Start from Innovative Bytes

Start by Innovative Bytes is an app launcher with extra features that make it different enough from FolderPeek  and XMenu to be worth checking out. Like the other two apps, it offers a way to access your favorite apps, folders, files and URLs from the menu bar. It also lets you access your shortcuts, which is a welcome addition. Like the Apple Menu, you can add recent files, recent apps as well as running apps to your menu choices.

What really makes Start different is its use of tags. It uses Spotlight to assign a few of your apps to tags it creates automatically. For example, it created a tag called Office with subfolders for Microsoft and Apple's productivity suites. You can rename the tags easily and you can create your own on the fly. You can choose different icons and colors to differentiate them. You can also make comments on any app and the tags and comments are searchable from within the app. Right-clicking on an item in the Start menu also gives you the option of revealing the item in the Finder or copying the path to the item.

You can designate any menu item as a favorite and then opt to have the menu open to those chosen items for quick access. You can also choose to have it open to any to the other submenus. Other view options include the ability to change the menu icon and the size of the program interface. You can assign keyboard shortcuts to any menu or menu item.

Like Folder Peek, you can use Start to browser the folders you include in the menu choice. You can't perform any functions on the enclosed files beyond opening them, getting the path or adding them to your favorites.

Start is $8.99 on the App Store. It is also available through Setapp.