The Windows Start menu is always one of the most contentious part of the operating system whenever a new version is released. To this day, many still despise the Windows 11 design, and it's true that, in many ways, it's not as functional as the iterations that preceded it. While you can find a few Start menu that are great, maybe you're at a point where you just want nothing to do with the Start menu at all. If that's the case, you should try Flow Launcher.

Flow Launcher is the perfect launchpad for any app, file, or even website on your PC, and it's ideal for keyboard users. I had never heard of this app until recently, but just trying it for a few minutes, I could quickly see how this is a game changer, and I highly recommend you give it a go.

Launch everything

Files, apps, websites, and more

Flow Launcher looks like a simple search bar, but the things it can do turn it into a surprisingly powerful tool. Out of the box, Flow launcher is already a very capable app that can launch any of your apps, open files, websites, and even perform searches. All you do is press Alt + Space to bring up the search bar (the app is totally unobtrusive until you summon it) and start typing for what you want, press Enter to select a result, and it will open. You can even perform calculations all directly in the search bar.

It even supports specific arguments thanks to some built-in plugins so you can be even more specific. For example, if you type s followed by the name of a setting in the Settings app or the Control Panel, you can search for that setting easily, no need to navigate the settings app yourself. Shell commands that would usually require you to open Windows Terminal can be run with >. If you type youtube, you can search for videos on the platform, too. Heck, it can even search your bookmarks in different browsers using the b command. It's all there right at the tip of your fingers.

Search Everything

No, really

Another cool thing Flow launcher does is that not only can it search your PC using the default Windows Search indexer, but you can also install Everything, which is a custom search indexer for Windows PCs. Everything is a popular choice because it's lightweight and generally better at finding results, including text inside documents, compared to the default search engine. It's a separate app that's not affiliated with Flow Launcher, but they can work together.

Once you install it, a simple trip to Flow Launcher's settings lets you swap the search indexer to Everything so you can enjoy the much better search capabilities, making Flow launcher even more useful for opening basically anything on your PC. You really won't need the Start menu anymore.

Plugins make it even better

Take it to the next level

One of the best things about Flow Launcher is that it's not just great by itself, but it can be enhanced even more so by plugins. Out of the box, it already comes with some enabled by default, but you can add even more to truly make it as useful as it can be. The selection of plugins is pretty varied already. A fairly simple one is a timer plugin, so you can easily start a timer using nothing more than your keyboard. There's also a Spotify Premium plugin that lets you easily start playing music on your PC, again, using only the keyboard.

The things you can do with these plugins are very varied, and it's something you really need to see for yourself to learn about everything there is. There is one that allows you to search your notes in OneNote, integrations with Obsidian or Notion, unit and currency converters, translation, integrations with Wallpaper Engine, and so much more.

Many of these also integrate with system features. Out of the box, you can already use Flow Launcher to terminate any running apps, but there's a plugin that lets you uninstall apps this way, too. There's one that allows you to add paths to your environment variables. It's amazing how a simple search bar can become a tool that can do almost anything you need on your PC, but Flow Launcher has achieved it thanks to the development team and the community around it creating all of these plugins.

Flow Launcher is easy to use, yet amazing

Some apps are hard to get used to, but others prove their worth almost immediately after launching them for the first time. Flow Launcher is definitely in the latter camp. It's very similar in nature to the Run tool in PowerToys, but there's even more it can do, and there are far more plugins available. If you haven't tried this app yet, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot — it could radically change how you use your PC. I installed it on a secondary PC for testing, but this will probably end up on my main PC very soon, and I'm sure you'll feel the same way.