FinderPop (http://www.finderpop.com/), a preference pane that extends OS X’s contextual menus using a FinderPop Items folder much as the Apple Menu Items folder used to do for the Apple menu, has been updated to version 2.3.0. The upgrade is ready for Mac OS X 10.6 (“Snow Leopard”).
You can use it as a launcher that takes up zero screen real estate or a filesystem browser. Also, FinderPop sports a Processes menu (so you can command-click a blank menubar area.)
FinderPop is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. The app is free, but if you like it, you’re encouraged to make a donation to the developer so development can continue.