Date: Thursday, November 12th, 2003
Article by: Roger (Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: Stardock
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CORPORATE PROFILE

Stardock was founded by 20 year old college student Brad Wardell to help pay for school. Incorporated in 1993, Stardock focused on developing software for IBM's OS/2 operating system. Wardell wrote the OS/2 game Galactic Civilizations between taking electrical engineering classes and teaching digital logic lab, and helping run the university Macintosh lab.

In 1997, Stardock began to transition its software development to Windows. The "OS Wars" between Windows and OS/2 were drawing to a close with the world largely standardizing on Windows for the desktop. To fund its transition to Windows, Stardock developed a .NET concept in 1998 called "Stardock.NET". Its goal was to provide software as a service in which users would subscribe for a period of time and gain access to its technologies that it would develop on the fly.

Today, Stardock is spread across the globe. It looks for the best and brightest from around the world. This team works together via the Internet. While the core of Stardock is located in an office complex in Livonia Michigan, nearly half of the staff is located remotely. This team continues forward on creating PC software that allows both corporations and consumers to customize their Windows PCs. It occasionally still releases a new PC game now and then.

Stardock leads the way in developing technologies that extend the base feature set of Windows. Millions use its business software and its entertainment software is both critically and commercially acclaimed. Its founder and CEO, Brad Wardell, has seen his company grow out of his dorm room into a multi-million dollar corporation with employees and contractors on 4 continents. With a high level of profitability and brisk growth, Stardock is poised for even greater endeavours in the coming years.

PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

For some of us, the mouse is just an annoyance. It is much faster to remember keyboard shortcuts and use those effectively. Don't talk to me about Edit | Cut | Paste… please, I don't have the time. Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V. Done! You have the means through Windows to setup various shortcuts, but one of the downfalls is that the shortcuts may not work when you are within different applications. This can prove to be quite frustrating. The other thing is that I would like to be able to do more with shortcuts. Whether it's start up several programs at the same time, jump to a list of URLs or create a quick folder.

Intro: Keyboard Launchpad (KLP) from Stardock.

With this little utility, you can do all that and more. KLP allows you to create shortcuts easily, whether for applications, URLs, or system commands. As per Stardock; you can create "virtually any type of action that can be performed on a PC". The bonus is that these shortcuts work regardless of what application you are currently using.

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS

Program name: Keyboard Lauchpad
Version: 1.0
Developer: Stardock Corp. (www.stardock.com)
Platform: Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP
Price: $9.95 stand alone, $49.95 as part of Object Desktop (www.objectdesktop.com)