A few weeks back we asked you to name your favorite program launchers. While we're big fans of QuickSilver for OS X and Launchy for Windows, we had a feeling there might be something faster, fuller-featured, or otherwise better out there. And you rose to the challenge, listing a bunch of great alternatives.

But now Launchy's upping its game with the release of Launchy 2.0. It's still a lightweight and fast application launcher. But Launchy 2.0 sports a bunch of new features, and a ton of new customization options.

The two most noticeable changes are a new default skin (although you can select the classic theme if you like), and the fact that you can now easily drag and drop the Launchy bar to place it anywhere on your desktop. But that's not all that's new:

• New icons and default skin
• New options dialog with easy access to settings like opaqueness, number of alternative suggestions, theme selection, and folders to scan
• Skin selector shows previews
• Vista support

Your old plugins and skins will stop working when you upgrade, and your configuration file will be wiped. So if you don't want to lost data, you might want to hold off on upgrading to Launchy 2.0.

From the Apple Newton to the Palm Pilot to the Windows Mobile PDA, there's been one constant in mobile touch screen devices: the stylus. The Apple iPhone shook all of that up this year with the introduction of a finger-friendly display and application launcher. And it didn't take long for Windows Mobile developers to follow suit and design utilities that make it easier for you to smudge your pretty little screen.

VITO Technology's GoodWin is the latest finger-friendly program launcher for Windows Mobile. This $20 application acts as a replacement for your Today Screen. There are large icons at the top of the screen for email, messaging, phone calls, and setting your clock and alarms. Underneath is a list of all your programs and settings. And when we say all, we mean it. If you've got Pocket Informant installed, for example, you'll see at least 7 icons for launching PICalendar, PIContacts, PISearch, and other Pocket Informant subprograms.

So it's a good thing that there's also a favorites section giving you easy access to the applications you use most often. But for some reason, VITO thought it would be a good idea to include the running programs and favorites in the same section. Although favorites are marked with a star and running programs feature a little triangle, it's difficult to tell at a glance which applications are currently running and which are favorites.

Right now, we're not convinced GoodWin is worth the $20 asking price, but if VITO adds some folders and/or tabs to make the display a bit more manageable and separates the favorites and running programs sections GoodWin could be a useful little application. There's a free trial available for Windows Mobile 2003 and newer.

If you've spent the last week looking up good recipes for leftover turkey, here are a few of the yummy stories you may have missed on Download Squad.

Google removes thousands of malware sites

Google has removed more than 40,000 sites from its index. This is a good thing, because many of those sites were pretending to offer useful information and instead viciously attacking your computer. Keep in mind, those sites are still out there, it's just that Google has removed them from its index, which hopefully means you're less likely to find them accidentally. But make sure you always download the latest security updates for your computer and web browser.

What's your favorite program launcher? - Ask DLS

Launcy, Rocket Dock, Object Dock, FARR, Quicksilver, and SlickRun are just a few of the excellent program launchers Download Squad readers use. If you're looking for the fastest way to launch applications on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer, make sure to check out the recommendations in the comment section of this post. We're always amazed at the wealth of knowledge our readers possess.

The Squadcast #04 - How to be social

Everything you ever wanted to know about social networking and more. This week Grant and Christina teach you how to make friends and influence people with help from Facebook and Insomnia Radio's Jason Evangelho.

When we first heard about Vista Start Menu, we assumed it was a program that would give Windows XP users a Vista-like start menu. But while Vista Start Menu does have a search box and a Vista-black theme, that's where the similarities end. In fact, Vista Start Menu works on both Windows XP and Vista.

So what exactly does this application do? It replaces your Xp or Vista start menu with an easy to use menu designed to show you pretty much everything. While Windows Vista hides away most of the programs you don't use every day and shows you those you use most often, Vista Start Menu shows you everything all the time.

The idea is that most people actually don't have a hard time remembering where the applications they use most of the time are. You get used to moving your cursor to a certain part of the screen and launching the program you need. The only time you have a problem is when you've recently deleted an item and your entire start menu shifts. So Vista Start Menu keeps everything in its proper place -- even if you delete an application. The menu just includes a blank space where the old menu item was so that nothing else moves.

On the other hand, if you prefer launching your programs from a run box, you can just type an application name into the search box and Vista Start Menu will find your program for you. It's not as fast or elegant as other program launchers we've seen, but it gets the job done.

Vista Start menu is available as a free download. For $20 you can upgrade to the Pro version which includes a 2-click program launcher, which basically means you can launch programs by clicking on a folder instead of opening up a subfolder to find executables.

[via SolSie]

OS X has its dock, Windows Vista has an enhanced start menu, and Windows XP has, well, a bunch of menus to click through to launch programs. But thanks to independent developers, there are a ton of great program launchers out there that make it easy to bring an OS X-style dock to Windows, or keyboard program launchers to pretty much any operating system.

Over the years we've tried out a ton of program launchers, but we're not sure we've settled on a favorite. The sidebar launchers for Vista and Yahoo! Widget Engine are kind of nice. RocketDock is amazing if you have a handful or applications you use all the time. And keyboard launcher Launchy is all kinds of awesome, if you can remember the name of the program your looking for.

But we haven't yet found one launcher to rule them all. So we turn to you, our loyal Download Squad readers. What's your favorite application launcher, and why? Oh yeah, and don't forget to let us know what operating systems it works with. While Launchy and RocketDock are both Windows-only, we don't want to leave out applications like Google Desktop that are cross-platform.