't use a standard Windows 'window', it likely won't work. It works fine with Notepad for example (create a button for Notepad and set it to start for example in the top right to see it in action), but not with my media player, as its program window is essentially a bitmap (which only a small number of window positioning programs/scripting languages can interact with).
* Main window can be re-sized but not moved (very odd)
Disable 'Center on Screen' and you can move the window.
* Doesn't initially support drag and drop (when you click off window it disappears)
Drag and drop is supported, it just is disabled by default. The program documentation even tells you to enable it before you do anything. Step 4, quickstart guide:
http://maxlauncher.sourceforge.net/docu ... start.html
* Website screenshots show a whole lower section that I couldn't seem to get working:  http://a.fsdn.com/con/app/proj/maxlaunc ... window.png
Those are tabs. You have to create a new file for them to show up - File->New. Step 3, quickstart guide:
http://maxlauncher.sourceforge.net/docu ... start.html

Thanks for posting this, I shall be keeping an eye on it - I like a good program launcher (and there are not too many good ones around). This one has potential.

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Midas
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Re: Maxlauncher - program launcher

#3 Post by Midas »

I'm partial to tabbed bar launchers, so I'll just add that I did test MaxLauncher (in a distant past) and found it much too inflexible to my taste -- I just stuck with FastLauncher (http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... hp?t=16304) despite its shortcomings.

Now, if I could only find a more modern 64-bit counterpart it would be just perfect... :o

romulous
Posts: 76
Joined: Fri Feb 25, 2011 5:51 pm

Re: Maxlauncher - program launcher

#4 Post by romulous »

I am using FlashTray Pro (http://www.blacksunsoftware.com/flashtray.html) at the moment for my launcher. It's a (free) system tray launcher (icon in the tray, you click it and up pops a menu of your added programs). It's nice, but has a couple of things I miss. The first is an option to run a program as an administrator - which MaxLauncher does have. The second is a search field, something like the PortableApps launcher has. I have my programs organised into sub-menus (eg Internet, System Tools, Text Editors etc) but sometimes I can't quite remember right away what category I placed a particular program in, and I have to think a few seconds to work it out (eg I go to launch Firefox, which is under the Internet sub-menu, but I don't immediately remember this and have to think of what category of program Firefox is before I can find it). In this case, it would be nice to have a search field that I could start typing in to quickly find the program. MaxLauncher doesn't have this one though.

Prior to my recent conversion to FlashTray, I was a Launchy user for a number of years. Development on it is dead of course, and there is a known serious memory leak in it that will never be fixed unless someone picks up the code again, but it's not a bad launcher either - I just got tired of typing to launch a program and wanted something I could click. Many years ago I used PowerPro, but having tried it again when I decided to ditch Launchy, I realised it is still as ridiculously difficult to get setup the way you want as it has always has been, so I quickly decided it was a non-starter.

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webfork
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MaxLauncher - keyboard-driven launcher

#5 Post by webfork »

synopsis wrote:a simple tabbed launcher that was designed to reduce the amount of time to find and run a program. It is capable of creating multiple data files, each of which can have a maximum of 10 tabs. Each tab and button is assigned a key(eg. F1-F10, 0-9, A-Z, etc.) based on the current keyboard. Simply press the hotkey(eg. CTRL+`) to activate the program then press the key that corresponds to the program you want to run. MaxLauncher is a redesign of MadAppLauncher. A few key features such as the ability to delete a tab, support for themes, and portable use were added.
Background: I was hoping this would function as a replacement for the defunct DragTargets program (viewtopic.php?p=100244#p100244) but it's more of a launcher that can be setup by drag-and-drop - you can't drag and drop items into those boxes and (for instance) have them send a file to a given folder. There may be a way to do it, but I haven't found it yet.

Website: https://maxlauncher.sourceforge.io/

Steps: Download portable version and extract
https://sourceforge.net/projects/maxlau ... /1.26.0.0/

Status: Portable, writes to app folder

Mirror: https://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE- ... cher.shtml

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