Sure ToolsDaemon is an old but sweet and simple option!
The most powerfull one I've ever encountered though was Toolmanager3.
It was a hassle to configure, but well worth the effort.
With this you could create text or graphical docks and menus, startbuttons etc...
You could even select a file on the Workbench, then using TM3 to launch an application which parsed and sent the selected file to the program you started.
It's on aminet and uses MUI.
