I have to admit that I’ve been in the technology field for a descent amount of time (20+ years), so I am all about using keyboard shortcuts and I am not a fan of desktop icons. My favorite go to tool for quick access to everything I have installed while maintaining the look of “nothing*” on my desktop is LAUNCHY.
Per the description on the website:
Launchy is a free utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, your desktop icons, and your file manager. Launchy indexes and launches your applications, documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!
and it truly does what is says it will do.
Take a look at the website here –> Launchy Website
I truly enjoy the flexibility of the settings. I found installation and setup pretty straight forward and easy to understand. The website gives you everything you need to get up and running quickly. Also, check out the skins and add-ons available on the website as well.
While this is a free tool, please consider a donation to Josh (the creator). Without these wonderful sharing souls, we would not have these super cool tools to use.
*drives my husband crazy. He can’t find anything on my computer