ZLauncher is one of a wide range of launcher applications, designed to help you manage your Palm PDA and launch its applications from a simpler and more user friendly interface. What makes ZLauncher special in its class is the variety of extra tools and features it brings to your Palm’s desktop.

The first feature to really impress in ZLauncher is its ability to launch programs from a storage card. This function allows you to move your applications to an external card and run them from there, even if they were originally installed to your device’s built-in memory. The logic of moving and running applications in this way is that by freeing up space on your Palm’s internal memory, you have more RAM free, thus helping your programs run faster and more efficiently.

The file explorer aspect of ZLauncher is a massive improvement on the native Palm file manager, providing features such as ‘tabbed’ browsing (allowing you to view multiple storage devices or folders in one window), and the ‘detail’ view mode which is reminiscent of Windows Explorer’s ‘details’ option and displays data on your files (size, date modified etc) alongside the filenames.. The addition of the Trash Bin (very similar to the Windows Recycle Bin) is a welcome improvement, as is ZLauncher’s ability to delete entire folder trees, an option curiously absent from some other launcher applications.

ZLauncher includes a themes option, allowing you to skin the program interface, customise icon sets and set pretty much any image as your device’s wallpaper. After changing icon sets, however, we noted a marked increase in ZLauncher’s memory consumption as well as various issues with icons appearing and disappearing. While the customization feature is a good idea, it seems that by using it you significantly increase the load on your Palm device. This is a shame but at the end of the day, themes and icons aren’t deal breakers in an application specifically designed to help you launch applications and manage your files.

In all, ZLauncher adds some seriously useful functions to your Palm’s desktop. While its memory load and customization options need some improvement, ZLauncher’s core features make it the best all round choice in its class.