At first glance, Quicksilver is a launcher.

Quicksilver allows you to navigate to what you need quickly and easily, while keeping your hands on the keyboard. For example, if you want to launch an application hidden in the depths of your file system, simply activate Quicksilver with a keystroke, type a few letters of the application's name, then hit Return or Enter to launch it.

When you don't need Quicksilver, it keeps out of your way, preserving precious screen real estate, and yet you can summon it instantly with a key stroke - just like Mercury the winged messenger. [Ed. Note: Actually, Roman mythological texts are remarkably silent on whether Mercury could be summoned with a key stroke, but it would have been great if he could. Quicksilver will certainly make you feel as if you have god-like powers.]

Quicksilver indexes and parses selected parts of the contents of your hard drive in the Catalog, so that it locates and displays the items matching your search really quickly.

If you are a programmer or an uber-geek, you will be glad to know that you can extend and customise Quicksilver until it does exactly what you want it to. The modular structure also means that the application will never be bloated: You only load the modules that you find useful.

If you hate reading manuals, make sure that you read the Quickstart Guide. That should be sufficient information to get you up and running, and it will also give you pointers to the plethora of other features and customization options that you might be missing.

Limitations:

· This version will expire three months after the initial release.