I have been looking for a piece of software that would allow me to sort and organize my games library on my PC, but either the software is way more than what I need, or the devs decided to include installers for pieces of software that I don't want.

I'd like something incredibly simple, even just a small "chooser" that let's me pick which game I want to play, whether from a DRMfree folder like gog.com/desura games, ubisoft/steam DRMheavy loaders, or .EXE games with proprietary DRM ( CD/DVD installs)

I also ripped my Chrono Cross for PS1 discs to play on ePSXe and would like a shortcut for that as well, if that sort of thing exists.

Has anyone else used anything for this particular scenario?

Thanks for any advice! :)

If you have Steam installed,then you can always add non-steam games(or even programs)to appear in your library.I don't think others can see the games in your library,but it says "Playing Non-steam game [game name]".So if you want to do that,just go to Games>Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library...And from there you can either browse or choose from the ones listed.You can also rename them once in your library by simply right-clicking and selecting properties.Hope this is what you need! :)

Maybe this. Not sure if this is what you want.
http://emulationrealm.net/downloads/file/2818-meagre

Well I personally use and recommend, RadeonPro which is a nice tool that allows you to add every game you want (even if it's a steam/origin/uplay game that requires a launcher). You can also tune graphics settings for every game that you add, things like the AA (using different types of AA settings), AF settings, fps capping a game, using different types of Vsync settings and so on. Great app to sort your games and tune your games if they are unoptimized for the pc. (especially if you have an AMD card)

I looked for something similar about two years ago but eventually gave up. All solutions I found required too much maintenance to make them worthwhile. Options are:

- Windows' own Game Center (if you want something "incredibly simple", then it might be enough?)
- a multi-emulator launcher that also allows you to add any other application (lugum already mentioned one)
- Using the Steam launcher and importing the non-Steam games there (already mentioned - the Steam launcher is rather crude, but if you're looking for something simple ...?)
- Using together with the [url=http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=85724]Advanced Launcher plugin. Probably the option with the best-loking end result, though currently it will require some effort to set it all up. Should become simpler when version 14 gets released, which is planned to include a full-featured game launcher together with means to scrape info about the games from the net.

Funny, yesterday I thought about creating a thread like this or bumping my old one, as I'm still not very happy with the alternatives I've found, and here you are asking more or less for the same thing I'm looking for. :)

Sadly, I haven't found a satisfactory solution myself. The best I could find was the Metro screen on Win 8 and Steam on Win7 (as suggested by JadNajm), or maybe D-Fend, if you prefer that to Steam and you also have many DOS games (you can add non-DOS games, too), or I think it's also possible to start your games from GCStar, after you've (manually) created a new collection for them, but all of these require a lot of work and several workarounds, so they're tiresome to use if you have many games installed.* Another solution would be to just sort your game shortcuts in folders in the Windows Explorer, which is the easiest solution, but the least attractive one.

I wish there was a simple program that allows you to just drag and drop your shortcuts into it, and then to sort and group them, with a simple display, but more attractive than Windows Explorer, without the tree window and whatnot). Even simple lists grouped by genre or other custom headlines would be fine. Back in the days I had written a batch file in DOS, listing all the games and allowing me to start them by the pressing of single keys. I wonder if something like this would still be possible in modern Windows, but then again, if it was, it would also require a LOT of work, seeing that nowadays I have much more games installed, so a drag & drop solution with full compatibility to common desktop shortcuts and links would be preferable.

I always thought it weird that I couldn't find any program that does remotely what I'm looking for, as simple as it sounds (just a simple desktop shortcut "manager" or "shell", no-frills but also without restrictions, that is to say with full compatibility, something that can immediately run everything that can be run from the desktop or the Win Explorer, too). I've come to realize that maybe I am the weird one for wanting such a thing when everyone else is perfectly happy with the desktop, explorer or start menu. So I'm glad to find I'm not the only one who'd love a decent game launcher nevertheless. :)

Btw, I think some community member was actually working on a game launcher for GOG games; who knows, that might be another alternative if it ever gets released.

* E.g. you can't attach Steam shortcuts to the metro screen without using workarounds, and you can't add links to Dosbox and ScummVM games to Steam without having to manually copy the starting parametres over to the games' properties tab on Sream, otherwise Steam will just open Dosbox or ScummVM and not the games. It's also tedious to add each non-Steam game individually, as it only automatically adds those it can find in the start menu or the registry, the other ones you have to add yourself, one by one.

So to summarize it all,no program is perfect :]

I'm not completely sure what you mean, but you want some sort of game launcher, right? Then check out RocketDock, it's free. I use it with a blank background and have a macro key for showing/hiding it in my keyboard (which you can also do by pressing Ctrl + Alt + R). I attached a pic to show how it looks for me (my cursor is on top of Avernum). You can customize it a lot too, with autohiding and launching effects etc.

edit: maybe I should consider reading the thread title next time

Yup, and I guess it's also irrational and egocentric to expect that someone would write a program that caters specifically to my preferences, no matter how simple, and in the best case offer it for free on top of it. ;)

But I'm a bit amazed nevertheless that there aren't more of these imperfect programs to choose from and that it doesn't seem to be a high priority with other Windows users. Anyway, here's an article that lists quite a lot of these tools, maybe the most comprehensive I've found. There was one comparatively nice (while still too complicated) program that I just can't remember the name of at the moment and it's not included here, sorry, but in the meantime, the OP might find something approximately useful among the others.

I think something went wrong with the link. ;)

Yes, I noticed and fixed it. :)

I thought you meant to do that,you were being sarcastic

Not sure I understand, but in this case I wasn't. I can be sarcastic at times, but usually I rather dislike it and prefer to be helpful. :)

pointing to a topic here saying it's a topic were people talk about such programs, which is exactly what we do here too. :p

I agree that RadeonPro is the dogs bits, I use it for fine tuning & recording etc, but I wasn`t aware it had a game launcher.
Is this another addon or...?


As for a general game (or anything else) launcher, have you tried Rainmeter?
( http://rainmeter.net/ ) It`s a really small footprint software, allows you to add all sorts of stuff to your desktop.

Use that & any game banner code (http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/65672584) or Gameview2 (http://rainmeterhub.com/skins/gameview-2/) or (http://viciousned.deviantart.com/art/Gameview-2-432776682).
I use the latter.

That black/transparent bar of games/software, pops up when you move the mouse to far left of the screen.
You add your games via editing the text .Ini which is really easy, even I coped ;p

Oh, it also shows a full screen image of the game you mouse over, if you want.