There are software programs like Launchy using which you can launch applications by typing the first few letters of the program name and hitting the return key. Once you start using these, you’ll realize that we can save the space that start menu takes up. So we started looking for a small program that will hide the start menu button yet makes menu itself available upon pressing the windows key. A free program called Start Killer by Tordex does the job.

Here’s how we hide the start menu and yet easily launch any desired program:

1. Set up FARR
2. Run Start Killer

Find And Run Robot

Find And Run Robot or FARR in its short form is a free program by DonationCoder that will display a small floating text box in which you type the name of the program you want to launch and press a number on your keyboard or use your arrow keys to move up/down and press the return key. We find it better compared to other similar solutions like Launchy because:

• We can press a number from the results list to launch a program
• It makes available a newly installed program much faster
• It has more advanced features

To get started with FARR,

1. FARR is a donationware (don’t let this mislead you, the program is free but will keep displaying reminders to register at their forum till you complete the free sign up and type in a license key in the program). So create a free account by registering at DC
2. You will get instructions in email about how you can access your life-time license key
3. Download FARR and install it
4. Start FARR. This will probably be the last time you will launch a program by either clicking on its desktop icon, or navigating to it from the start menu or going to the program folder. Press Pause/Break key to show FARR input box. Then change the settings as we have in the video below.
   
   
   
   
   For a bigger resolution and crisper video, click here.

So from now on, whenever you want to launch a program, let’s say Firefox, press Alt+Space to bring up FARR, then start typing ‘f i r e..’ and FARR will dynamically list and move Firefox up the list. You can click on the item or press the corresponding number on your keyboard.

Note: To launch the first program in the list, you don’t need to even press its number or click on it, simply press the return key and FARR launches it in a jiffy!

Start Killer

Start Killer hides the start button on the windows taskbar. You can still open Start Menu using CTRL+ESC or WIN key. Download it from here and install it. Launch Start Killer (using FARR of course). Right click on its icon in the system tray and set it to auto start with windows. As long as Start Killer is running, the start button is hidden. To restore the start button, simply exit Start Killer.

Before:

After:

Thanks to: tinjaw from DC.