Making the current platform behave like its (potential) future self

The current platform release has lots of great new features, but there are still a lot of requested/planned features that have not been added.
Here's a short list of some that I've seen recently:
1. Categories
2. File Associations
3. App Updater
4. Portable Fonts
5. Custom Folders
6. Re-ordering apps

While we are waiting for these to be implemented, we can use other "add-ons" and tricks to make the Platform do what we want.
Here's my list of how I've dealt with these things:

1. Categories
First, there is a solution on this site, that's not too bad: Categorizer
It's not perfect, tho.
Second, you could hide the less frequently used apps, and unhide them only when you need them.
Third, you could have your main apps in the PA Platform, and put links to your other apps in a secondary app launcher that you open from the PA Platform. This is my preferred way. I use Cylog Toolbox, which is extremely versatile and inherently portable.
P.S. You can also nest a PAPlatform inside the PAPlatform, but that gets confusing!

2. File Associations
There are two apps in development on this site that do this. I've used them both.
CAFE Mod/eXpresso works fine, but it seems to have stalled in its development.
Portable File Associator seems to still be in development, as the last update was just in June. This is the one I use.

3. App Updater
This is slated to be added to the next release, but it's been delayed several times, so if you don't feel like waiting, there's the original PortableApps.com Updater.
I stopped using it myself to update, because I don't think the links are being updated in it (in anticipation of its inclusion in the platform). Besides, I'm impatient, and I find it much faster to manually download updates using the DownThemAll! extension.

4. Fonts
You can save fonts locally and use them in OpenOffice as described here by JTH, and there's also PortableFonts.

5. Custom Folders
Some people have asked for adding new folders to the default list. I use a trick to put them in with the apps in the menu.

6. Re-ordering apps
JTH has already added the ability to pin apps as favorites to the top of the menu, but otherwise everything is listed alphabetically.
Luckily, JTH has also added the ability to rename apps, so there's an old trick that works OK. Rename the apps, and start the new name with a number or a special character etc, and you can pretty much put them in any order you want.

There are other requests too, that may or may not eventually make it into the platform. In the meantime, check these Test Releases, there are some great gems!