Featured Freeware: Executor

Powered by hot keys and keywords, Executor is a program launcher customizable to an impressive degree. A skinnable bar appears at the top of your screen that makes up the most trafficked aspect of the program, with an extensive and organized list of settings available from the Windows Taskbar. As soon as you type in the first few characters of the program that you're looking for into the main UI, a list of potential choices appears. The more you type, the shorter the list becomes, or you can scroll down to click the item you want.

The important thing to pay attention to in Executor is that hard-drive indexing, a key component of this kind of program, is optional. Opt out when you install the program, and all it'll be good for is firing up applications. You can always set it to index either specific folders or your entire hard drive later, but this optional indexing can be confusing as well as useful.

Much in Executor gets done with keywords. Users can choose to drag an object onto the bar to create a keyword for said file, folder, or favorite, or manually create one in the Settings menu. For example, Executor automatically opens up the native Windows Add/Remove Programs menu when you type addremove. From such superficial aspects such as the skins to how the auto-complete function behaves, Executor's customization is king. You can set it to override the Windows Run hot key, you can swap hot keys around, and you can set URLs, files, or programs to launch as Executor starts. Power users who are looking to accomplish specific program-launching tasks within a launching framework will get the most out of this app.