We do take money for KO Approach. This is part of our strategy pretty much the same way as it is the strategy of some enthusiasts to deliver their products for free. It's hard to write on such ethically ambiguous things without getting involved into a perpetual controversy – what's better: free or non-free software. On one hand, they say that providing free software is the same as helping your neighbor. On the other, labor must be rewarded.

I don't mind helping my neighbor and I do it quite often. I do donate to charity and non-profit organizations. Not only because I want to believe that I'm a good person, but also because it makes me feel that I make a contribution to the world.

Unless it becomes a duty. When Richard Stallman declares that "proprietary software ... forbids cooperation", I feel that there's a ghetto some place where all non-free software vendors will eventually be sent. I'm serious – this compulsory moral that you may not ask for reward for your wok, is a real threat. Just because I'm free to believe I'm worth something. This is why KO Approach will never be free.

How It All Started

I started working on KO Approach not for money, but for one straightforward goal – access my files quicker. One day I just realized how much time I was wasting on things that didn't have anything to do with real work. Although things have somewhat improved on Windows, opening files is still a surprisingly time consuming task.

What I came up with was a program that displayed a list of files in a Windows folder when I clicked on the folder's icon. This functionality is now known as Folder Menus. Instead of beating my way through stacking windows, I now had a convenient menu-based interface that allowed me to reach even a deeply buried file in seconds. I was happy with this minimalistic approach to opening files. My screen was finally clean and free for real tasks. At first, I wasn't even concerned about distributing my product to somebody else. There were no installers, help files, or websites.

Eventually, I showed the tool to a local community. The feedback was roughly as follows: "You know what, browsing folders through menus is cool, but I won't be using your tool unless you add [feature]." This is where I learned three things:

1. There is demand for the product
2. More time and effort need to be invested in order to satisfy potential customers
3. I should take money for the product

So I'm working hard to implement additional features. But this work is fun as I learn new things all the time. I love software development and I love KO Approach. I always wish I had more time to make an even better product.

Licensing Explained

The licensing scheme I implemented may seem extremely harsh. By default, a copy of KO Approach runs in a limited functionality mode in which the following restrictions apply

1. Only two out of three program features can be turned on. For example, you can run Folder Menus and Approach Items, or Folder Menus and Titlebar Menus, but not all three together.
2. A maximum of four menus can be displayed. When the fourth menu appears, folders do not show submenu arrows.
3. At most, two plug-ins can be loaded. This becomes essential with version 0.4.4 that ships with four handy plug-ins out of the box.

In order to unlock, Approach needs a small Activation Key file. Each Key file contains commands and data that provide missing functionality to the program module. A Key file is only valid for one particular machine. This is achieved by gathering hardware data which uniquely identifies the computer on which Approach is running. A hardware update renders the existing Activation Key unusable. Each License has a fixed number of unique computers on which Approach can be activated. When a purchase is made, the customer receives a Serial Number which he or she must then specify in order to receive an Activation Key.

This may seem even crueler than Windows activation policy. The latter at least permits minor hardware changes without the need to reactivate. However, the goal is not to screw our customers by soaking the last penny out of their pockets, but to prevent Serial Number leakage.

Feel Free to Request Additional Activations

Whenever you make a hardware update and you don't have available activations left, just write us an email with a request for additional activations. By receiving an email, we can identify you as a valid customer and assist you as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, I remember one customer who has already requested about ten additional activations. I don't even mind if he installs KO Approach to his entire family with all these extra Keys.

It's fair to me because this is where mutual trust is established: you know you won't be forced into buying additional Licenses after a tiny RAM update and we know your Serial Number remains in good hands. It's probably the same as giving the keys from your house to your friend. But you still want to protect yourself from intruders and thieves, right?

It's been almost three months since we announced we'd be releasing a new version of KO Approach. Finally, it's here! And it's better than ever! A lot of features have been redesigned from scratch to enable greater reliability and future extensibility.

Improved Compatibility

We are happy to let you know that KO Approach is now fully compatible with 64-bit Windows, including Windows 7, and that all the plug-ins have been thoroughly tested under the 64-bit architecture. We've also put a quite a bit of effort into optimizing Approach to reduce resource consumption on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

KO Approach now has an improved look-and-feel. Menus are always rendered consistently with the Operating System, no matter which version of Windows you are running. Approach works great with the Aero theme, too.

Feature Enhancements

The Approach Items feature has been completely rewritten to support not only file and folder lists, but also custom objects that can be added to the menu. As an example, we've included an item displaying a list of recent commands from the Run dialog box. Just open up the Approach Items menu, choose Run, and fire up a command from the menu that will appear. It's a huge time saver for commands that you use most frequently! With extensibility in mind, we will be adding new handy objects into upcoming versions of Approach, as well as create new plugins implementing similar functionality. As a matter of fact, there are some experimental objects already under development!

We've added new options into Titlebar Menus to improve user experience. Browse the entire folder hierarchy, from Desktop to the current folder, with CTRL+click on an Explorer window's title bar. Set Titlebar Menus to order items as you like: parent-to-child or child-to-parent. The current folder can also be automatically highlighted.

New Plugins

KO Approach now ships with four plugins, as we have added two more plugins to the application package. These include  InstantTxt, which now has been extended to support multiple text formats, and a brand-new plugin, ClipboardAssistant. The latter is an extention to KO Approach's contextual menus which allows you to copy to clipboard the full path to the selected item, the path to the target of a shortcut, and even the entire directory listing of any folder!

As always, Scope and InstantWave, the two familiar companions to KO Approach, allow for previewing graphics files as well as playing back sound files, right from KO Approach menus!

Get a Free KO Approach License

There are opportunities to receive a license absolutely free of charge! If you know a foreign language and have experience in software localization, please help us deliver a version of KO Approach to your compatriots! We will compensate your time and effort with free licensing of our product.

For registered customers, the upgrade to the new version is absolutely FREE! Simply download and start enjoying all the great new features right now! Otherwise, the Basic license is only $19.95.

We're working hardly on a new release of our flagship product – KO Approach. This release is going to catch up with all the new things that occurred to the Windows desktop computing world so far. The product is finally compatible with Windows 7 which will enable the users of this new OS to open files and folders even quicker!

Approach Items is being redesigned to display user-selectable items. From now on, this feature will be fully extensible allowing developers to provide custom content to Approach Items. As an example, we've included a custom item displaying a list of recently used commands from the Run dialog box. With these new concepts, the user will be able to better organize most frequently accessed items, files and folders.

We've added new options into Titlebar Menus to improve user experience. Browse the entire folder hierarchy, from Desktop to the current folder, with CTRL+click on an Explorer window's title bar. Instruct Titlebar Menus to order items as you like: parent-to-child or child-to-parent. The current folder can also be automatically highlighted.

As usual, Scope and InstantWave, the two companions to KO Approach, allow for previewing graphics files as well as playing sound files, right from KO Approach menus! And there are more plugins coming soon!

Approach will consume even less resources thanks to advanced optimization techniques. But most importantly, upgrading to KO Approach 0.4.4 will be completely free!