War Of The Launchers

1. Slickrun <- Small, light, and powerful.
2. SmartStartMenu <- Powerful and I recommend it since it does auto-indexing of your start menu.
3. slimKEYS <- Not Free. AppRocket is better choice.
4. Colibri <- Failed to launch some of my applications.
5. Launchy <- Terrible, word completion is not working properly.
6. AppRocket <- Not Free. Looks good and works well but uses .NET Technology.
7. ActiveWords <- Don't even look at it.
8. Dave’s Quick Search Bar <- See the above
9. Google Desktop <- Google, the name says it all! Too big on system resources.
10. Find and Run Robot <-Failed to launch some of my applications.

Literally, I have tried all of these applications. Non of them come close to QuickSilver except one that is not mentioned above here. The reason is you have to spend some extra $$$ to get it. It is called Dash Command and you can download it from here. (Download). Dash is the latest attempt for the Microsoft Windows platforms to emulate the power, flexibility, and usefulness of QuickSilver. Dash Command seems to be a great step in the right direction unlike many of the above listed applications. It’s elegant, and very light of system resources, and the functionality is even fairly fluid.

You can try use it for free and it will do everything from launching your applications on the start menu, except you can't define your own actions nor launch system commands. You have to buy a license for that, but if launching applications on the tip of your finger is all what you're seeking, Dash Command is your friend!

Read the full review here Replacing Start Run - The Quest Continues.