Rainmeter Start Menu Replacement: A Suggestion

[axolotl_soft]

Just wanted to offer a suggestion to some of you which I think might be novel:

I realized after a weird crash of the "Classic Shell" Start Menu replacement that a complete, customizable stand-in for the Windows Start Menu could be created using a combination of Rainmeter (for the skin, shortcuts, functionality, etc.), Launchy (for the file searching), a series of shortcuts to files/system commands, and AutoHotkey (to re-map the Windows key, for example, linking it to toggle the visibility of the active Rainmeter 'Start' replacement).

I've set to work creating one, and it's pretty cool so far. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to 'embed' Launchy into the skin, maybe by capturing input from a user then passing it to Launchy as a command line parameter? I'm not sure. I'm also trying to figure out the WriteKeyValue system so I can enter my menus & submenus from the skin itself, as opposed to coding each item.

Anyway, I'm posting this here because I haven't seen any such Rainmeter Start Menu replacements online, and many of you are absolutely brilliant when it comes to design- way better than I am. I hope that some of you (the aforementioned brilliant designers) will take this idea and run with it, and post them on DeviantArt (or elsewhere). Most of the existing Start Menu replacements are short on customization and are, frankly, ugly and unimaginative.

If anyone would like to know how I'm accomplishing this- or if any of you has an idea on how this could be better achieved- please post back.