We love to cover new and exciting application launchers because they can really improve the productivity of a user. When we came across the free sTabLauncher for Windows we really felt like this is something a lot of people would love.
In a lot of ways it is similar to RocketDock and ObjectDock, but there are some things that really distinguish it from the others. As you can see in the screenshot above sTabLaucher has a tabbed interface for your various applications. This is something that RocketDock can’t do, and ObjectDock can only do with the $20 Plus version.
In sTabLauncher there is a very extensive tab configuration tool that is applied on a per-tab basis. for each tab you can choose the color, font style/size, tab shape/skin, and much more:
(Click to Enlarge)
The tab bar can only be docked along the top or bottom of the screen, but it can be positioned anywhere you want along those edges. The nice thing is that when the tab bar is collapsed along the edge you can make it extremely transparent so that the space isn’t really lost. The amount of transparency can be configured in the options.
Here are some other great features offered by sTabLauncher:
- Configurable Separators – Change image and add text to separators
- MiniBrowser – Add a folder, and select the option Browse Folder, then click on it
- Draggable Tabs – Try adjusting the tab’s position by dragging them
- Open With – Drag and drop files over an application to have them open in with it.
sTabLauncher Homepage
Note: There is a no-install version available.
Nice application, thanks for the tip!
Font looks ugly lets hope you can change that.
Ryan,
I’ve tried a few launchers previously however they were uninstalled generally in a day or two. So far sTabLauncher seems like a keeper.
CyberNet rocks & is always worth a visit!
Cheers,
Marsman ;)
I am using the IOD solution instead of this.
Icons on desktop :)
Why you need the tab? The main purpose of a launcher is to launch as fast as possible a program. Using tab add another “click” before you launch the program. RocketDock (and any other docks program) approach by using separator is much more efficient IMHO, but YMMV.
As far as application launchers are concerned, there is this one application which seems to be very little echoed on the Web, called PowerPro ([powerpro.webeddie.com]), which is really, but really fantastic, as an app launcher, as more even. I’d love to have a Cybernet review of PowerPro, I am convinced it is worth it!
Yep, as you can see from the screenshot the font is totally customizable.
Yay for us!
Separators are available in this app as well. Tabs are useful because you can put your most used programs on the main tab, and then put lesser used apps in the other tabs.
I haven’t heard of that before, but I’ll definitely give it a whirl and see what it’s like.
Thanks for the information, Ryan!
Looks promising. I am using JetStart but I’d give it a try.. it’s just that the download doesn’t work.
It’s not very professional to host screenshots, skins and even the main downloads on a *free* web space (google pages)… hmmm… especially when a messages comes up:
“The bandwidth or page view limit for this site has been exceeded and the page cannot be viewed at this time.”
:roll:
The site appears to be working for me Marco.
I’ve been playing-around with sTabLauncher and like it thus far….BUT anytime I hit the Windows+D key to minmize all open windows and get to the desktop, my sTabLauncher dock disappears completely from my screen. This problem was mentioned at the sTabLauncher on-line forum (…not much of a forum) with no mention of how to get around this…Anybody else experiencing this on Windows XP SP2?