Quick Cliq

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on March 19, 2013

Apathy Softworks sounds like a great name for a pillow maker, but you should never judge a book by its cover or a rock band by its name, and the same goes for the mad coders behind Quick Cliq. Apathy's software is really about speed and productivity, not sloth. They had the fiendishly clever idea of splicing hot keys with mouse gestures to create a free menu-based app launcher and productivity toolkit for Windows. Like Apathy's other not-so-apathetic wares, Quick Cliq is extremely lightweight and completely portable. Quick Cliq's design goal is to enhance your productivity by creating shortcuts to files, folders, URLs, Windows features, and more while using as few system resources as possible. Extras include a memo keeper, a clipboard enhancer, and desktop configuration tools.

Since Quick Cliq is a portable app, we suggest downloading and extracting its executable file to the folder, directory, or memory device (like a USB drive) you plan to run the program from. Quick Cliq's First Run page offers general settings for configuring menu hot keys and mouse gestures, plus the option to skip the tutorial. The right mouse button is the default gesture key; holding it while moving the mouse up, down, or side to side opens the Main Menu, Memos Menu, Recent Menu, Clips Menu, or Win Menu. We could disable any gesture or change the gesture direction as well as edit all hot-key combos. With the tutorial enabled, Quick Cliq explained each step and followed up with more detailed pop-ups. We pressed WIN+Z to open the compact Main Menu and start adding shortcuts, and then opened the Quick Cliq Editor, a tool for adding, modifying, and deleting shortcuts on menus. The process is a bit fiddly, perhaps, but each step saves many more later on.

While Quick Cliq clearly has the most potential in experienced hands, inexperienced users shouldn't be put off, since the tutorial and Quick Help feature practically walk you through every step, and the end result actually enhances your productivity. Start with something simple, such as a picture: you'll see just how easy it is to use Quick Cliq to launch stuff fast.