There are dozens of keyboard application launchers for Windows. Most let you launch a program by pulling up a text input screen and typing the first few letters of the application name, whether it's Firefox, Office, or the system control panel. It's often a lot faster than locating the correct shortcut with a mouse and the Windows Start Menu.

ControlPad also lets you launch applications using keyboard shortcuts. But this utility takes a different approach. Instead of typing the name of the program you want to run, you enter a numeric code to launch an application, action, or web site. For instance, you can enter one code to open your web browser; enter another to open a web page; a third code would activate the browser's back button; and a fourth code would close the browser altogether.

On the one hand, you'll have to memorize all of those codes in order to effectively use ControlPad. But there's a reason for using numbers instead of letters. The program is designed to be used from the numeric keypad on your keyboard. If you're the sort of person who types at 20 words a minute but can crunch numbers at blazing fast speeds using the keypad, ControlPad might be for you.

There's also a laptop mode for computers that don't have a numeric keypad. Basically, this lets you launch the utility using the F12 key instead of the * key. But ControlPad is a lot less useful on computers that don' t have numeric keypads.

Once the program is running, it's easy to create or edit codes either by entering a URL, choosing from a list of possible commands, or browsing for an application you want to associate with a code.

You can either download and install ControlPad or grab a portable version which you can unzip to a USB flash drive or any other folder and run without installing.

[via gHacks]