Chronos on Monday updated F10 Launch Studio, their US$29 launch management suite for Mac OS X (10.2 and later), to version 1.5. The update adds features for reducing non-essential application clutter.
Press the F10 key on the keyboard, and F10 Launch Studio’s “Launch Pad” is invoked. The semitransparent Launch Pad instantly appears and fills the entire computer screen. The Launch Bar contains large icons representing applications and documents on your Mac. An application can be launched by clicking the appropriate icon. Once it’s launched the Launch Pad vanishes, leaving your desktop unencumbered.
The utility also boasts an Auto-Discovery feature that searches your Mac’s hard drive for applications and assigns them to such categories as Productivity, Utilities, Games, and Lifestyle. F10 Launch Studio constantly monitors activity on a Mac. Run a new application, and it’s automatically added to the software’s database.
Version 1.5 adds Auto-Discovery II, which offers built-in intelligent filtering that automatically excludes non-essential applications with three types of filters. “Intelligent” filtering automatically recognizes and excludes many common helper applications, droplets and more. “Category” filtering offers the ability to exclude broad groups of applications such as Classic, scripts, installers, etc. “User-defined” filtering maintains a list of applications that you have manually excluded, so that they don’t get added again.
Other new features are duplicate detection; Tools Docks with an auto-hide feature; a Status Icon in menu bar for quicker access to program features; and a Quick Links section of the Status menu for one-click access.