The fastest way to launch apps on your Mac

Launching the app on a Mac is very quick and easy using Spotlight or the Dock. With one of these apps, it’s even faster.

There are already many ways to launch applications on your Mac. You can either dock them or use Spotlight to find and open them. However, there is even faster: with the help of a floating dock.

There are two apps that allow you to quickly open the Dock wherever your mouse cursor is. Whether you’re using a large screen or trackpad with your MacBook, these floating dock apps will save you precious time by using a simple keyboard shortcut to launch apps. You’ll especially appreciate this if you’re one of those people who complains that Spotlight has gotten a lot slower over time: even if you replace it with another solution, manually entering app names takes longer than using the app’s floating dock.

If you’re interested, try downloading Charmstone or Orbital. These applications offer similar features and allow applications to launch very quickly.

Charmstone

Charmstone is available on the Mac App Store, and the free version lets you pin up to four apps to the floating dock. You can add up to 16 by paying the requested $10 (one-time purchase). Launch the floating dock with the Cmd + Option keyboard shortcut and move the cursor in any direction. You don’t have to press yet to launch apps. For example, move the slider to the right and release it to launch a pinned app in that direction.

When you first launch Charmstone, you will only see eight apps because the app has two modes – near and far. Use the activation key combination and move the slider a little to open pinned apps in closed mode. To see “far”applications, use the keyboard shortcut and move the slider a little further.

You can also change the keyboard shortcut required to activate the application. Any combination with Cmd, Option, Shift, Function and Ctrl, with mouse cursor movement works.

Orbital

Orbital requires a bit less setup because it mimics your docking station. It resumes your apps in the same order. For example, if you set Orbital to display eight apps, the first eight will be taken from your dock.

You can also launch Orbital a little faster because the app can be opened with a keyboard shortcut (Alt + X) and doesn’t require mouse movement. Orbital lets you pin up to six apps for free and costs $12 to unlock all 20 slots. You can also change the icon size.

Orbital isn’t as customizable as experienced users might expect, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s literally a floating dock, while Charmstone is more of a custom app launcher. And since both apps have a decent free version, try both to decide.