When comparing Enso Portable vs WinLaunch, the Slant community recommends WinLaunch for most people. In the question“What are the best app launchers for Windows?” WinLaunch is ranked 1st while Enso Portable is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose WinLaunch is:
You can do anything, from launching applications, to adding, grouping and removing them without using the keyboard. There are also keyboard shortcuts available for those that do not like using the mouse, either way the app will work with whatever workflow works best for the user.
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Pros
Pro Extensible in Python
GChristensen recently upgraded Enso to Python 3.7, a great improvement over the original v2.5. You can write custom Enso commands in Python through its new web interface (or your favorite editor once you know where to put the files.) There's even an install command to pip install any Python package you need from PyPI. The sky's the limit.
Pro Optional quasimode
Letting go of CapsLock just feels faster than hitting enter (sometimes too fast: be sure to disable the reboot command before turning this on!) Even with quasimode enabled, you can make it modal for that command by tapping Alt.
Pro Easily teach the app to open specific apps and sites
There is a learning function to the app that allows the user to teach the app to open specific items by typing "learn as open" and then clicking on the item one wants it to learn to open.
Pro Can go to existing open windows
By using the "go" command users can switch to their already open windows making this a bit of a window navigator as well as a launcher.
Pro Works with anyone's workflow
You can do anything, from launching applications, to adding, grouping and removing them without using the keyboard. There are also keyboard shortcuts available for those that do not like using the mouse, either way the app will work with whatever workflow works best for the user.
Pro Anyone can use it
It is free to use as it is donation-funded.
Pro Fast access and setup
It enables you to launch any application with very few clicks. If you organize your apps well, you get them in one single click. You may need two or three at most if you need to open a folder or move to another page. HotCorners is a great idea, allowing you to view WinLaunch without even clicking.
Even setting up your apps in it is fast and intuitive, with simple clicks and drag-n-drops.
Cons
Con Comes with a reboot command
And a shutdown command too. Installing these is optional, and I recommend that you don't, especially if you use the quasimode. Unless you like losing your work.
Con No message log
According to Raskin's philosophy which inspired Enso, a pop up "dialog" is a bad design. The OK button is a useless input that interrupts your flow. Enso's pop up messages, therefore, are transparent and quickly fade away on their own (like Android Toast messages). Unfortunately, this also means you can easily miss them if you're not paying attention. Raskin's solution was to keep a message log you can refer back to, but Humanized never got around to implementing that for Enso.
Con Usage tends to be slowed by the caps lock
Function of the app relies on the caps lock key being pressed to enter commands, which can slow some people down by having to hold that key down when they are typing commands.
Con Sometimes buggy
Con Inconvenient manual setup
After installed the first time you pull the launcher up there will be no apps contained within, this means every user will have to manually add the apps they would like in the launcher, which is time consuming. An auto population feature would be more convenient, sadly there is none.