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[n8blz]

Good day gentlemen

I am hoping someone can suggest a launcher for me, I can’t quite find the perfect one and wonder if it even exists at all.

First, I just used the apple menu. It’s very zippy and doesn’t require extra software. It even works with extensions off! But there are many issues. It doesn’t show icons for one, and I think that’s a shame for lists of applications with beautiful bitmapped icons.

So then I used Finderpop apple menu. It’s so far my favourite option since it uses zero extra screen real estate and shows the icons for my applications. I love how it’s stable and fast and kids can’t mess with it by dragging icons out or in or renaming things. It still lists the apple menu items folder so even with extensions off the apple menu presents the same list but without icons or hierarchical menus. But, my nit to pick is that it only shows small icons and I think the full 32x32 icons really should be seen.

That led me to tabbed folders, which I also really like. A tabbed folder for applications  can be set to list view and have name as the only field, presenting a clean, scrollable list of applications. It doesn’t interfere with games like Action GoMac does. And like the apple menu it works with extensions off. I solved the “kids eff with the contents” issue by just having a startip items applescript that resets the tabbed folder contents. My biggest complaint, that makes me favour finderpop, is that some games switch down the resolution which causes finder to want attention to tell you that your tabbed folder has been helpfully changed to a window. So the tabbed folders aren’t persistently present, which confuses the children.

Action GoMac deserves honourable mention but as it eats extra screen real estate and often presents a grey bar at the bottom of full screen games, it is not preferable to finderpop. It also completely vanishes if extensions are off.

The launcher control panel is fun and retro. It’s not read only, users can directly drag things in and out. It can be made near as makes no difference persistently present with an apple menu shortcut. It still works with extensions off. It shows big icons! But it has bad issues. First, 50-something items to a folder max. I have over 300 games installed and counting, I need more. And then man oh man, it scrolls sideways but the listing order is not appropriate for long lists, it’s hard to describe but it makes it impossible to find your application.

Am I missing any other options? I would just love an apple menu mod like finderpop that allows large icons.

My machine is an imac g3 on 9.2.2.

Thanks!

[GorfTheChosen]

I'm not sure if it would meet your needs but if you haven't tried it give DragThing a look:

https://www.dragthing.com/english/download.html

[Jubadub]

FinderPop 1.9.2 is just about my favorite software on Mac OS. No complaints from me.

One thing you can try, which many people on older OSes do, is to simply leave rows of aliases to the applications you like on the desktop, either on the top, the side, or bottom.

Personally, I strongly dislike Action GoMac and anything like it.

If you like the OS X dock, then you can use A-Dock. It's not bad... but NOTHING except FinderPop (or things like "suboptimal FinderPop-like software") will prevent the usage of screen real estate. There's also an app to have "multiple desktops" and "scrollable desktops" if you are into those things, but they aren't my thing. I forgot their names, but you can find them in the Garden.

[MigMac]

for virtual desktops: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/virtual-10, not bad.

and yes, Finderpop is an incredible/handy/stable/options-filled tool 

[Jubadub]

@MigMac Yes, that was one of them!

The "scrollable desktop" one was this one, just refound it: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/virtual-desktop.

With "Virtual" though, you could have 2 desktops (or more), and "flood" the 2nd one with aliases... Big icons and all.

[n8blz]

I'm not sure if it would meet your needs but if you haven't tried it give DragThing a look:

https://www.dragthing.com/english/download.html

Thank you for the suggestion, I will give that a shot.

FinderPop 1.9.2 is just about my favorite software on Mac OS. No complaints from me.

One thing you can try, which many people on older OSes do, is to simply leave rows of aliases to the applications you like on the desktop, either on the top, the side, or bottom.

Personally, I strongly dislike Action GoMac and anything like it.

If you like the OS X dock, then you can use A-Dock. It's not bad... but NOTHING except FinderPop (or things like "suboptimal FinderPop-like software") will prevent the usage of screen real estate. There's also an app to have "multiple desktops" and "scrollable desktops" if you are into those things, but they aren't my thing. I forgot their names, but you can find them in the Garden.

Thank you for your reply. I agree FinderPop is great software. My ONE SINGLE COMPLAINT is it has no option to use large icons.

Aliases on the desktop would work in many cases, but I have an OS9 image with over 300 installed games and counting. It's a fairly comprehensive games library, the desktop just isn't big enough!

Agreed on GoMac.

I will give A-Dock a shot, thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately it seems geared towards small lists of applications but perhaps it has a feature that will surprise me.

@MigMac Yes, that was one of them!

The "scrollable desktop" one was this one, just refound it: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/virtual-desktop.

With "Virtual" though, you could have 2 desktops (or more), and "flood" the 2nd one with aliases... Big icons and all.

A launcher desktop and a working desktop. Might be a bit tricky for the kiddos but I'll experiment with it as well, thank you.

[robespierre]

I absolutely loved PopupFolder when I used System 7.5.5. But it stopped working properly in later systems.

[GaryN]

I'm not certain I understand what constitutes a "perfect" launcher but…

Since, like so many others, I have collected more apps that I need and really use, I did the following:
I created 4 standard Apple Pop-Up Folders titled A/V, General, Design and Utilities containing only Aliases of the apps. This keeps the Apps and their associated aux folders and such well-sorted in the main Applications Folder and the App aliases sorted in categories in the pop-ups. The aliases reside in their Category folders inside a master Aliases Folder that stays closed so you don't have to look at those upsetting shaded open folder icons.

This does sacrifice a tiny amount of real estate along the screen bottom but that is already occupied by my Control Strip and Trash icon anyway, so the popup tabs fit right along with them. So, you get a great big Folder window with great big App icons. Only one click on one of them both launches the App and closes the popup window.

Visual aids below…

[Jubadub]

I absolutely loved PopupFolder when I used System 7.5.5. But it stopped working properly in later systems.

In later system, you can use FinderPop, which is basically a much-enhanced version of PopupFolder. But on earlier systems that won't run FinderPop, PopupFolder saves the day.

Now that I think about it, FinderPop has ONE flaw: where is the source code? We can't feasibly upgrade it ourselves without it.

@GaryN That's actually also a very good approach! The tabs aren't as "clean" as using Virtual, but your solution doesn't involve any extra software, and it has its perks, too.

P.S.: I always keep my Control Strip hidden. I only bring it up when I need it, with Cmd+Ctrl+S, which is a setting in the "Control Strip" Control Panel.

[Knezzen]

Since, like so many others, I have collected more apps that I need and really use, I did the following:
I created 4 standard Apple Pop-Up Folders titled A/V, General, Design and Utilities containing only Aliases of the apps.

Same here! Never really liked the dock type of launchers and always kept using the tabbed folders approach.

[Greystash]

DragThing is one of my favourites. Nice display of icons, it can be locked and has so many customisation options.

[IIO]

But there are many issues. It doesn’t show icons for one, and I think that’s a shame for lists of applications with beautiful bitmapped icons.

there are various extension to or replacements for the apple menu.

ah, i can delete the rest i wanted to write... you already know finderpop.

it only shows small icons and I think the full 32x32 icons really should be seen.

there once was some app which added huge icons to most of the menubar items - and there are also applications which do that.

maybe it can be done by applying a respective hack to the finderpop resources?

That led me to tabbed folders, which I also really like.

that is also what i mostly use, but more for documents and folder paths. my regulary used apps are on subfolders on the apple menu.

tabs are great. especially since they do what you want: one click to show, one click to launch something, then it closes automatically. you just have to leave some space between multiple tabs when you want to regulary switch the monitor resolution. other than that i never felt they would be in the way. depending on your vertical resolution the tabbed windows might not be over items at all and basically only occupy unused space.

Am I missing any other options?

there is that app which lists all applications and let you launch them from its own window. not a thing for kids though.

for 300 items menus probably suck. i limit all custom menus to about 1000 pixels. you rather wanted a window which allows you to scroll down using the mousewheel. and jumping to "Xanadu" by pressing "X".
which is exactly what finder windows offer.

[Mat]

You could also try "OtherMenu" by James Walker, perhaps it fits better for you?

https://www.jwwalker.com/pages/om.html

[n8blz]

BeHierarchic mods the Apple Menu and allows large icons. I’m trying it out for a bit.

Edit — never mind. No large icons. Some cool features though.

[n8blz]

Good evening, I am back.

Here is the “perfect launcher” upon which I have settled.

I figured why try to bypass the Finder, which is perhaps the greatest file management system ever conceived. So I set about trying to remedy the “read only” issue so that my kids can’t mess up the launcher system. The solution to that was: disk images.

Here is how it looks. I maintain a folder full of aliases that launch the application in question, or launch a script that mounts CD images as needed then launches the application. Now, these aliases all reside on a read/write disk image made in Disk Copy. When I have finalized the contents of a given launcher folder (for example, “Kids’ Games” or “Utilities”, etc) I make a disk image of that folder and change its file type such that it opens with Virtual CD/DVD Utility. Now when the image is launched a “folder” (appears on the desktop containing aliases to all the applications in that category. The aliases can’t be moved, view settings can’t be permanently altered, not even window positions are remembered between disk image mounts. So no matter what the kids do they can’t mess up the list of applications that can be launched. And then I just have those disk images mount on startup.

Now the kids get to directly use the Finder to launch their games. There is never confusion as to how to reach the launcher, it’s just the desktop. If they accidentally drag the mounted image to the trash (I remember being a kid experimenting with seeing what can be trashed and what can’t… for years I thought if you drag the Macintosh HD to the trash it would immediately wipe the drive) it just reappears on reboot.

Plus it satisfies all my other criteria as listed in the OP. So there it is. The Finder is the perfect Launcher. It’s the most satisfying possible answer to this query.