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Actuation
A program launcher should provide quick access to the programs and documents on your computer. A key feature of any launcher is actuation, i.e. how it is opened. Some program launchers attach themselves to the taskbar, other launchers may use hotkeys or some other strategy. Essentially, a program launcher must be quick and simple to open.
Maverick offers several actuation methods...
- Magic Actuators — these are invisible windows, two pixels high located at the top and/or bottom of the screen. Just click to open the default launch window.
- Remnants — these are permanently visible blobs on the edge of the screen. You can choose to have launch windows activate with or without a mouse click.
- Hotkeys and taskbar icon — these are always available irrespective of other choices.
- Application bar — strictly, this isn't an actuation method but if you create an application bar it will be permanently visible. A buttonbar on the left edge of the screen, with captions displayed as hints, may be ideal if you have a particularly large monitor. This can include buttons that open other launch windows.
In a typical configuration, if you want to open the Windows Calculator, you would do the following...
- Move the mouse to the top of the screen — the mouse pointer should change into a rocket.
- Press the left mouse button — a launch window should appear.
- If necessary, select a different launch window and click the Calculator button.
Configuration
A program launcher must be versatile and easy to configure. Maverick is very strong in this area...
- You can create as many launch windows as you like and each can contain as many launch buttons as you like.
- New launch buttons can be created by dragging. You can even create buttons by dragging directly from the Windows Start Menu.
- Launch buttons can be copied or moved from one window to another.
- You can select several buttons and change their style or drag them elsewhere.
- If Auto-arrange is switched off, you can arrange buttons any way you wish.
- Both launch buttons and launch windows have many options that can be adjusted from their respective property pages.
Appearance
A program launcher should be attractive. Maverick has a many visual options so you should be able configure it in a way that suits you.
- Each launch window can have its own border color, title color and background color/image.
Several background images are supplied but you can use your own too. - If you prefer, you may use normal borders, a single-pixel border or no border, however, certain features become unavailable. (A single-pixel border is suitable for an application bar.)
- Launch buttons can be styled individually. They can display 32 by 32 pixel icons or 16 by 16 pixel icons. The caption can be displayed below or to the right of the icon (or it can be displayed as a hint only). Buttons can be opaque or transparent - indeed there are several styles, and you can choose any color too.
Other Features
Maverick has much more to offer...
- Extensive online help — just press F1 or the help button in most dialogs.
- Extensive keyboard support.
- A sophisticated alarm clock.
- An option to automatically eject disks when Windows is shut down.
- An option to hide desktop icons if you prefer to have a clean desktop.
- Launch Buttons can access Windows verbs such as properties and print, etc.
- Most folders can be opened as drop-menus so it is often possible to avoid opening Explorer.
You can also add filters so that only certain file types are displayed. - Integrated utilities :-
Dump to view a hex and ascii dump of a file. FontMap to view fonts. Obliterate to irrevocably destroy files. Profile to help determine which files and directories occupy the most disk space. ReadDisk to scan a CD/DVD data disk for errors. It can also scan other files and directores too. Touch to adjust file creation and/or modification times. Zip to perform zip file compression/decompression. ZipFix to recover data from damaged archives. It can also assemble fragmented archives. - Though not included with Maverick, Zipfusion can be driven directly from Maverick to create self-extracting archives from zip files.
Minimum Requirements
| Computer | Any Pentium-class computer or above running Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7. Though no longer supported, Maverick should work correctly on older platforms. |
| Hard Disk space | Less than 5 MB |
Registration
- Maverick may be evaluated for 28 days before registration is required.
- Currently, registration costs $12.50 US, €10.00 Europe, £7.50 UK.
- Multiple orders may be discounted.
Keywords
Maverick, MaverickLC, Swift Launch,Maverick Launch Center, Maverick Launch Centre,
Launchpad programs for Windows, Launchers for Windows,
Program Launcher, Application Launcher, Toolbar,
Desktop Tools, Desktop Enhancements, Desktop Enhancers, Desktop Accessories,
Windows utilities, Windows 95,98,ME,NT,2000,XP
Alarm clock, alarms, hourly, daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, yearly, alarms,
Maverick Zip, Zip utilities, Zipfix, Zip fix,
ReadDisk, Read Disk, Scan CD, Verify CD, Scan cdrom, verify cdrom, scan cd-rom, verify cd-rom,
Profile hard disk, analyse disk usage, analyse file usage, calculate file usage, calculate disk usage,
Touch files, change file date, change file time,
Obliterate files, destroy files, wipe files, shred files, burn files, erase files, file eraser, file shredder,
Dump file, view file, view hex, view file as hex, hex dump, hex file dump, hex viewer, hex file viewer.
Links
Maverick : Program launcher and toolbar with integrated utilities
Enforcer : Anti-piracy / registration SDK for software developers
CD Keyreader : Reads and decodes cd keys from the registry
Unicounter : Free website counter for page-hits and/or file downloads
Uniform Mail : perl form-mail script & javascript validator
WipeDir : Uninstall utility for developers
Zipfocus : zip reader/viewer
Zipfusion : Zip self-extractor (sfx)
