SmartStartMenu for Windows essentially turns the process of running almost any program into a three or four key-stroke effort. SmartStartMenu does this for you by automatically generating "on-the-fly" alphabetized lists of items from your start menu (or SmartStartMenus internal history) based on what you type!
If you ever use the Start menu to run programs you will find this tool is a much better way to find the menu item you are looking for. Since SmartStartMenu is based on your Start menu there is no "alias" database to maintain, there is no "alias configuration" interface to learn. You can change the keystrokes you use to access menu items through SmartStartMenu by changing your Start menu directly.
With a little tweaking of your Start menu you can configure any program that you want to be run by any three or four letter key-stroke that you want. As you type into SmartStartMenu a type-ahead style list is generated on the fly from your Start menu or SmartStartMenu history. Select the item you want (or just press the Enter key if the item is already selected) and the program is started just as if you had selected it from the Start menu directly.
It is actually VERY simple. You can also type a path such as c:\Program Files or \\SHDEV01\share1 to open your file explorer, a web site URL such as www.planetharrington.com to open your web browser, or even a system command such as cmd to open a DOS box.