RUNit is a free launcher accessed via right clicking a hot area on your screen (the top edge of the screen by default). You can set up multiple lists of items to be accessed via different hot areas of the screen. RUNit can launch apps, URLS, documents, or folders, supports drag and drop when adding items, is customizable, and is portable.
I learned about this from a comment on the RocketDock post that read “best launcher ever – RUNit 2.0.1b!” (thanks to reader “rws”). So I searched for and found it and … I really, really like it.
As launchers go the unique aspect of RUNit is the way it is accessed, by right clicking on the upper edge of the screen (or alternately you can enable shift-right-clicking anywhere on the screen or simply ctrl+shift). Which isn’t quite revolutionary, except that it can be accessed extremely quickly and somehow delivers a really nice user experience. Here are more notes:
- Set up different lists: you can create wholly different lists of items and specify different shortcuts for accessing them. For example you can set it up such that right clicking the top edge of the screen can display your apps while right clicking the bottom edge displays favorite URLs or whatever.
- Drag and drop: to add items, simply drag shortcuts, files, URLs or pretty much anything from anywhere to the RUNit setup dialog. The setup has a button that can reconcile shortcuts automatically, though I am not sure why the user has to actually “press it” for this to take place.
- Customizable: you can select large or different icons, change the font used, edit the order of items, launch apps minimized or maximized, and even set the coordinated on screen where you want a particular app to be placed when launched.
- Cascading menu structure: is supported; use dividers and create folders and subfolders within your menu.
- Portable: unzip and run; does not write to the registry.
- Source code: is available for download.
The verdict: the RUNit site states that “no one who has ever tried it could live without it anymore”, and after trying it I can see that there’s a lot of truth to that statement. A very nice launcher indeed.
Version Tested: 2.1beta6a
Compatibility: WinAll; no info on Vista.
Go to program home page to download the latest version (approx 67K).
I’ve been using it for…not sure but could easily be 10 years and it can’t be beaten by any launcher I’ve tried since.
And mind you, the development stopped years and years ago.
Best launcher bar none.
With a minuscule memory footprint to boot.
One of the true rare software gems that makes itself indispensable.
Awesome piece of software – I’ve been using it for a day and it’s already become indispensable. Thanks for reviewing it Samer.
It’s a pity they’ve stopped developing it. But then again, I don’t think it needs any extra features. It is simple, tiny and just does the job.
It is no longer developed. That makes it a no go for me.
Fortunately there are enough good alternatives.
For the moment I’m very happy with Executor
I cant belief how well this works its brilliant what a gem.
Not a bad little program. I’ve been using something similar called “LaunchonFly”. It has since gone shareware but a freeware version is still available at its website – http://www.arturdev.com
Add submenus,files and folders, activate via keystroke, hot corners or mouse wheel.
Tried RUNit as I’m always looking out for this type of program,and I have to say it’s one of the better examples. I personally prefer FSL Launcher. Free version available,which does all I need.
Website is-http://fsl.sytes.net/launcher.htm
still preferring FARR other than others. nice review btw.
The Emerge Desktop does this and then some, using the right and or middle button.
It is a replacement Windows “shell”, as they say, it has a slew of other desktop enhancements built right in, as Windows should have.
Adding a separator, executable, internal command, date-time, special folder, task or setting menu, sub-menu or folder menu to the right and middle mouse buttons is a click away.
Emerge has a built-in task switcher at the click of the mouse. No need of add-ons either to minimize to tray, Virtual Window, HotKeys, Launcher, etc…
Extremely minimalist looking and customizable at wish, your imagination is the limit.
It’s 32-bit OpenSource shell, thus free to use.
No, I do not work for Emerge, nor do I have stock options from them — do they have any?
I’m just a happy camper using this shell overall.
My two cents.
Check them out at: http://emergedesktop.org/
Have fun. Surf’s up, dudes and dudettes.
Thanks for digging out and reviewing this little gem.
A little annoyance – almost a deal-breaker when I noticed it – was the one-pixel black border lines on the active edges of the screen. A work-around is to set its transparency to 0. This could be done with NirCmd at the command-line with ‘nircmd trans ititle “RUNit” 0′, and put in a batch file to run automatically at startup.
sorry, there is also a 64-bit version
P.S. Oh, and by the way, right or middle click anywhere on the screen with Emerge, no special zone by default or not.
Phew… i think I’ll let you guys discover what else I forgot.
Another little annoyance involves single LMB clicks on tray icons. For instance, I have uTorrent configured to show/hide on a single-click but when RUNit is loaded (even with all Hot-Regions disabled) the single-click hide function does not work, even though, oddly, the single-click open function does work.
I traced this to the fact that the RUNit window is set to Always On Top (WS_EX_TOPMOST window style). The same thing happens when any window is set to Always on Top, so this seems to be a bug in Windows. I tried setting RUNit’s window style to normal but it automatically reverts to topmost.
The vast majority of users will probably not even notice this, but I thought it worth pointing out.
I love the wallpaper in the background of the sample image – where did you get it from?
Thanks,
Scoon
I’ve been using RunIt for years, for me the best launcher. But I still MUCH prefer the old version http://ukms.tucows.com/files5/RunIt2.01Setup.exe
DinodeV, your older version contains Win32.SuspectCrc, a high-risk trojan.
@ Scoon: sorry for the belated response. You can find the wallpaper here: http://www.freewaregenius.com/2009/12/11/10-wallapaper-selections-part-1/
The “trojan” in the older version of RunIt http://ukms.tucows.com/files5/RunIt2.01Setup.exe has been reported as false positive.
I’ve been using this program with Windows 98 & XP. I had a bitmap file as a back ground image in RUNit and it was beautiful as well as functional and convenient.
But now I have Windows 7 and it must be handling ini files differently because I can’t get the background image to work.
Has anyone found a way to get this feature to work in Win 7?
Sorry, maybe I should specify that the bg image worked in RUNit version 2.2 beta 1.
Not the same version reviewed here.