Launchy : The Open Source keystroke Launcher
I have found Launchy to be rather useful. You tap alt+space, type in what you are looking for (“youtube SomeStupidCatVideo”, “google Douglas Bubbletrousers”, “vlc /home/me/videos/AnotherStupidCatVideo.avi”, etc) and hit enter. Boom. No clicking, no looking for crap in menus. It is as simple as:
1. alt + space
2. “action” + space + “parameter”
3. enter
They explain it a lot better than I do, but I definitely have launchy on my “must install” list.