Everyone know your friendly neighborhood admin is all about shortcut keys and uber productivity. I don't know how I never found this one before... Check it out you have your quick launch buttons displayed next to your start menu for easy access. By default you have Show Desktop, IE and whatever other applications you installed. Now you obviously know that if you single click on any of these icons the appropriate app launches. Common knowledge right?
BUT did you know that if you press the Windows Key and the corresponding number of the shortcut it will auto-launch? So if you have the show desktop icon in the first position pressing Win-1 will show your desktop. And if Internet Explorer is in the second position..,. Guess how we launch her? Win-2! Nifty, easy trick for Windows Vista.
So instead of installing launcher programs if you just need easy access to a few apps put them in your quick launch menu 
