> At this point, I'm wondering if there's a start menu replacement app
Not using Windows for like a decade now, but I always go for a third-party launcher on Linux/macOS. They're fast(er) and more importantly extensible.
Instead of trying to index everything all the time, they function via triggers. If I start my query with "em", it searches emojis, if I start it with "=" it does calculations, if with "tr" it translates stuff for me, if with "fs" it does a file search. If there's no trigger at the start it searches apps on my system, and if no app is found it points me to my search engine (and respects my default browser choice).
Instead of using a default launcher that's trying to guess what I want and makes everything slow as hell, limiting the scope of my search like this just makes things much faster. There must be some launcher for Windows that's comparable to Alfred (macOS) or uLauncher (Linux) and once you try it, you'll never go back.
Launchers have replaced start menu search for me. They do more, they do it faster. It's frustrating that the start menu doesn't do basic stuff like open bookmarks from Edge, or do simple calculations. Having this functionality would actually enhance the functionality of Windows... but M$ doesn't seems more interested in putting ads in the start menu search.
It just depends on what you're after. rofi is faster as an application launcher and I'm sure I could script my way into doing other things with it as well, but I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of speed for the convenience of extensions being easy to install and configure. In most cases it's a matter of browsing them (https://ext.ulauncher.io/), copy-pasting a GitHub link, and configuring a trigger. Sometimes there's also some system-level package I need to install and/or an API key I need to enter.
In any case, alternative launchers always beat the hell out of default ones. Once you get into them you're going to be reaching for a mouse/touchpad far less frequently and do a whole lot more with them than just launching apps.
Not using Windows for like a decade now, but I always go for a third-party launcher on Linux/macOS. They're fast(er) and more importantly extensible.
Instead of trying to index everything all the time, they function via triggers. If I start my query with "em", it searches emojis, if I start it with "=" it does calculations, if with "tr" it translates stuff for me, if with "fs" it does a file search. If there's no trigger at the start it searches apps on my system, and if no app is found it points me to my search engine (and respects my default browser choice).
Instead of using a default launcher that's trying to guess what I want and makes everything slow as hell, limiting the scope of my search like this just makes things much faster. There must be some launcher for Windows that's comparable to Alfred (macOS) or uLauncher (Linux) and once you try it, you'll never go back.