Valet: Application Launcher With A Twist

Launching your applications can be a pain at times. Your favorite applications can be launched from the Dock, but this has its limitations of size, even on a large widescreen display. Getting to your other apps would traditionally be a case of opening up your Applications folder, looking for the application you need, and opening it up.

The solution? Application Launchers. These are nothing new and there are a wide variety to choose from; QuickSilver, Overflow, Todos and the ol’ faithful Spotlight to name but a few. A new player has come onto the market with a new feature however. Valet, from 94West.

On the surface it is your basic launcher application. It allows you to organise your applications into categories and gives you quick access to them via a heads up disply, voice commands, the menu bar and the dock menu. Where it gets a little more complex however is in its interaction with Parallels. You can add shortcuts to your most popular Windows applications in the standard heads-up display, menubar etc. allowing you to quickly bridge the gap between OS X and Windows. If Parallels isn’t running when you open a particular app then Valet will launch it for you and open up the app once booted.

Valet costs $25 per license which may be a little steep for some however the Parallels integration should more than make it worth the money for some power users. How long before we see a plugin for QuickSilver with similar functionality?

Fore more information check out Valet at 94West.