PopMenu

Desktop shortcuts save us from navigating through a thick layer of folders every time we want to launch something, but they can make a desktop look ugly and overcrowded if you have too many of them. Fortunately, there are many alternatives out there, for launching programs quickly, without having to overload your desktop. PopMenu is an example that's definitely worth mentioning. It may look a bit old on the surface, but the application offers a quick and efficient way of launching the programs you have on your computer or on a USB flash drive. It's exceptionally easy to set up, and the benefits are certainly noticeable.

PopMenu is distributed as a freeware application, and it runs on all popular Windows versions. It comes as a single executable, in a ZIP archive, which you will want to place in its own folder because it will create a .ini file when you launch it. The application doesn't rely on any system components or third-party tools, so you can even run it from a removable drive.

The application brings a new icon to the system tray, through which you can launch all other programs on your computer. Alternatively, you can make use of a hotkey to bring up the launch menu next to the mouse cursor, instead of right-clicking the system tray icon. The software lets you decide how everything should be organized in the launch menu. You can set up your own shortcuts, sub-menus and separators in PopMenu's general settings menu, which you can access through the same system tray icon.

Creating menu options is a simple matter of creating new items, naming them and clicking a series of arrow buttons to move them up and down, as well as left and right, to make them sub-menu items. You can target an application's executable through a standard browsing option, for each menu item you create, and you may also add command line parameters. All items can be customized with the same set of controls, located on the right half of the settings panel.

As previously mentioned, you can run PopMenu from a USB flash drive, which makes it an excellent solution for launching portable utilities from that drive. Also, the application gives you the options of setting a working directory and an icon path, the launch menu will look as if you were using the application in a local folder on your computer.

Everything on your computer can be launched at a moment's notice, thanks to PopMenu's simple and efficient functionality.