minWE: Access Windows Explorer Contents From Quick Launch Bar
A lot of people do not like to keep a large number of icons on their screen. Application launchers are utilities designed to help you manage your shortcuts and quickly launch frequently used applications without creating clutter on your desktop. They basically keep shortcuts in your reach without disturbing your work space. Previously, we have reviewed some very useful application launchers that allow you to easily launch applications either by adding them to a toolbar or specifying their shortcut path. Famulus, a previously covered app, lets you launch files as well as websites using hotkeys, while Windows 7 App Launcher lets you effortlessly create application profiles so that they can be launcher with a single click using the Jumplist and Thumbnail Preview features. Today, we have another application, called miniWE, that is a combination of Quick Launch Bar and Windows Explorer, it is not exactly an application launcher, but a file explorer accessible from your task bar. Keep reading to find out more about miniWE.
After installation, when you click on its icon in the Quick Launch Bar, it will pop up as an app launcher. It has the capability to navigate through the folders on your drive just like a normal explorer. Some of the folders, such as My Documents, is not accessible through miniWE because of Windows Security System. If you click any file, it will open in its default program and miniWE will be automatically minimized. Each time you click the Quick Launch button of miniWE, contents of the folder specified under the Main folder path will open.
Click the Settings button on the bottom right corner to specify the main folder path. Using the buttons available at the right side, you can quickly set the current folder as the main folder, browse for it, or edit the path by hand.
You can also select the number of file and folder columns to view in the application or just set it to Auto. The drop down menu has a huge range of columns available to choose from. The slider at the bottom allows you to zoom in and out on your view of the folders.
More uses of the application are listed in detail on the product page. minWE works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, and requires Microsoft .NET Frame 3.0 or higher to be installed on your system.
