2984 There is a fairly broad selection of OS X program launcher utilities out there, and I've tried a lot of them, but the one that I like best, and have stuck with since OS 10.1 days, is Ranchero Software's TigerLaunch.

Being a very small and simple application, TigerLaunch doesn't get updated very often, and doesn't need to. Version 1.0.2 came out in the fall of 2004, and the latest Version 1.0.3 was released last week as a Universal Binary, which a few other minor tweaks and bugfixes.

One of the things about the OS 9 Finder I missed from the get-go with OS X is the little custom "launcher" I used, which was simply a pop-up folder full of aliases of the applications I use regularly or frequently, configured to display as Button view icons. To launch a program, all I had to do was click the pop-up tab and then single-click the desired application alias, or shift click a bunch of aliases. As soon as I finished, the folder collapsed out of the way again. It wass simple, fast, lightweight, and trouble-free. Indeed, we still use this simple "launcher" on our old WallStreet PowerBook in OS 9.2.2.

However, TigerLaunch is just as slick and convenient, with some extra features I find useful, like the ability to configure what is dispayed in the menu using a checkbox dialog.

TigerLaunch displays an Applications menu at the top of your screen listing all your applications in alphabetical order - no matter what folder they appear in.

As noted, you can easily configure it to exclude applications you rarely or never launch.

This allows you to be more selective about what apps are Dock-worthy, so your Dock doesn’t get so cluttered. It also makes it easier to launch apps that are buried in sub-folders, such as in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.

When you launch TigerLaunch, an Apps menu will appear in the Menulet bar at the upper right of your screen.

Choose the Configure command to open a window that allows you to exclude apps from being listed in the Apps menu.

You can also choose an icon for the Apps menu.

There is even an Easter egg feature for developers. If you have a Projects folder in your home folder, a Projects menu will appear next to the Apps menu. It will list Project Builder, CodeWarrior, and REALbasic project files, making them easy to find and launch.

TigerLaunch has worked fine for me from OS 10.1 through OS 10.4.6. The only small glitch is that a few applications aren't recognized by Tigerlaunch, for some reason I've never identified.

That small niggle aside, this is a great little launch utility, and it's the first icon I click in my Dock after a reboot.

System Requirements
- Mac OS X 10.1 or greater
(including OS X 10.3)

TigerLaunch is freeware.

TigerLaunch 1.0.3 is a tiny download (about 120K). It’s an open source (BSD license) Cocoa application. The source code is available under the BSD license. It includes code that shows how to create NSStatusItems and how to create an NSTableView that includes images and checkboxes.

For more information, visit:
http://ranchero.com/tigerlaunch/


Charles W. Moore

Tags: Blogs ï OSX Odyssey ï Reviews ï

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