PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities(fourth-wall.co.uk)
fourth-wall.co.uk
PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities
https://www.fourth-wall.co.uk/post/powertoys-11-awesome-features-microsoft-won-t-add-to-windows
335 comments
Many, if not most of these tools contain functionality that is built into other major OSes, and had been for a long time. I don't really understand why Microsoft doesn't include them by default.
I actually think it's bad for an OS to include too many features out of the box. Basically every modern platform has already gone too far in this direction, making computers more difficult for casual users to understand.
Vendors should include only the bare essentials, then let users who want more add their own extras.
Imagine an OS similar to the original Macintosh, or maybe early versions of iOS, but with add-ons that can add features to the global UI. New users have a basic system with easily-understood behaviors, and experienced users can enable the features they need.
In an alternate universe where I believed it was possible to compete with the major vendors, this is the platform I would build...
Vendors should include only the bare essentials, then let users who want more add their own extras.
Imagine an OS similar to the original Macintosh, or maybe early versions of iOS, but with add-ons that can add features to the global UI. New users have a basic system with easily-understood behaviors, and experienced users can enable the features they need.
In an alternate universe where I believed it was possible to compete with the major vendors, this is the platform I would build...
Disagree. Fancy features are awesome for "normies".
iPhones have a feature where you can create PDFs page by page, using the camera as a scanner. After you snap the photo it offers you a crop and transform tool, and does a little image recognition to assist you and make the edges of the crop tool snap to the page within the photo.
I've found that feature immensely useful in a professional context and (it was a company device) when I gave the phone back I seriously considered switching away from Android for my personal phone.
Little things like that, baked into the OS, make for a really awesome UX.
iPhones have a feature where you can create PDFs page by page, using the camera as a scanner. After you snap the photo it offers you a crop and transform tool, and does a little image recognition to assist you and make the edges of the crop tool snap to the page within the photo.
I've found that feature immensely useful in a professional context and (it was a company device) when I gave the phone back I seriously considered switching away from Android for my personal phone.
Little things like that, baked into the OS, make for a really awesome UX.
Wouldn't it make more sense for the scanning feature to be its own app, so that users can find it, know what it is, and not activate it accidentally?
I've only used this in the Files app, which makes sense because you're making files. I'm not sure if it exists in the camera app as well.
This to me is actually a problem with how iOS works versus traditional desktops. Almost everything you create is a file, so you could justify putting almost any feature in the files app.
The files app should be exclusively for listing/moving/copying files. Files themselves should be created by and opened with different apps.
This isn't to say apps shouldn't be able to talk to the files app. On macOS, for example, apps can install QuickLook plugins.
The files app should be exclusively for listing/moving/copying files. Files themselves should be created by and opened with different apps.
This isn't to say apps shouldn't be able to talk to the files app. On macOS, for example, apps can install QuickLook plugins.
> Wouldn't it make more sense for the scanning feature to be its own app, so that users can find it, know what it is, and not activate it accidentally?
It's been a few years since I had that phone so the details are a bit fuzzy but I seem to recall it was very discoverable from the email attachment interface, at the very least.
Problem with a separate app is that it's a separate codebase and thus easier for it to fall to neglect.
It's been a few years since I had that phone so the details are a bit fuzzy but I seem to recall it was very discoverable from the email attachment interface, at the very least.
Problem with a separate app is that it's a separate codebase and thus easier for it to fall to neglect.
> It's been a few years since I had that phone so the details are a bit fuzzy but I seem to recall it was very discoverable from the email attachment interface, at the very least.
That's great if I'm sending an email, but what if I want to upload the documents to a website, or send them via iMessage, or Airdrop them to another Apple device, or print out the scan to effectively make a second paper copy? Do you add the icon to each of these interfaces, taking up screen real estate and adding mental load? (One new icon is never a problem, but do it 30 times and you'll be in a bad spot.)
IMO, Apple's strategy significantly railroads users, while making interfaces ever-more complicated.
> Problem with a separate app is that it's a separate codebase and thus easier for it to fall to neglect.
Yeah, bundling everything into iTunes worked really well for Apple, didn't it? :D
I really don't think we should be making UI decisions based on this.
That's great if I'm sending an email, but what if I want to upload the documents to a website, or send them via iMessage, or Airdrop them to another Apple device, or print out the scan to effectively make a second paper copy? Do you add the icon to each of these interfaces, taking up screen real estate and adding mental load? (One new icon is never a problem, but do it 30 times and you'll be in a bad spot.)
IMO, Apple's strategy significantly railroads users, while making interfaces ever-more complicated.
> Problem with a separate app is that it's a separate codebase and thus easier for it to fall to neglect.
Yeah, bundling everything into iTunes worked really well for Apple, didn't it? :D
I really don't think we should be making UI decisions based on this.
>Yeah, bundling everything into iTunes worked really well for Apple, didn't it? :D
I'm not really an "Apple Guy" so it's not clear to me what you are referring to.
I'm not really an "Apple Guy" so it's not clear to me what you are referring to.
Over the course of more than a decade, Apple kept adding features to iTunes until the app become horribly slow, confusing, and buggy. Just about everyone hated it.
When Apple finally killed the Mac version of iTunes on stage at WWDC, they basically admitted that they'd tried to cram in too much functionality, by joking that they were considering a Calendar and Web Browser.
When Apple finally killed the Mac version of iTunes on stage at WWDC, they basically admitted that they'd tried to cram in too much functionality, by joking that they were considering a Calendar and Web Browser.
Windows is so far past that point now, could just as well pile these on too < edit: I'm actually positive about these tools, MS could do with a little less focus on consumer usecases I think.
> Vendors should include only the bare essentials, then let users who want more add their own extras.
This used to be appealing to me, back when the open-source model seemed to be viable even on macOS and Windows. Now any look at the app store will show you apps performing the most basic, should-be (and often is!) bundled, functionality that cost $5 apiece. No slight against developers, who have a right to make a living, but if I just dropped thousands of dollars on a computer and then had to pay $5 for each small convenience feature I wanted, it would definitely be a significant downgrade in experience. I don't live in the Windows ecosystem any more, but the macOS freeware ecosystem has significantly degraded (and it's not just a matter of “I have to use something old”—due to architecture changes, most of the old stuff doesn't work any more, and, understandably, even if the original maintainer is still keeping it up, they now often charge for the product).
This used to be appealing to me, back when the open-source model seemed to be viable even on macOS and Windows. Now any look at the app store will show you apps performing the most basic, should-be (and often is!) bundled, functionality that cost $5 apiece. No slight against developers, who have a right to make a living, but if I just dropped thousands of dollars on a computer and then had to pay $5 for each small convenience feature I wanted, it would definitely be a significant downgrade in experience. I don't live in the Windows ecosystem any more, but the macOS freeware ecosystem has significantly degraded (and it's not just a matter of “I have to use something old”—due to architecture changes, most of the old stuff doesn't work any more, and, understandably, even if the original maintainer is still keeping it up, they now often charge for the product).
I absolutely agree about these problems!
But, that's why I think it's great that PowerToys is made by Microsoft. Just because a feature isn't included in the base OS doesn't mean the same company can't create it.
But, that's why I think it's great that PowerToys is made by Microsoft. Just because a feature isn't included in the base OS doesn't mean the same company can't create it.
I actually find it strange how many people I'm seeing crap on PowerToys because you get the features out-of-the-box on other platforms.
First off, macOS is missing its own features such as three-finger tap to middle click and window snapping, and what you get on Linux is going to vary based on your DE.
Second, building something in adds bloat for people who don't use it and can kill off choices of third-party options that might do the feature (subjectively) better (I still see people mad that Apple killed Sherlock by building their own version of it in)
I like the idea of something pluggable, but also with sane and disableable default features that 98% of users will be totally fine with.
First off, macOS is missing its own features such as three-finger tap to middle click and window snapping, and what you get on Linux is going to vary based on your DE.
Second, building something in adds bloat for people who don't use it and can kill off choices of third-party options that might do the feature (subjectively) better (I still see people mad that Apple killed Sherlock by building their own version of it in)
I like the idea of something pluggable, but also with sane and disableable default features that 98% of users will be totally fine with.
It's probably a combination of 1. retaining backwards compatibility with applications that don't interact well with these features and 2. exposing users to behaviors that are hard to understand and undo once they are activated by accident.
Number 2 is fun, I get a call from relatives at least twice a year because their screen was rotated 90 degrees from a keyboard shortcut that was hit when a cat walked across their laptop when the lid was left open. The crazy thing is it's happened 4 times now.
It's not a backwards compatibility thing, PowerToys has been a thing since Windows 95 and we've seen breaking changes in a few iterations of Windows since.
The clue is in the name "Power" -- it's additional functionality for power users. Since Windows generally caters for the lowest common denominator, features like this would be deemed too complicated (sometimes even dangerous) for some folk. So it is an optional addon for power users.
It's just like how WSL, PowerShell, etc aren't installed by default either.
The clue is in the name "Power" -- it's additional functionality for power users. Since Windows generally caters for the lowest common denominator, features like this would be deemed too complicated (sometimes even dangerous) for some folk. So it is an optional addon for power users.
It's just like how WSL, PowerShell, etc aren't installed by default either.
Instead we get “Paint 3D”, “Mixed Reality Portal”, and “Your Phone”. Absolute essentials that I’m certain are chart-toppers in the telemetry activity charts.
I'd guess Your Phone is a direct response to iMessage on MacOS.
It'd be more useful if it worked with any messaging app that was running on my phone though!
It'd be more useful if it worked with any messaging app that was running on my phone though!
It at least used to work with LINE and Discord for me, but I gave up on using it because it's so damn buggy and the Windows side of it uses like 4GB of RAM. And both of those have native desktop clients I can use instead.
It seems to - I routinely use it for SMS and WhatsApp, as well as it being a handy way to grab a photo off your phone.
microsoft are so bad at naming things. "hey cortana, open my your phone app"
Most of the tools are gated behind obscure key combos and are useless for many people. Why not make people install them if they want them? The cost of installing them is less than the cost of learning the hot key memorizations.
That is not true. I use both Windows and Mac a lot and I have about an equal number of OS level plugins.
* PowerToys Awake - Amphetamine
* PowerToys FancyZones - Moom
* PowerToys Run - Alfred
* EarTrumpet - Rogue Amoeba SoundSource
* Windows Terminal - iTerm
* QuickLook - Mac Native Functionality
* Nothing for Windows - HazeOver
* Windows Native Functionality - Bartender
* Snipping Tool - Clean Shot X
* PowerToys Awake - Amphetamine
* PowerToys FancyZones - Moom
* PowerToys Run - Alfred
* EarTrumpet - Rogue Amoeba SoundSource
* Windows Terminal - iTerm
* QuickLook - Mac Native Functionality
* Nothing for Windows - HazeOver
* Windows Native Functionality - Bartender
* Snipping Tool - Clean Shot X
Do you know of one for ImageResizer?
For Mac; select the images you want, right-click, select tools, adjust size.
* PowerToys Run - Alfred
* Windows Terminal - iTerm
* Snipping Tool - Clean Shot X
These are not fair comparisons. The Mac tools you list here are much more powerful than the Windows counterparts, and there are good enough built-in alternatives (Spotlight, Terminal and the default screenshot tool).
* PowerToys FancyZones - Moom
This isn't fair either. FancyZones is much more powerful; Rectangle is a better comparison.
* Windows Terminal - iTerm
* Snipping Tool - Clean Shot X
These are not fair comparisons. The Mac tools you list here are much more powerful than the Windows counterparts, and there are good enough built-in alternatives (Spotlight, Terminal and the default screenshot tool).
* PowerToys FancyZones - Moom
This isn't fair either. FancyZones is much more powerful; Rectangle is a better comparison.
What is it that Rectangle can do that Moom can't? As a long-time Moom user, I've never come across an example of "amazing thing [other MacOS window management extension] does that Moom doesn't," but I always try to be open.
(There's also the possibility that there are amazing things I wouldn't use, of course. I have discovered that while I like keyboard shortcuts and Moom's hover dropdown for window resizing/movement, I find "drag a window to the screen edge to resize it" to be a maddening anti-feature.)
(There's also the possibility that there are amazing things I wouldn't use, of course. I have discovered that while I like keyboard shortcuts and Moom's hover dropdown for window resizing/movement, I find "drag a window to the screen edge to resize it" to be a maddening anti-feature.)
I think it’s about turf inside Microsoft.
By keeping little toys like this outside of the main Windows feature set, they stay out of the 500 review and design steps, where any of 5000 people can kill the feature.
There’s a lot of politics too. Something like a unmute button may be “owned” by the liaison to the Teams program management, who in turn want universal unmute to be an Azure service that is incorporated into “Azure Live Office Solutions for Windows (Govcloud) for Business E7”.
By keeping little toys like this outside of the main Windows feature set, they stay out of the 500 review and design steps, where any of 5000 people can kill the feature.
There’s a lot of politics too. Something like a unmute button may be “owned” by the liaison to the Teams program management, who in turn want universal unmute to be an Azure service that is incorporated into “Azure Live Office Solutions for Windows (Govcloud) for Business E7”.
Considering the 2nd most used desktop OS is MacOS and you can’t even maximise a window properly out of the box…
Double clicking any unused portion of the title bar will maximize a window within it's current space without going full-screen (the green button). It's not the most intuitive way to do it, but that's a far cry from being impossible out of the box.
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Yes.. but how would I know it had I not read about it here? I have to use macs at work and it's filled with "WTF?" moments. Like why the hell would I want to make something fullscreen with the green button on the window title bar, when coming from linux/windows I expect it to maximise the window.. and window maximising is done by some weird incantation.
Installing of applications is done by dragging them into some place, and then there is no feedback about what is happening. And so on and on.
Installing of applications is done by dragging them into some place, and then there is no feedback about what is happening. And so on and on.
> but how would I know it had I not read about it here?
Presumably you’ve been a windows user long enough, or at least exposed to Windows enough times to have figured out you can double click a title bar in that operating system and maximize a window, so it’s probably not too far of a stretch to guess you would have figured it out in macOS by simply trying to do the same thing
Agreeably macOS is highly opinionated when it comes to “discovering” some of the hidden interaction features, but come on. You really wouldn’t have had any other way to figure how to embiggen a window without without having to come to HN and read the above comment?
That feels like an extreme example for the sake of being oppositional
Presumably you’ve been a windows user long enough, or at least exposed to Windows enough times to have figured out you can double click a title bar in that operating system and maximize a window, so it’s probably not too far of a stretch to guess you would have figured it out in macOS by simply trying to do the same thing
Agreeably macOS is highly opinionated when it comes to “discovering” some of the hidden interaction features, but come on. You really wouldn’t have had any other way to figure how to embiggen a window without without having to come to HN and read the above comment?
That feels like an extreme example for the sake of being oppositional
You just kind of get used to it. Each OS has its own quirks. Some of them start to make sense as you “grow into” the new OS…
Sorry. Double clicking doesn’t consistently maximise. Half the time it resized vertically only. So it’s not a far cry from impossible out of the box.
Did you try to Alt-click on the green button?
It’s the same feature. Zoom. As it’s called in MacOS. And it resizes vertically only most of the time.
It's not the same experiece as maximising on Windows. AFAIK, Zoom expands the window to match the content size, and many apps seem to not think you need the full screen.
The only way to replicate the Windows behaviour of truly maximising is to use third-party tools like Rectangle.
The only way to replicate the Windows behaviour of truly maximising is to use third-party tools like Rectangle.
It definitely took me some time to get used to the way window management works on the Mac, but now it makes sense to me and I am okay with it. MacOS works better for me when I send my full-screen programs to their own desktop (the green button) than to double-click the title bar like I would in Windows. With the Magic Trackpad swipe navigation available to me, I can easily flip between programs in full-screen mode. Some parts of the operating systems are 1:1 and others need a little bit of mental reprogramming.
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Wait, is this an official MS utility?
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/
Why aren't these just bundled by default??
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/
Why aren't these just bundled by default??
Many things in 11 were at least inspired by powertoys, like window groups and snap layouts[0], although these are non-customizable.
0: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/snap-your-window...
0: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/snap-your-window...
Probably because changing stuff in the main OS is pretty complex and needs approval from many different actors at Microsoft.
Releasing a simple utility application on the other hand should be much easier and isn't bound to any release cycle.
Yeah, is it localized to eleven fallback languages, and accessible to blind people, and included in the security threat model? Including anything in Windows costs serious money, so for some niche features you might need to install an out of band, less supported package.
I was about to say "because of the maintenance burden and separation of core and extra features" but then I remembered that half the stuff they added since win2k is borderline useless.
win2k was peak windows; all it needed was 64-bit support and cleartype
And support for high DPI displays, and Bluetooth, and modern Wi-Fi, and probably a bunch of other stuff I’m forgetting!
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A lot of these things seem like they could cause extreme confusion for a low-ability user.
Which would be easily resolved by having them off by default?
Having said that, I don't know how window snapping being on by default isn't incredibly frustrating for someone who is simply trying to precisely position a window near a corner only to have it snap in a way they didn't want it to.
Having said that, I don't know how window snapping being on by default isn't incredibly frustrating for someone who is simply trying to precisely position a window near a corner only to have it snap in a way they didn't want it to.
I tried a few of them and they flat out didn't work. I guess MS has decided its OS already has too much garbage.
As I mentioned here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31305712), because it’s targeted at a different audience and because it being separate allows it to be iterated and experimented with more quickly. When you have an install-base as large as Windows, you have to be careful with what you include as a built-in feature versus what is an add-on or option (even first party), because a change made for one class of users could be confusing or detrimental to another. This is particularly true when it comes to utilities and features that are iterated on in public and with great frequency. PowerToys occasionally ships with bugs or crashes that are completely acceptable and manageable to the audience of power users (and are usually fixed very quickly), but that could be much more of a problem if shipped to 1 billion users (and the steps you’d need to take to test against edge cases would slow down development, and the development speed is one of the best parts of PowerToys).
You can install it through the Microsoft Store, WinGet, Choclatey, Scoop or directly from GitHub. It would be nice if there was maybe a pointer to it inside the OS to alert some users of its existence, but the premise was similar to the OG PowerToys, which were downloadable off of the Microsoft website.
As I said in the linked comment, stuff from PowerToys does get upstreamed into the Windows shell, sometimes with modifications or refinements, but some of the utilities are things that wouldn’t necessarily make sense to be included by default.
You can install it through the Microsoft Store, WinGet, Choclatey, Scoop or directly from GitHub. It would be nice if there was maybe a pointer to it inside the OS to alert some users of its existence, but the premise was similar to the OG PowerToys, which were downloadable off of the Microsoft website.
As I said in the linked comment, stuff from PowerToys does get upstreamed into the Windows shell, sometimes with modifications or refinements, but some of the utilities are things that wouldn’t necessarily make sense to be included by default.
> It was first introduced for Windows 95,
I had no idea it was there for that long!
Honestly, from their perspective it probably makes sense to keep it separate from the main OS if they like keeping it open source.
I had no idea it was there for that long!
Honestly, from their perspective it probably makes sense to keep it separate from the main OS if they like keeping it open source.
That wouldn't stop them from shipping it by default.
Its a little more complicated. While its true that there was a Powertoys apllication for win95 the current one is not related to that. It's more like a spiritual successor with not direct heritage.
The first release of the current applicaiton was 2019. The wiki article is quite detailed: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerToys
The first release of the current applicaiton was 2019. The wiki article is quite detailed: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerToys
Windows ships many open source components these days be it first party (Calculator, Windows Terminal, WLSG) or third party (wholesale like OpenSSH or just libraries used in components).
The OSS stuff doesn’t really have anything to do with it.
The genesis of PowerToys was to provide a way to create utilities for power users that could be quickly iterated in public. When it’s part of the core OS, that makes updates/iteration harder (hence, why Windows Terminal, WSL2 beta, calculator, Notepad and some other components have moved to getting updates in the Microsoft Store separate from the main OS. So you can run an older IT mandated version of Windows but still ostensibly have a newer version of a certain component), and with stuff like PowerToys, the intended audience is different than the standard OS user, who may not be comfortable with things that can change more frequently.
That said, the feedback from PowerToys and some of those components has been upstreamed back into core Windows.
The improved window management stuff in Windows 11 is a less-advanced version of Fancy Zones (FZ has more features and options), and the same is true for the universal mute button in Windows 11, that started out as a PowerToys feature.
(Disclosure: former Microsoft employee (currently at GitHub) who knows the PowerToys team well)
The genesis of PowerToys was to provide a way to create utilities for power users that could be quickly iterated in public. When it’s part of the core OS, that makes updates/iteration harder (hence, why Windows Terminal, WSL2 beta, calculator, Notepad and some other components have moved to getting updates in the Microsoft Store separate from the main OS. So you can run an older IT mandated version of Windows but still ostensibly have a newer version of a certain component), and with stuff like PowerToys, the intended audience is different than the standard OS user, who may not be comfortable with things that can change more frequently.
That said, the feedback from PowerToys and some of those components has been upstreamed back into core Windows.
The improved window management stuff in Windows 11 is a less-advanced version of Fancy Zones (FZ has more features and options), and the same is true for the universal mute button in Windows 11, that started out as a PowerToys feature.
(Disclosure: former Microsoft employee (currently at GitHub) who knows the PowerToys team well)
Good to know, thanks for your insight!
In the original incarnation, it included the legendary TweakUI.[1]
[1]http://misweb.cbi.msstate.edu/~rpearson/tips/tweakui.html
[1]http://misweb.cbi.msstate.edu/~rpearson/tips/tweakui.html
Isn't it ironic that the operating system called "Windows" offers one of the worst window management user experiences?
Can you explain your claim?
For me, Windows 11 has one of the best window management experiences out of the box, far ahead of MacOS and in line Linux.
The ease of resizing, snapping and tiling windows out of the box is really well implemented in Windows 11 so I really don't get your claim.
For me, Windows 11 has one of the best window management experiences out of the box, far ahead of MacOS and in line Linux.
The ease of resizing, snapping and tiling windows out of the box is really well implemented in Windows 11 so I really don't get your claim.
Features that take advantage of multiple desktops are nonexistent. I don't think a tool to assign applications to specific desktops exists even outside the built-in stuff. And setting 1-2 apps as full-screen desktop is something I really liked about macOS that's not available. Before Windows 11, desktops didn't even have unique wallpapers.
You can assign apps to specific desktops, and you can maximize a window if you want full screen. How else do you expect it to work?
"Assign" as in open an application on a specific desktop. Windows 11 kind of got that (automatically, unfortunately no manual control) for multiple monitors, but macOS has it for virtual desktops too. It'd be even better if it supported something more explicit like i3 layout loading, but it can probably be combined with fancyzones at that point to get that working reasonably well.
macOS also has a way to treat an application (or two, with a split view) as a virtual desktop, where the shell disappears and wouldn't allow you to open additional windows on that desktop. I particularly want this seperation because I put VMs on different desktops, but because the shell is there I inevitably have to drag over some windows that opened on that desktop over after a few hours of mindless use.
macOS also has a way to treat an application (or two, with a split view) as a virtual desktop, where the shell disappears and wouldn't allow you to open additional windows on that desktop. I particularly want this seperation because I put VMs on different desktops, but because the shell is there I inevitably have to drag over some windows that opened on that desktop over after a few hours of mindless use.
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I would like to have multiple desktops like MacOS but windows has snaps which MacOS doesn't has.
While I like my awesome more on a laptop, every is can be configured one way or the other to feel similar across OSes.
While I like my awesome more on a laptop, every is can be configured one way or the other to feel similar across OSes.
Windows does have multiple desktops. Win+Tab to add and move between them.
Wow never seen this.
Tx :D
Tx :D
Windows does have multiple desktops. It was new in win10 I believe.
In case you are unaware, there are multiple snapping utilities for macOS.
I use BetterTouchTool, but there are many tools that accomplish the same thing as far as window snapping is concerned.
Here is an article that goes over many options: https://techwiser.com/snap-windows-on-macos
I use BetterTouchTool, but there are many tools that accomplish the same thing as far as window snapping is concerned.
Here is an article that goes over many options: https://techwiser.com/snap-windows-on-macos
Out of the box windows management for MacOS is much worse than Windows, so not sure I follow? Power Toys does make Windows 10x better though... and they really should make it the default once it's fully stable.
I used to prefer MacOS for development, but Windows has far surpassed it in recent years, between native linux experience in WSL and better QOL tooling via Power Toys. The removal of vertical taskbar has been pretty annoying though... pretty awful on a 49" monitor. All that's left now is to get some 5nm chips in Windows machines
I used to prefer MacOS for development, but Windows has far surpassed it in recent years, between native linux experience in WSL and better QOL tooling via Power Toys. The removal of vertical taskbar has been pretty annoying though... pretty awful on a 49" monitor. All that's left now is to get some 5nm chips in Windows machines
Simply try a native Linux install. You will find far better that "our way or the highway" behavior of Windows and OSX .
You get "native" linux on Windows with WSL. It's a linux container, but with nice integrations out of the box re: networking etc.
I'm not against running linux alone per se, but to me being able to run both Windows (with better app support, polish), and Linux at the same time is kind of the best of both worlds. Windows feels nicer as a daily driver, and can do all dev work directly in a linux environment
I'm not against running linux alone per se, but to me being able to run both Windows (with better app support, polish), and Linux at the same time is kind of the best of both worlds. Windows feels nicer as a daily driver, and can do all dev work directly in a linux environment
I am a big fan of WSL and used it extensively for a while across multiple development environments. Also like using Windows a lot and feel more productive on it than Unix based systems.
However, I started to run into a lot of issues with the file systems being a bit too commingled though, especially when using things like VSCode’s WSL integrations where you’re regularly reading/writing to the Linux file system from Windows (or vice versa).
I guess I mention this to say that I ended up putting Ubuntu on a Hyper V VM and it was a huge improvement. If you enjoy WSL, but need something a bit less integrated, I highly recommend it. Using VSCode’s remote container/host extensions work just as well (if not better for things like Docker).
However, I started to run into a lot of issues with the file systems being a bit too commingled though, especially when using things like VSCode’s WSL integrations where you’re regularly reading/writing to the Linux file system from Windows (or vice versa).
I guess I mention this to say that I ended up putting Ubuntu on a Hyper V VM and it was a huge improvement. If you enjoy WSL, but need something a bit less integrated, I highly recommend it. Using VSCode’s remote container/host extensions work just as well (if not better for things like Docker).
Hmm was this for WSL v1? The previous implementation had pretty bad filesystem performance, but I haven't had any issues with WSL2. I host an app where I write gigs of data to disk every day without any perf issues.
But WSL1 would've been super slow for the same use case
But WSL1 would've been super slow for the same use case
Keep thinking I need to use X from a Fedora box to my windows desktop. OK, now to look into that..
That assumes the kernel supports the hardware. There’s nothing more annoying than only having a left speaker work, or WiFi not working, etc
No, but there is probably some law of the universe that states if there is a thread about Windows, a neckbeard must say that some feature of Windows is the worst thing ever.
I've actually never heard anyone mention Windows windows manager because the only people in the world who care don't use Windows.
I've actually never heard anyone mention Windows windows manager because the only people in the world who care don't use Windows.
How do you figure? As someone who recently switched to Mac I found that the out of the box windows management on Windows was far superior to MacOS. I needed to install a whole bunch of third part tools to make MacOS usable.
I agree that window management is poor in vanilla macOS. But fixing this just involves choosing a single tool, e.g. Moom, Magnet, etc.
Out of curiosity, what other tools do you use?
I do find this a bit annoying, but on the other hand, it gives me some flexibility to choose the style of window management I prefer through choice of utility.
Out of curiosity, what other tools do you use?
I do find this a bit annoying, but on the other hand, it gives me some flexibility to choose the style of window management I prefer through choice of utility.
The real question is why has Apple not implemented snapping behavior after ~10 years of it being in windows? But yeah, you can achieve something similar with tooling for sure.
That’s a completely fair question, I’m just curious why the parent comment required a bunch of tools.
To be more precise, it took installing a whole bunch of tools until I found a combination that worked for me. Eventually I managed to narrow it down to two, three if you count a workable file manager. One that did windows layout and one that 'fixed' Command-Tab.
I just want tmux splits at the operating system UI framework level that works across all operating systems without any hassle. Basically i3wm for Linux, Mac, and Windows, with the same keyboard shortcuts.
I think Windows window management is better than Mac, and I use both (and Linux too) throughout every day.
Fancy Zones makes my day-to-day so much more convenient. I wish there was an equivalent in Linux that worked as well - I’ve tried a few gnome plugins but always been disappointed.
KDE has Windows-style snap-to-halves or quarters by default. If you’re happy with those basic zones, it definitely works well. I don’t know if there’s a way to configure more complex zones.
A few months ago I tried a few KDE kwin scripts.
Ultimately I went with 'Ultrawide Windows' [1], mostly because I like it better than the defaults and at the same time it is still simple to use. The Github page gives an impression of its capabilities and lists the hotkeys, but it is also available via the KDE integrated tools [2]. What I am still missing is a tool to simply define and use custom layouts.
[1] https://github.com/lucmos/UltrawideWindows/
[2] https://store.kde.org/p/1276605/
Ultimately I went with 'Ultrawide Windows' [1], mostly because I like it better than the defaults and at the same time it is still simple to use. The Github page gives an impression of its capabilities and lists the hotkeys, but it is also available via the KDE integrated tools [2]. What I am still missing is a tool to simply define and use custom layouts.
[1] https://github.com/lucmos/UltrawideWindows/
[2] https://store.kde.org/p/1276605/
I'm not aware of a more advanced built-in mode than the 8 zones (corners + sides). It's in Settings → Workspace Behaviour → Screen Edges.
There are plugins (Window Management → KWin Scripts) that add options, I see Tiling, FlexGrid, KWin QuickTile, and several more.
There are plugins (Window Management → KWin Scripts) that add options, I see Tiling, FlexGrid, KWin QuickTile, and several more.
KWin Scripts is where all the magic snapping is hiding in KDE.
I'm a huge fan of Khronkite myself, it's a quite competent tiling script that still plays nice with floating windows and all the standard KWin behaviors.
"bismuth" is an updated fork of Khronkite, which last I checked, was abandoned. (Just checked, and it has had some recent commits, though seemingly just compatibility updates so far).
KDE had it BEFORE Windows 8.1/10 copy it.
Windows 11 has snap layout feature which is very similar to fancy zones
Winery+arrows change the location/min-max of a window.
Win+shift plus arrow moves window to each monitor
Three finger swipe on track pad give you open windows as displayed on each desktop, with ability to drag window to whatever desktop.
I keep three desktops, all with a different wallpaper so I know which desktop for what.
All work windows on D1 - research - d2 - and primary app I’m using if needs full screen on d3.
The only problem is forgetting to switch desktop when you switch mental modes…. Like opening a bunch of HN links in your app desktop…
So just redraft them from whatever to wherever.
I’ll check out fancy…
—-
What I also like, is I have two external USB monitors for my laptop..
And I have a diff display layout depending on which of the additional screens I have plugged in. It remembers the location of each.
So when I have just one screen plugged in, the second is to the right.
When both are connnected: it knows that one is right and one is up above.
Win+shift plus arrow moves window to each monitor
Three finger swipe on track pad give you open windows as displayed on each desktop, with ability to drag window to whatever desktop.
I keep three desktops, all with a different wallpaper so I know which desktop for what.
All work windows on D1 - research - d2 - and primary app I’m using if needs full screen on d3.
The only problem is forgetting to switch desktop when you switch mental modes…. Like opening a bunch of HN links in your app desktop…
So just redraft them from whatever to wherever.
I’ll check out fancy…
—-
What I also like, is I have two external USB monitors for my laptop..
And I have a diff display layout depending on which of the additional screens I have plugged in. It remembers the location of each.
So when I have just one screen plugged in, the second is to the right.
When both are connnected: it knows that one is right and one is up above.
Probably not exactly what you're looking for but i3 could be worth checking out. It's a tiling window manager with a powerful customization/scripting interface and it has a feature to save and restore window layouts. There's also Sway which is similar but based on Wayland though it does not have the save/restore feature.
Granted they might not be as easy to set up as installing PowerToys on Windows if you have specific expectations. (But it's not rocket science either.)
Granted they might not be as easy to set up as installing PowerToys on Windows if you have specific expectations. (But it's not rocket science either.)
Isn't I3 terminals only? Am I just missing something?
No, i3 is a full, graphical, window manager, for graphical applications.
https://i3wm.org/
As GP said, by default, it's automatic, so there are no pre-defined "zones". But it can be scripted to do quite a lot of things.
https://i3wm.org/
As GP said, by default, it's automatic, so there are no pre-defined "zones". But it can be scripted to do quite a lot of things.
Maybe you're thinking of tmux which splits your terminal into multiple panes and can look similar.
[deleted]
Not at all. It's a tiling window manager with workspaces, for all your applications. Terminals, web browser, audio settings, etc.
Personally I run 10 workspaces, named, e.g. 1:Firefox work, 2:vim, 3:tmux+vim, 4:terminals, etc. I even have a workspace designated to "wasting time", tiled reddit, hn, youtube, etc.
Each workspace always have the same apps, tiled in the same way, so I always know where to find what. It's very efficient.
Personally I run 10 workspaces, named, e.g. 1:Firefox work, 2:vim, 3:tmux+vim, 4:terminals, etc. I even have a workspace designated to "wasting time", tiled reddit, hn, youtube, etc.
Each workspace always have the same apps, tiled in the same way, so I always know where to find what. It's very efficient.
I'm aware of i3 and I think I've tested it out in the past but had some silly nit to pick about it. Thanks for the reminder - I'll give it another try!
Imho the best approximation for gnome is pop_os Windows manager
i3/bspwm/dwm (x11) or sway (wayland). FancyZones is a poor imitation (but still worth using compared to not) of those window managers.
"How to make your Windows more like MacOS"
Hopefully Microsoft sees the writing on the wall and includes these in an update, instead of being stubborn and pretending that they have had a reason to exclude them all this time.
Hopefully Microsoft sees the writing on the wall and includes these in an update, instead of being stubborn and pretending that they have had a reason to exclude them all this time.
Do you really think that enterprise and large business (the meat and potatoes of MS money) is going to switch to Mac because it's missing some utility that 99% of users don't need?
I don't know what fuckin planet you people live on. Microsoft is a business oriented ecosystem. The fact that you can play call of duty on it is a bonus.
I don't know what fuckin planet you people live on. Microsoft is a business oriented ecosystem. The fact that you can play call of duty on it is a bonus.
Thank you for being so hostile. Amazing how triggered people get when you mention MacOS. I was referencing consumer usability, not enterprise utility.
Do they have to pay attention to it? No. Will it help improve their OS as a daily driver for non enterprise users? Sure.
Do they have to pay attention to it? No. Will it help improve their OS as a daily driver for non enterprise users? Sure.
Also no built in screen recording software, wtf? 2022
at least gifs pls
at least gifs pls
Windows has screen recording, but weirdly enough only under gaming "branding". Win + G in an app for the Game bar, record from there.
Have you tried looking it up? There literally is a built-in screen record functionality.[1]
I swear, half of negative comments here about Windows are FUD from users who either never used it longer than 5 minutes and don't bother looking stuff up.
[1] https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/how-to-video-screen-captu...
I swear, half of negative comments here about Windows are FUD from users who either never used it longer than 5 minutes and don't bother looking stuff up.
[1] https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/how-to-video-screen-captu...
IIRC I don't have any "Xbox" or gaming related stuff on my work RDP or server.
Video recording isn't gaming feature, it's the same kind of app as paint, notepad or calculator are.
Video recording isn't gaming feature, it's the same kind of app as paint, notepad or calculator are.
Just FYI, the game bar only allows you to record one app at a time, which isn’t usually what I’m trying to do.
Oddly enough, PowerPoint includes a screen recording tool that is fairly robust.
Oddly enough, PowerPoint includes a screen recording tool that is fairly robust.
At least windows explorer has some great extension utilities like File Menu Tools; a tool that can be configured to cover pretty much every file explorer extension usecase you can imagine.
OSX and XDG (Gnome etc...) based systems have nothing close last time I checked.
OSX and XDG (Gnome etc...) based systems have nothing close last time I checked.
In OS X, Automator lets you add Finder context menu options that can, among other things, trigger AppleScript actions that can, in turn, run arbitrary (command-line and GUI) programs. These actions can optionally be configured to only appear for certain file types.
Recent Finder versions relegate custom actions to a "Quick Actions" submenu by default, but you can restore an action to top-level by removing the "NSIconName" entry from the action's Info.plist in ~/Library/Services.
Recent Finder versions relegate custom actions to a "Quick Actions" submenu by default, but you can restore an action to top-level by removing the "NSIconName" entry from the action's Info.plist in ~/Library/Services.
macOS has Services, which I think are meant to serve much the same function.
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
(EDIT: I was "posting too fast". In the meantime, I think that jasomills has pointed this out (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31305652).)
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
(EDIT: I was "posting too fast". In the meantime, I think that jasomills has pointed this out (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31305652).)
Your analytical skills could use some work - that feature has been in Finder for over half a decade. It's also vastly more powerful as it can interface with AppleScript. I think they've added Shortcuts to the latest macOS release which introduces infinitely more possibilities, though admittedly I'm quite unfamiliar with this
Trollish usernames aren't allowed here, because they effectively troll every thread they post to. I've therefore banned this account. If you want to pick a different username, we can unban you.
https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
On a different note, can you please omit swipes and putdowns (like "Your analytical skills could use some work") from your HN posts? That sort of thing degrades discussion and evokes worse from others, so we're trying to avoid it here. Your comment would be just fine without that leading bit.
https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
On a different note, can you please omit swipes and putdowns (like "Your analytical skills could use some work") from your HN posts? That sort of thing degrades discussion and evokes worse from others, so we're trying to avoid it here. Your comment would be just fine without that leading bit.
This reminds me of one of my favorite features from the Mac: Quick Look — press space to instantly bring up a big contextual preview window of the selected document in the Finder.
You can bring it to Windows with this useful open source tool: https://github.com/QL-Win/QuickLook
You can bring it to Windows with this useful open source tool: https://github.com/QL-Win/QuickLook
On Linux, I use Gnome Suchi.
I've noticed that in windows 11, the file explorer shows a document preview, at least for certain documents when selected.
Yes, there are plugins for the preview pane and some are built-in. That’s very nice, but I prefer having the ability to hit space to preview because of 15 years of muscle memory doing that with macOS.
Quick look is more than just a preview, it's really a read-only view of the document. You can read entire documents and PDFs, view HTML files rendered, pan through CSVs, etc
I love that you can preview videos in their icons. Where "preview" actually means "watch the entire thing from start to finish".
Yes! Love this for Windows, there are plugins for it too, similar to the plugins for macOS. Like you, QuickLook is one of my favorite and most-used macOS features and I cannot be on a system without it.
Between this project and PowerToys, the Windows experience is a lot more enjoyable.
PowerToys Run especially (essentially Alfred or QuickSilver for Windows), is much faster and better than standard Win-S searches.
Between this project and PowerToys, the Windows experience is a lot more enjoyable.
PowerToys Run especially (essentially Alfred or QuickSilver for Windows), is much faster and better than standard Win-S searches.
Keypirahna
https://keypirinha.com/
https://keypirinha.com/
I use this all the time. While the preview window is open, you can even use keyboard arrows to move to other files (or just select them with mouse) and the preview gets updated.
You can also:
- Command-Delete to delete the current file
- Return, type a new name, and return, to rename the current file
In both cases the view will properly update.
- Command-Delete to delete the current file
- Return, type a new name, and return, to rename the current file
In both cases the view will properly update.
I have remembet that when the preview window is active, if you double click the document it will open in relavent app. It seems to gone at some point. Any idea?
It's easily forgotten now, but in the 95 and 98 eras Microsoft actually bundled a utility called Quick View [1] that added a quick preview to the context menu. It got lost in the XP transition and I have to wonder if they thought that the changes that came along with the IE-ified version of explorer.exe (image thumbnails, document previews in the sidebar) replicated enough of the functionality that it wasn't necessary anymore (they didn't).
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_View
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_View
I love Quick look on Mac OS! You can also use it within dock stacks- hover over an item in an expanded stack and press space.
PowerToys is great, in particular PowerToys Run.
I'd use PowerToys Color Picker more, but it lacks contrast ratios/accessibility information, which is where it would be most useful to me. It was suggested on their GitHub but didn't gain much traction:
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/9357
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/14454
9 times out of 10, I am getting color information to run these exact checks, so it would just save an extra step.
I'd use PowerToys Color Picker more, but it lacks contrast ratios/accessibility information, which is where it would be most useful to me. It was suggested on their GitHub but didn't gain much traction:
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/9357
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/14454
9 times out of 10, I am getting color information to run these exact checks, so it would just save an extra step.
That's a great idea. I'm sad it hasn't gained much traction yet.
I like powertoys, especially ‘fancy zones’!
But Explorer is something I stopped using more than a decade ago when I encountered TotalCommander - that I cannot do without!!!
The regex-supporting live-preview batch-filenaming utility alone is awesome.
I work so much faster (with the keyboard) than will ever possible in Explorer!
I could write for hours about the greatness of TCM, but as that’s a little off topic here I won’t :-)
But Explorer is something I stopped using more than a decade ago when I encountered TotalCommander - that I cannot do without!!!
The regex-supporting live-preview batch-filenaming utility alone is awesome.
I work so much faster (with the keyboard) than will ever possible in Explorer!
I could write for hours about the greatness of TCM, but as that’s a little off topic here I won’t :-)
I’ve totally fallen for Directory Opus. Most powerful file manager I’ve ever used, and I’ve only used a fraction of its features.
Yeah I also use it daily. itš awesome
FanzyZones is absolutely essential if you're using large monitors.
I use FancyZones as well but I get annoyed that it doesn't seem to preserve custom layouts between reboots. I have to switch to my layouts manually after every reboot. Have you experienced it too? I am curious about whether it is something on my end or not.
It has a setting to remember. If it does not it means you have a problem with display detections
FancyZones seems to forget currently selected layout every time it is updated and every time a new Windows developer preview is installed. Other than that, it should be exactly as you left it.
How 'bout FancyWM?
PowerToys has a batch rename utility that is integrated into explorer
Don't forget about its Free Software counterpart - Double Commander.
Cross-platform, feature packed, constantly updated, Lua-scriptable, supports TC plugins, written in Free Pascal.
https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io
Cross-platform, feature packed, constantly updated, Lua-scriptable, supports TC plugins, written in Free Pascal.
https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io
Yes, when I see someone using Explorer instead of Total Commander, I feel sorry for them.
There's an enhanced TC called TC UP with additional utilities:
https://www.tcup.pl/index.php/en/
There's an enhanced TC called TC UP with additional utilities:
https://www.tcup.pl/index.php/en/
I found that IT at work wouldn't let me install powertoys because they didn't like the Awake feature. Please bundle these in of allow us to install them one by one.
That’s good feedback. If you file that as an issue on GitHub, that might get more traction. I’m sure you’re not the only person in this situation.
(disclosure: former Microsoft employee (now at GitHub) who knows the PowerToys team)
(disclosure: former Microsoft employee (now at GitHub) who knows the PowerToys team)
It's sort of filed already, you can see https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/3170 and the linked issues
That's stupid, there's no way to avoid that. If you can't do it in software you can do it in hardware.
I do it when working at home with a digispark that simulates a mouse that moves a tiny bit once in a while.
You could even place the mouse on a moving surface or something.
I think in the office locking a PC is very important but in a WFH situation much less so. Especially in my case where I live alone.
I do it when working at home with a digispark that simulates a mouse that moves a tiny bit once in a while.
You could even place the mouse on a moving surface or something.
I think in the office locking a PC is very important but in a WFH situation much less so. Especially in my case where I live alone.
Agreed it's stupid, but it still remains a good idea to have a separate distribution without Awake.
I have a paper weight I lay on a rock to keep Ctrl pressed. Useful when running long running scripts in background while I'm working on another laptop
I've had environments where the system was pretty locked down, but had access to VBScript: https://gist.github.com/valdergallo/0e05d9e0c90b7be77458
I've had environments where the system was pretty locked down, but had access to VBScript: https://gist.github.com/valdergallo/0e05d9e0c90b7be77458
There's environments where you get in trouble for unauthorized USB devices. Of course, you can just have them emulate an allowed VID/PID pair and get away with it, but it will lead to a rules clarification.
For those situations, there are wobbling mouse platforms that effectively do the same thing as a plug-in USB mouse jiggler.
You don't have to plug in the mouse jiggler, it can be a separate device that hooks onto the mouse itself. The OS on the computer would never know about it since it's separate from the computer.
Considering how much energy my work laptop burns on a daily basis because of the four(!) different security products, I am curious how Awake is where they draw the line.
"Security." Awake prevents your machine from locking due to inactivity, which violates PCI regs.
Doesn't every browser also come with this feature when playing (for example) a youtube video? Seems like the horse has left the barn.
Youtube is blocked on many corporate networks.
Any video will do. I hear having an open powerpoint presentation will also keep a device awake. Presumably Microsoft office is a mandatory install on such dystopian environments.
Ah didn’t know about PowerPoint.
> dystopian environments
Some places block streaming purely because it clogs the VPNs if they route everything through the in house infra
Depends on how locked down the security setup is. The more sensitive the info the worse it is
> dystopian environments
Some places block streaming purely because it clogs the VPNs if they route everything through the in house infra
Depends on how locked down the security setup is. The more sensitive the info the worse it is
At my previous job, they locked down music streaming services like Spotify and Pandora because the company wanted to save bandwidth at the office.
But they didn't lock out YouTube, because sometimes YouTube had a business purpose. So people just switched to YouTube for listening to music, which used even more bandwidth. In protest of the ridiculousness of the no-music-streaming policy, some people even forced their YouTube to stream in 4K even when they had a 1080p monitor.
The blocking of music streaming was lifted within a couple months.
But they didn't lock out YouTube, because sometimes YouTube had a business purpose. So people just switched to YouTube for listening to music, which used even more bandwidth. In protest of the ridiculousness of the no-music-streaming policy, some people even forced their YouTube to stream in 4K even when they had a 1080p monitor.
The blocking of music streaming was lifted within a couple months.
I use PowerToys just for the easy key remapping, which I wish was a built-in feature in more keyboards. Works very nicely as a simple alternative to AutoHotKey. My RSI has gotten a lot better by just remapping Caps Lock to Ctrl.
If any PowerToys feature deserves to be added to Windows, it's gotta be the Keyboard Manager.
If any PowerToys feature deserves to be added to Windows, it's gotta be the Keyboard Manager.
Key shortcut remapping should absolutely be a base feature of every single OS for accessibility reasons.
Back when I used to use Adobe Fireworks there was a shortcut for flattening the current selection, I believe it was cmd+ctrl+shift+Z and I'm pressing this hundreds of times a week and eventually it gave me RSI.
After this happened I remapped it to cmd+F, luckily the app had the ability to do that but honestly I consider it important enough that the OS should provide it. I know a lot of windows users point to AutoHotKey but it's a horrible janky feeling hack and requires you to write actual scripts.
Back when I used to use Adobe Fireworks there was a shortcut for flattening the current selection, I believe it was cmd+ctrl+shift+Z and I'm pressing this hundreds of times a week and eventually it gave me RSI.
After this happened I remapped it to cmd+F, luckily the app had the ability to do that but honestly I consider it important enough that the OS should provide it. I know a lot of windows users point to AutoHotKey but it's a horrible janky feeling hack and requires you to write actual scripts.
100%
And it should be a global panel for all installed apps..
With a tab for each app-map, and the ability to export/import a settings file.
And it should be a global panel for all installed apps..
With a tab for each app-map, and the ability to export/import a settings file.
It is, minus the built-in import/export (but plists can be copied): https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp2262/12....
In macOS at least you can remap any key as well as keyboard shortcut (both globally and per-app) from the built in OS keyboard preferences. The only thing it requires is that the thing you want to change has a "menu item" (so a named thing in the top menu bar in any of the submenus). Hotkey mapping works by simply mapping to any of the texts in those (sub) menus, however deep you want to go. The great thing about it is the developer of the app doesn't need to do anything to allows that, and it essentially only gets broken if an app goes out of its way to be as non-native as possible (i.e. if it doesn't even use the standard libraries that ship with the OS).
I know and love this feature and have used to to remap many things across my apps.
Just frustrates me other OSes don’t match this bar that I consider the bare minimum.
Just frustrates me other OSes don’t match this bar that I consider the bare minimum.
Windows has support to remap keys built in, there's just no UI for it oddly. I think it was added in 2000?
https://www.ghacks.net/2010/06/06/the-ultimate-guide-to-keyb...
https://www.ghacks.net/2010/06/06/the-ultimate-guide-to-keyb...
I have a .reg file that I run on every new install to remap Caps-Lock to Ctrl
It’s a great feature. It doesn’t always work 100% stable though. Would love to see it put further into the OS somehow. Macos key / modifier remaps are much more stable than powertoys’.
Yeah, I've tried PowerToys a couple of times but always end up going to back to Autohotkey for this because it's just so much more consistent.
I tend to remap caps to ctrl, for instance. Sometimes this fails, meaning that suddenly, the keyboard is stuck in caps lock mode and can’t be returned to «lower caps mode». I don’t know if autohotkey can intercept caps lock?
Absolutely, that's actually what exactly what I use it for. The only time it can be a little wonky is when RDP'ing to remote servers.
#SingleInstance force
if not A_IsAdmin
Run \*RunAs "%A_ScriptFullPath%" ;
LControl::Capslock
Capslock::Control[deleted]
It still doesn’t support app-specific key remappings though (as opposed to app-specific keyboard shortcuts). This issue has been open since 2020, I’m not sure what they are waiting for: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/6756
In the meantime I’ll stick with AutoHotkey.
In the meantime I’ll stick with AutoHotkey.
This is one thing I love about Wooting keyboards. The Wootility [0] lets you drag and drop keys around your layout to remap them, and save the mappings to the keyboard itself, so the keys will stay mapped even if you move it between systems.
[0] https://next.wooting.io/wootility
[0] https://next.wooting.io/wootility
The Windows PowerToys brand name has been around for a long time! I still remember downloading them from the Microsoft website for Windows XP to add features to Windows and customize Explorer's behavior.
I remember when PowerToy was the only to get focus-follow-mouse, before you could do that in the registry. This was magic! It made Windows half usable.
These days, when IT spends so much effort to make working difficult, and castrate Windows to the the point it is unusable, I work on Mac if my customer won't allow Linux, and that has to be one of the most frustrating thing on macOS, you have to click to bring anything in focus. I swear I spend 30% of my time clicking on things just so I can type in them!
These days, when IT spends so much effort to make working difficult, and castrate Windows to the the point it is unusable, I work on Mac if my customer won't allow Linux, and that has to be one of the most frustrating thing on macOS, you have to click to bring anything in focus. I swear I spend 30% of my time clicking on things just so I can type in them!
It looks like your text-to-speech doesn't work very well either
Here is a good TTS implemented in a few lines of HTML and JavaScript: https://www.locserendipity.com/TTS.html
It wasn't text-to-speech, but me typing too fast helped by Android auto-incorrect.
Many of these things come out of the box on a Linux distro : Always on top, color picker, File explorer add-ons, keyboard manager, "mouse utilities" and "the Powertoys run" (a poor imitation of krunner could do)
Poor is exactly what it is. The converter is so broken, that a space in the wrong place will cause it to not work. IIRC something like 5m to ft works but not 5 m to ft
Related:
Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20895031 - Sept 2019 (163 comments)
PowerToys: Windows system utilities to maximize productivity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20890828 - Sept 2019 (126 comments)
PowerToys – Windows system utilities to maximize productivity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19845287 - May 2019 (29 comments)
Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20895031 - Sept 2019 (163 comments)
PowerToys: Windows system utilities to maximize productivity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20890828 - Sept 2019 (126 comments)
PowerToys – Windows system utilities to maximize productivity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19845287 - May 2019 (29 comments)
hilbert42(2)
These are great, but with some of them I cannot help but wonder why MSFT would choose not to include them in the OS by default. They seem fairly unobtrusive and like they wouldn't add too much complexity to the product in return for what you get in terms of better usability and/or additional functionality.
Of course you could argue that you always have to be very careful not to overload and bloat your software product, especially if it's an OS — but windows contains two different consoles, about three versions of the system preferences management, ..., it just doesn't seem like MSFT to be that picky about what they'll put into their product.
Of course you could argue that you always have to be very careful not to overload and bloat your software product, especially if it's an OS — but windows contains two different consoles, about three versions of the system preferences management, ..., it just doesn't seem like MSFT to be that picky about what they'll put into their product.
In a small amount of fairness, Windows only comes with one console. On Windows 10, you have to install Windows Terminal separately, and on Windows 11, Windows Terminal is the only one.
Windows 10 comes with cmd.exe and power shell, both include their own terminal emulators. Windows 11 comes with both and with windows terminal on top of it.
No, that's not right. conhost.exe is the old terminal emulator and Windows Terminal is the new one. cmd.exe and powershell are analogous to bash/zsh/etc. and can run inside either conhost.exe or Windows Terminal.
Conhost is not really a terminal emulator, except in the sense that it’s a square box to type into. It is not an emulator. Design, Architecture, implementation all completely different and gimped.
Yes good point. One of the things that annoys me most about HNers is that they think Unix is the one true OS paradigm and measure all other designs by how similar they are. And here I am doing it myself.
Our OS who art in CPU, UNIX be thy name.
Thy programs run, thy syscalls done,
in kernel as it is in user!
Give us this day our daily cycles,
And forgive us our GOTO's
As we forgive them that also use BASIC.
Lead us not into FORTRAN,
But deliver us from COBOL.
For thine is the for loop, the while and the switch
For ever and ever,
Amen.
cmd.exe and powershell do not include "terminal emulators". Pre-Windows Terminal, they (and every other console app) use conhost.exe, that comes with the system. Windows Terminal comes with openconsole.exe, that any app can use instead. In Windows 11, it can be set up as the default one.
[deleted]
Support costs. They don't help enough people to justify the problems that would pop up. The people who download Power Toys can probably take care of themselves.
support costs for a trillion dollar company, sure
if they can't do it, i know lot of people who would do it for the same salary they are getting over there at MSFT
lazy culture, how long it took them to add tabs to explorer? hmm
if they can't do it, i know lot of people who would do it for the same salary they are getting over there at MSFT
lazy culture, how long it took them to add tabs to explorer? hmm
given the approx. millions of configurations they already support, adding more is always a cost-benefit analysis.
personally if I was a developer of this I wouldn't want it anywhere near the gold release... it'd take all the fun away and you'd have to give up development to some team you haven't heard about in the next cost optimization cycle (Real Soon Now(TM))
personally if I was a developer of this I wouldn't want it anywhere near the gold release... it'd take all the fun away and you'd have to give up development to some team you haven't heard about in the next cost optimization cycle (Real Soon Now(TM))
Yup, everything you add is something that people will call about, guaranteed. And these are more complex than most things. You imagine if everyone could remap their keys? You make it free and easy to download and do Github "support".
Trillion dollar companies don't like funding their support departments any more than < million dollar companies do.
When you have a product that is marketed towards the masses, support costs can be astronomical. A not-too-small number of calls won't even be for your product.
My uncle works tech support for a major ISP. He gets at least a couple calls a day from people thinking they need to call him because their Windows PC won't turn on or some other non-Internet related issue.
And then there's the sheer number of trivial calls. Do you know how many people call Amazon because they forgot their password, rather than just using the password reset function? Or how many people call their bank to find their balance rather than checking the website? And of course, these people demand to talk to a human.
My uncle works tech support for a major ISP. He gets at least a couple calls a day from people thinking they need to call him because their Windows PC won't turn on or some other non-Internet related issue.
And then there's the sheer number of trivial calls. Do you know how many people call Amazon because they forgot their password, rather than just using the password reset function? Or how many people call their bank to find their balance rather than checking the website? And of course, these people demand to talk to a human.
PowerToys broke Zoom for me once with the new mute meeting button. I thought it was my headset being finicky. After some swapping in and out devices, googling and looking at Github issues, I had to uninstall and remove an emulated camera in the hardware manager to resolve it. I haven't reinstalled, it ain't perfect.
Fancy Zones was an inspiration for Windows 11’s Snap Layout feature, which is a bit simplified but provides many of the same benefits.
It is essentially the same thing, with FancyZones only adding the ability to enhance default presets with custom layouts - am I wrong?
FancyZones are quite more powerful, eg. you can hold shift while dragging a window to show your layound and snap that window to the layout. With 11 it's pretty much exclusively limited to "either drag a window against the side of the screen for zone hints, or hover the maximize button".
I think that on "bare" Win 11 you press Win+Z, and you see a selection of a few possible layouts that you can click and choose
[deleted]
bigger question in my mind: how did they come to be?
are they features that were planned but then abandoned?
do developers at microsoft have the autonomy to build features they personally find interesting while on the clock?
do they come from hackathon like events?
do they now all come through a dedicated team?
are they features that were planned but then abandoned?
do developers at microsoft have the autonomy to build features they personally find interesting while on the clock?
do they come from hackathon like events?
do they now all come through a dedicated team?
PowerToys is able to grow, experiment and evolve much more quickly as a standalone application because shipping something inside Windows is hard. The OS has a very long support and compatibility guarantee that makes it extremely difficult to iterate and ship features quickly. The .NET team is pretty open about how being coupled to Windows for a long time held .NET back.
Also, my understanding is that PowerToys is sort of an incubator; successful experiments may eventually make it into Windows itself.
Also, my understanding is that PowerToys is sort of an incubator; successful experiments may eventually make it into Windows itself.
Anyone have a good “Push to Talk” utility for windows?
This PowerTools has something close but not exactly what I’m looking for.
I’ve gotten used to PTT in apps like Ventrilo / Discord and hate having to constantly unmute / remute in Teams.
This PowerTools has something close but not exactly what I’m looking for.
I’ve gotten used to PTT in apps like Ventrilo / Discord and hate having to constantly unmute / remute in Teams.
Also would enjoy such feature for bugger meetings as hangout setting
I went the other way and wrote a utility that mutes my mic when I type.
Teams added something like this recently, hold down ctrl+space to temporarily unmute
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/muting-and-unmuti...
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/muting-and-unmuti...
I got a headset that mutes when I move the mic up and unmutes when I move it back down: jabra evolve2 65, comes in mono and stereo. If you want an over-ear option they have evolve2 85 but that's like $500
I found MicMute[1] has anything I want from such a tool.
[1]: https://github.com/SaifAqqad/AHK_MicMute
[1]: https://github.com/SaifAqqad/AHK_MicMute
I highly recommend the new PowerToys. It's like the old one you remember from the 2000/XP days. This article covers my thoughts pretty well; always weird to see your own thoughts echoed back to you.
A great OS Utility is Path Copy Copy (https://pathcopycopy.github.io/)
FYI, if you shift-right-click files in explorer there is a 'copy as path' option (why this is hidden by default is mysterious to me). Not nearly as useful as that utility, but good to have if you can't install extensions!
Since I so rarely see a Windows thread, perhaps folks wont mind me asking:
What utilities or code would you leverage if you had a use case to run a program on a Windows machine once a day and look for any CSV/XLS/XLSX files and then copy those to another server? (With full knowledge of the owner of said computer, they are just lacking in proficiency to do anything even as simple as connect Box Sync)
classic batchfiles scheduled via Windows Task Scheduler, use WinSCP (free)
Powershell and Task Scheduler. Are you looking in particular directories or across the whole system?
Anything in C:/ essentially, because there is no standard place to where different users keep their associated files.
SyncToy - https://filehippo.com/download_synctoy_64/
It’s not actively maintained though
It’s not actively maintained though
Thanks! Any idea if it can be customized ahead of install? Trying to walk these users through setting it up themselves would be unlikely to succeed. They can install a program, but likely not succeed in customizing what the program does.
To piggyback on the Powershell and scheduled tasks cement: robocopy and scheduled tasks so how I did this years ago for years.
Built into windows since Windows 7 iirc.
Built into windows since Windows 7 iirc.
I've used robocopy + task scheduler before actually for this use case but as far as I could tell robocopy doesn't have a way to search across directories to find files but rather just gets set up on a particular directory.
Maybe something in Powershell to find the files and then copy them into a folder which is then set up with Robocopy?
Note, I have no access to the computer itself and the users are incapable of doing much beyond downloading a .exe file and installing a program, so whatever is done has to be as close to simple as that for them.
Maybe something in Powershell to find the files and then copy them into a folder which is then set up with Robocopy?
Note, I have no access to the computer itself and the users are incapable of doing much beyond downloading a .exe file and installing a program, so whatever is done has to be as close to simple as that for them.
The Windows Task Scheduler is probably the way to go. You can create tasks that run on a variety of schedules or events. They can run a script that does what you need.
There is a PowerShell module for managing scheduled tasks. It should be possible to write a script that will create the appropriate scheduled tasks on behalf of the non-proficient user. They just need to run the PowerShell script once to get things going.
There is a PowerShell module for managing scheduled tasks. It should be possible to write a script that will create the appropriate scheduled tasks on behalf of the non-proficient user. They just need to run the PowerShell script once to get things going.
Thanks, but is there a way to do that without having access to the computer or having to try to walk the user through setting up a task in task scheduler? The users in this use case can do something as simple as download and install a .exe program, but there is no way they would manage setting something up in Task Scheduler.
I've used Task Scheduler via remote desktop (which itself was a pain to get them able to set up) to set things up for them before but that is not scalable.
I've used Task Scheduler via remote desktop (which itself was a pain to get them able to set up) to set things up for them before but that is not scalable.
Yes that is what the PowerShell module is for. You can script things like ‘New-ScheduledTask’ and give it the appropriate parameters. The only thing the user would need to do is run the script. That could create the scheduled tasks and drop the “real” scripts where the scheduled tasks can find them.
It can be helpful to send along a tuple of {PowerShell, cmd} where cmd just forwards arguments to PowerShell. That way you can run “PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass myscript.ps1 %*” and avoid the pain of changing the system-wide security policy for PowerShell scripts. (Unsigned PowerShell scripts are blocked by default).
It can be helpful to send along a tuple of {PowerShell, cmd} where cmd just forwards arguments to PowerShell. That way you can run “PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass myscript.ps1 %*” and avoid the pain of changing the system-wide security policy for PowerShell scripts. (Unsigned PowerShell scripts are blocked by default).
There are number of alternatives.
1. Just powershell in a loop working as a service 2. Task Scheduler 3. Rundeck 4. Pode
WinScp is awesome for linux, and you can use simple PowerShell remoting for windows.
1. Just powershell in a loop working as a service 2. Task Scheduler 3. Rundeck 4. Pode
WinScp is awesome for linux, and you can use simple PowerShell remoting for windows.
i'm having trouble coming up with ethical reasons to want .csv and .xlsx files from users that aren't "proficient at configuring software". A good backup solution will use deltas and do exactly this, and be preconfigured or configured-at-runtime.
If you really must, you can always write the program yourself, it sounds very easy. Deploy it with an installer that copies a link into Startup, the whole bit.
If you really must, you can always write the program yourself, it sounds very easy. Deploy it with an installer that copies a link into Startup, the whole bit.
Speaking of cool Windows utilities for SysInternals Suite is an absolute winner. ZoomIt in particular is fun to use during demos
https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/sysinternals-suite/9...
https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/sysinternals-suite/9...
If Fancy Zones is too basic for you, especially coming from Linux, you might like komorebi[1], a fully scriptable, bspwm-esque automatic tiling window manager for Windows 10+.
[1]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi
[1]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi
GlazeWM[1] and FancyWM[2] is also pretty nice, albeit not as stable as Fancyzone.
[1]: https://github.com/lars-berger/GlazeWM
[2]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/fancywm-dynamic-tiling-win...
[1]: https://github.com/lars-berger/GlazeWM
[2]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/fancywm-dynamic-tiling-win...
It’s written in .NET but historically HN isn’t keen on that kind of thing
fancyzones is great for utrawide monitors. I've been using it for years and once you create your own layouts you can snap windows to fill them with easy shortcuts (click and drag the window + hold shift), and windows will remember the layouts later and keep them.
PowerToys Run is fantastic as an app launcher. Not quite as good as Alfred on MacOS but then nothing is. There's a bunch of similar apps for Windows (I used to use Hain) but none ever worked quite right for me, PowerToys Run does though.
FancyZones is awfully nice too for just putting a window somewhere at a reasonable size and location.
As other folks have noted SysInternals is another similar rogue Windows product by Microsoft. Process Explorer from there is indispensible, as is Autoruns.
FancyZones is awfully nice too for just putting a window somewhere at a reasonable size and location.
As other folks have noted SysInternals is another similar rogue Windows product by Microsoft. Process Explorer from there is indispensible, as is Autoruns.
Alfred is one of those tools you only realise how valuable it is when you don't have it. I use it every day and really struggle without it when on Windows
I quite liked Launchy and I can recommend it. This being said, it's inexplicable to me why this particular feature isn't supported on Windows out of the box. The nearest equivalent (search feature in the Start menu) is pretty bad.
Wishlist feature for PowerToys Run
The ability to search for an application and bring those windows into focus. This is my primary way of switching between applications (except for the terminal which I have bound to Ctrl+Shift+Space). It's much easier for my brain to just type the first two letters of the app I want to focus then to remember the state of the app switch history.
The ability to search for an application and bring those windows into focus. This is my primary way of switching between applications (except for the terminal which I have bound to Ctrl+Shift+Space). It's much easier for my brain to just type the first two letters of the app I want to focus then to remember the state of the app switch history.
This works with Wox + Switcheroo plugin. Here is how it looks in action :
https://i.imgur.com/O9ubcEF.png
https://i.imgur.com/O9ubcEF.png
This is "built into" PowerToys Run. In fact, at the beginning that was all it could do.
It's now been moved into a bundled plugin named after the original app that was morphed into this: WindowWalker. I don't remember what the special character you have to type to target the plugin is because I made my installation of PowerToys Run use that plugin by default without a prefix and I disabled all the other plugins.
It's now been moved into a bundled plugin named after the original app that was morphed into this: WindowWalker. I don't remember what the special character you have to type to target the plugin is because I made my installation of PowerToys Run use that plugin by default without a prefix and I disabled all the other plugins.
As of the version I have installed (0.58) WindowWalker is included by default in the results of the PowerToys Run results. To target windows specifically the default character is `<`.
Finally, a replacement for Launchy, down to the easy calculator feature!
You know what, never mind, it's weirdly slow (1 to 2 seconds to react, doesn't intercept key shortcut early enough)
https://ueli.app/ is way better, and has incredible plugins.
https://ueli.app/ is way better, and has incredible plugins.
>but none ever worked quite right for me
Try Wox, it has built-in integration with "Everything".
Try Wox, it has built-in integration with "Everything".
PowerToys Run is Wox.[1]
1: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/run#attri...
1: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/run#attri...
Listary is pretty much the best I've encounter on Windows. Fuzzy search for all applications & files with dynamic ranking of results based on usage habit + possible customization with search engines.
When I'm on a laptop of someone else, Listary is the one that I miss so much.
I don't know why, but anything on Softpedia makes me very skeptical.
Fair warning to everyone reading this. Listary is now effectively abandonware.
The developer posted this at the end of April
Sorry to disappear for almost three years and then reappear in this way. I have so many feelings to share with Listary and especially with you, the users who have always been with Listary for the past few years. [...]
In the future, Listary will continue to focus on keeping files/applications at your fingertips and providing you with an extreme user experience.
A brand-new vision, a brand-new product, and a brand-new journey. A better Listary, hope you will like it again
-- https://discussion.listary.com/t/a-letter-to-listary-users/7... (which is actually an automated translation of the original Chinese https://discussion.listary.com/t/listary/7237)
Sorry to disappear for almost three years and then reappear in this way. I have so many feelings to share with Listary and especially with you, the users who have always been with Listary for the past few years. [...]
In the future, Listary will continue to focus on keeping files/applications at your fingertips and providing you with an extreme user experience.
A brand-new vision, a brand-new product, and a brand-new journey. A better Listary, hope you will like it again
-- https://discussion.listary.com/t/a-letter-to-listary-users/7... (which is actually an automated translation of the original Chinese https://discussion.listary.com/t/listary/7237)
GNU/Linux users may be interested in rofi [0] or the more spartan dmenu [1]
[0] https://github.com/davatorium/rofi
[1] https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/
[0] https://github.com/davatorium/rofi
[1] https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/
Wofi [2] is inspired by rofi but is Wayland native. Works very well for me with Sway.
[2] https://hg.sr.ht/~scoopta/wofi
[2] https://hg.sr.ht/~scoopta/wofi
wofi is incredibly slow with large amounts of text. Here bemenu (like dmenu) really shines.
Also Wayland native, but supports X11 and ncurses backends too.
Also Wayland native, but supports X11 and ncurses backends too.
dmenu/bemenu is definitely a good choice on Linux, I personally use 'em with i3. But I can see why some people would prefer their launcher to be in the middle of the screen.
Wofi for wayland. Among the advanced ones are krunner, ulauncher and sway-fzfify.
Never heard of Alfred before, just looked it up. Will try it out this week.
I'd used FindAndRunRobot for many years, but recently got a new laptop and was reviewing my usual list of utils and tools during the setup process. Came across Keypirinha, and it's great! I probably didn't take enough advantage of FARR's configurability before, but the same is true for KP atm - I really just use it for launching apps, not searching files or anything else. But, KP is working great for me so far and I'm happy with having switched to it.
One of the best things about Keypirinha is plugin support and PackageControl that let's you install new plugging from within Keypirinha itself.
Wow, a closed-source blob which deeply integrates with your operating system. What could go wrong..
What’s the difference between alfred and spotlight? I always yse spotlight for launcher and app switching and it’s great
In a word, extensibility.
If you are only looking to launch apps, do a few math calculations, and maybe search for files then Spotlight probably has you covered. In fact when spotlight stepped up its game I was a little worried Alfred has been Sherlocked [0] or that the developer might stop supporting it but thankfully that's not the case.
You can do a number of cool things with Alfred like creating "workflows" to create your own little mini-programs to do various actions. I know that sounds vague but that's because it's so open-ended. For example, I have a workflow for launching different versions+mods for a game I like (Factorio). I play with different sets of mods depending on how I'm feeling and so I have a workflow that I type "Factorio", then select my "Launch Factorio" workflow from the list Alfred provides, then Alfred gives me a list of my mod packs, I select one, and it launches Factorio after symlinking the mods/saves into the right place.
That example is super-custom to me but I have other that are more general-use. Like I have one for Zoom that will show me a list of zoom rooms I regularly connect to (Daily Standup, my boss, my coworker, my Bad Movie Night group, etc). At it's core it's a very simple map of "Label" -> "Zoom Link" but it's a really nice QoL improvement over launching the app, selecting the room from my recent rooms, and then clicking "Join".
Pretty much anything I find myself doing over and over, I'll create a little workflow to handle it. Even something as simple as running a single command, I've got one that runs DisplayPlacer (and must-have if you have a multi-monitor setup that you connect/disconnect from). Now I could probably wire up DisplayPlace to run automatically when my mac sees a new monitor but I'm fine running it manually. I have another to unmount all external drives, I have one that pings a coworker to ask if they are free to chat, I have one that formats the unix timestamp I drop in, I have one that can convert/format the Timezone on a date or timestamp, the list goest on.
Most all of my workflows are really just shelling out to call a script and display the result back to me and I could pop my terminal open, navigate to the right directory, and run the script but it's so much nicer to do it all in Alfred's popup UI.
Then you have the other features Alfred provides (some of which can be done with other apps of course). The main ones I use are snippets (text expansion) and clipboard history. Knowing I can always type "clip"+enter and see a list of the last 1000 things I copies has saved me more times than I can count. I encourage you to checkout the full list [1] of what Alfred can do. Also the PowerPack is worth every penny for me, I bought it years ago (Mega Supporter) and would pay full price again without a second thought.
[0] https://www.howtogeek.com/297651/what-does-it-mean-when-a-co...
[1] https://www.alfredapp.com/
If you are only looking to launch apps, do a few math calculations, and maybe search for files then Spotlight probably has you covered. In fact when spotlight stepped up its game I was a little worried Alfred has been Sherlocked [0] or that the developer might stop supporting it but thankfully that's not the case.
You can do a number of cool things with Alfred like creating "workflows" to create your own little mini-programs to do various actions. I know that sounds vague but that's because it's so open-ended. For example, I have a workflow for launching different versions+mods for a game I like (Factorio). I play with different sets of mods depending on how I'm feeling and so I have a workflow that I type "Factorio", then select my "Launch Factorio" workflow from the list Alfred provides, then Alfred gives me a list of my mod packs, I select one, and it launches Factorio after symlinking the mods/saves into the right place.
That example is super-custom to me but I have other that are more general-use. Like I have one for Zoom that will show me a list of zoom rooms I regularly connect to (Daily Standup, my boss, my coworker, my Bad Movie Night group, etc). At it's core it's a very simple map of "Label" -> "Zoom Link" but it's a really nice QoL improvement over launching the app, selecting the room from my recent rooms, and then clicking "Join".
Pretty much anything I find myself doing over and over, I'll create a little workflow to handle it. Even something as simple as running a single command, I've got one that runs DisplayPlacer (and must-have if you have a multi-monitor setup that you connect/disconnect from). Now I could probably wire up DisplayPlace to run automatically when my mac sees a new monitor but I'm fine running it manually. I have another to unmount all external drives, I have one that pings a coworker to ask if they are free to chat, I have one that formats the unix timestamp I drop in, I have one that can convert/format the Timezone on a date or timestamp, the list goest on.
Most all of my workflows are really just shelling out to call a script and display the result back to me and I could pop my terminal open, navigate to the right directory, and run the script but it's so much nicer to do it all in Alfred's popup UI.
Then you have the other features Alfred provides (some of which can be done with other apps of course). The main ones I use are snippets (text expansion) and clipboard history. Knowing I can always type "clip"+enter and see a list of the last 1000 things I copies has saved me more times than I can count. I encourage you to checkout the full list [1] of what Alfred can do. Also the PowerPack is worth every penny for me, I bought it years ago (Mega Supporter) and would pay full price again without a second thought.
[0] https://www.howtogeek.com/297651/what-does-it-mean-when-a-co...
[1] https://www.alfredapp.com/
[deleted]
I use Alfred and am keen to use it better. But when I look for Ross online I don’t find much. Are there any resources you can recommend?
When I still used Windows, my favorite app launcher was voidtools Everything
It's one of the reasons I stay on Windows. I haven't found a Linux tool that works as well for file indexing.
[deleted]
I've made do with
find ~ > ~/index/home.txt ; find / > ~/index/root.txtSo, you never try any Linux in 20 years ? Linux launchers had better file indexing in any metric before that Windows did it.
Nothing beats Everything. Seriously.
When I changed to Linux 6 years ago I have to be more mindful of where I put my files, because on Windows Everything works extremely well.
(I am talking about 5M+ files on disk)
When I changed to Linux 6 years ago I have to be more mindful of where I put my files, because on Windows Everything works extremely well.
(I am talking about 5M+ files on disk)
I'm always mindful about where I put my files, whatever the operating system.
It can be hard for Linux fans to admit when anything on Windows is better, but Voidtools's Everything is one. I've used (and still use) most file indexing and search tools in Linux, and Everything is just categorically better. Aside from the search being just straight up faster, the UI being faster, and the setup and configuration being absolutely painless, the killer app of Everything is that because of the way NTFS has a service announcing file changes any new/deleted/modify file is instantly re-indexed, across any disk, whereas inotify in Linux has many, many limitations in that regard.
While I've got the conch another thing that Windows does much better than Linux is Remote Desktop access.
While I've got the conch another thing that Windows does much better than Linux is Remote Desktop access.
What does PowerToys Run do that the standard WIN+R run dialog doesn't? Or just hitting the WIN key to get the search dialog?
I'm kind of a power user, since the C64 and DOS 3.3 days, and I find that Windows' current built-in stuff always works well for me. Never seen a need for a separate launcher app.
Also wonder about that FancyZones. I love how easily Windows makes basic window and desktop management - shortcuts like WIN+[arrow key] or WIN+TAB or CTRL+WIN+[arrow key] that let you move windows around, snap them, tile them, divide the screen between two, switch to another desktop, etc. All those basic functions which if you have MacOS, for some reason you need to buy separate apps just to get that basic functionality. Haven't ever felt a need for a separate app for that either.
I'm kind of a power user, since the C64 and DOS 3.3 days, and I find that Windows' current built-in stuff always works well for me. Never seen a need for a separate launcher app.
Also wonder about that FancyZones. I love how easily Windows makes basic window and desktop management - shortcuts like WIN+[arrow key] or WIN+TAB or CTRL+WIN+[arrow key] that let you move windows around, snap them, tile them, divide the screen between two, switch to another desktop, etc. All those basic functions which if you have MacOS, for some reason you need to buy separate apps just to get that basic functionality. Haven't ever felt a need for a separate app for that either.
The thing that Alfred does that the various methods of launching an app don't do is that it switches to an already-running app.
If I've got Outlook open I don't want another Outlook open. Why would I want that? I want to go to the version of Outlook that I already have running! This renders a 'launcher' pointless. I only 'launch' Outlook once a day.
I've yet to find – and I stopped looking a while back, because I stopped using the OS – a Windows 'application launcher' that does this. If Win+R does this then you've just blown my mind, but I don't think it does.
Is this a result of the way that Windows and Mac treat running apps differently? I only ever have one instance of Safari.app running, for example. That isn't the case on Windows, so how would a 'switcher' know which instance to pick?
If I've got Outlook open I don't want another Outlook open. Why would I want that? I want to go to the version of Outlook that I already have running! This renders a 'launcher' pointless. I only 'launch' Outlook once a day.
I've yet to find – and I stopped looking a while back, because I stopped using the OS – a Windows 'application launcher' that does this. If Win+R does this then you've just blown my mind, but I don't think it does.
Is this a result of the way that Windows and Mac treat running apps differently? I only ever have one instance of Safari.app running, for example. That isn't the case on Windows, so how would a 'switcher' know which instance to pick?
You want to switch to an already running app? Alt tab or win tab doesnt do that?
It does, but I want to do it with an Alfred-like switcher.
The problem with *-tab is that each application has no fixed place in that space. So on every invocation I have to look, find, switch.
Contrast with bringing up Mail using Alfred. The behaviour is always the same, and therefore muscle-memory-learnable: Cmd+space, ma, return. Messages: Cmd+space, me, return. Near-instant for me because I've done it literally thousands of times.
The problem with *-tab is that each application has no fixed place in that space. So on every invocation I have to look, find, switch.
Contrast with bringing up Mail using Alfred. The behaviour is always the same, and therefore muscle-memory-learnable: Cmd+space, ma, return. Messages: Cmd+space, me, return. Near-instant for me because I've done it literally thousands of times.
> The problem with *-tab is that each application has no fixed place in that space.
BTW Win+1 to Win+9 will switch to the first 9 pinned items in taskbar. If there isn’t an available window it will open one. I have Outlook pinned as the 4th item on my taskbar so navigating to it is always Win+4.
BTW Win+1 to Win+9 will switch to the first 9 pinned items in taskbar. If there isn’t an available window it will open one. I have Outlook pinned as the 4th item on my taskbar so navigating to it is always Win+4.
I wrote a bash script for this and binded it to some key commands in Linux Mint. Winkey+T will launch a terminal if nothing is open, or cycle through terminals if there are any open. I have other keys for other programs. I'm relatively new to Mac, looks like I need to check out Alfred.
PowerToys Run will search for the currently selected tab title on each browser window. If you had ten browser windows open & one of them was on Hacker News, typing Hacker News would allow you to switch to it.
In regards to the parent comment, one improvement of Fancy Zones is with multiple monitor setups of various resolutions & horizontal/portrait modes.
A few more favorites, there is now a pin window to top of screen so you can keep something always on top of other windows. What is extra nice, is if you use multiple virtual desktops, it stays on the virtual desktop. They've also added some nice mute mic & camera keyboard shortcuts.
In regards to the parent comment, one improvement of Fancy Zones is with multiple monitor setups of various resolutions & horizontal/portrait modes.
A few more favorites, there is now a pin window to top of screen so you can keep something always on top of other windows. What is extra nice, is if you use multiple virtual desktops, it stays on the virtual desktop. They've also added some nice mute mic & camera keyboard shortcuts.
> What does PowerToys Run do that the standard WIN+R run dialog doesn't? Or just hitting the WIN key to get the search dialog?
It's more reliable and predictable. The standard windows search often prioritizes online searches vs searching through your files. Even when I type in math, sometimes it gives me bing results instead of just solving the math. Especially for subtractions.
Having online searches in the start menu is cool, but I want that 15% of the time I search, Not 80%.
It's more reliable and predictable. The standard windows search often prioritizes online searches vs searching through your files. Even when I type in math, sometimes it gives me bing results instead of just solving the math. Especially for subtractions.
Having online searches in the start menu is cool, but I want that 15% of the time I search, Not 80%.
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About FancyZones, the nice thing about it is that you can define the zones where Windows will snap the windows to using the WIN+[arrow key] short cut. I'm especially loving this app when using it on my 4K monitor, as this is where the zones really come in handy. I'm pretty much only using FancyZones.
For Run some or the the reasons I have it installed everywhere are:
> What does PowerToys Run do that the standard WIN+R run dialog doesn't?
-- Autocomplete
-- Search files, settings, services, the registy and more (all of these can be enabled, disabled or assigned to a shortcut e.g. settings is $ for me)
-- Open windows terminal with specific shell
-- Walk open windows, allow you to search currently open applications and browsers
> Or just hitting the WIN key to get the search dialog?
-- Not constantly try and open Bing and/or Edge
> What does PowerToys Run do that the standard WIN+R run dialog doesn't?
-- Autocomplete
-- Search files, settings, services, the registy and more (all of these can be enabled, disabled or assigned to a shortcut e.g. settings is $ for me)
-- Open windows terminal with specific shell
-- Walk open windows, allow you to search currently open applications and browsers
> Or just hitting the WIN key to get the search dialog?
-- Not constantly try and open Bing and/or Edge
While I agree with the concept of PowerToys Run, it does not work as intended for me. Tried on multiple systems. The first time I manifest it, using the designated keyboard shortcut, it does not allow me to input any characters. I have to call it twice.
Windows 11 has some features of FancyZones built in (just hover the mouse over the maximize icon of any window and it'll let you pick a layout and location)
If you're looking for a lightweight, non indexed launcher (ie, needs to be configured with names and paths), I can't recommend SlickRun enough. It uses incredibly few resources, and can display free memory, etc.
Maybe not as lightweight, but I can't imagine myself using windows without Keypirinha anymore.
The Sysinternals suite is incredible; acquiring Sysinternals and maintaining the tools is one of the best things the Windows team has ever done.
I don't love everything about Windows these days, and I've mostly switched away from it. But Process Explorer and Process Monitor are a lovely reminder that it's still a powerful OS, and tools don't have to be text-first to cater to power users.
I don't love everything about Windows these days, and I've mostly switched away from it. But Process Explorer and Process Monitor are a lovely reminder that it's still a powerful OS, and tools don't have to be text-first to cater to power users.
Amiga, Atari ST and Mac OS pre-OS X were similar in that tools don't have to be text-first to cater to power users.
Buying Sysinternals is how Mark Russinovich started working at Microsoft, right? He's the CTO of Azure now!
I use Launchy in Windows, and Ulauncher for Linux. They're both as good and extendable as Alfred.
I was also a long time user with Launchy but switched to PowerToys due to it's being inactive for years. There is LaunchyQt [0] but I haven't tried it.
[0] https://github.com/samsonwang/LaunchyQt/
[0] https://github.com/samsonwang/LaunchyQt/
I use the window zoning thing all the time to center windows at less than full width on my ultra wide screen.
Worth installing just for the image resizer
Try IrfanView it has a very powerful batch feature (the UI looks like it was designed by a programmer though)
https://www.irfanview.net/tutorials/bartosz_makuch2/images/i...
https://www.irfanview.net/tutorials/bartosz_makuch2/images/i...
I literally have a AutoHotkey script to make windows to stay always on top. This is great!
My favorite tool in this is PowerRename
If you are in the market for alternatives, I highly recommend Process Hacker in lieu of the powertoys version.
I've been waiting for the feature that I could move focus between window with keyboard in fancyzone. It would be the last stroke for a beautiful product.
https://fluentsearch.net/ fluentsearch is way more powerful than powertoy run. It replaced my need for Listary as well. The author is an Microsoft engineer and have frequently updated the app based on the community feedback. If fluent search replaced powertoy run and be part of the powertoy, it will be perfect.
The new best launcher app for mac is raycast.app by miles though.
Alfred was king but no more
Alfred was king but no more
I run it all the time on Windows 11. FancyZones are great for ultrawide monitor use. Would definitely recommend it.
One thing that I really miss on my Windows machine that I took for granted on my MacBook- system-wide dark theme. The Windows 11 dark theme is terrible. 90% of ui windows are still pure white (and blinding late at night). Browsers don’t seem to pick up on it, so websites don’t either.
Is there any reliable way to get a real dark mode on Windows 11?
On my MacBook, one hotkey changes every app, native window, and (modern) website (with system dark theme support) to dark mode. I only wish Darkreader would add a system theme event listener so I wouldn’t have to turn it on manually.
Is there any reliable way to get a real dark mode on Windows 11?
On my MacBook, one hotkey changes every app, native window, and (modern) website (with system dark theme support) to dark mode. I only wish Darkreader would add a system theme event listener so I wouldn’t have to turn it on manually.
Good question. As a workaround you can always enable the yellowifying Night Light mode and crank it up.
It doesn't do what I know you want (I'm not on Mac however i.e. Samsung's Edge has that amazing "make the sites NOT white" Dark Mode feature, which I love and imagine to be similar), yet it will stop the retina burning at least.
(More applicable on desktops where software control of monitor brightness isn't really a thing that I've seen).
It doesn't do what I know you want (I'm not on Mac however i.e. Samsung's Edge has that amazing "make the sites NOT white" Dark Mode feature, which I love and imagine to be similar), yet it will stop the retina burning at least.
(More applicable on desktops where software control of monitor brightness isn't really a thing that I've seen).
Give high contrast mode a try, when enabled it will force native UI and websites to look nearly the same.
Should be available under Setting app -> Accessibility -> Vision -> Contrast theme
Should be available under Setting app -> Accessibility -> Vision -> Contrast theme
If you want to go beyond Power Toys, take a look at TC UP:
https://www.tcup.pl/index.php/en/
https://www.tcup.pl/index.php/en/
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If you use multiple screens and your mouse gets stuck in the corners, I recommend https://github.com/MouseUnSnag/MouseUnSnag
I find it funny when Microsoft says we love open source and their open source projects are a calculator and a utility tool. This is the same for almost any big company.
This is just wrong. I'm just dropping the two biggest ones:
https://github.com/dotnet/
https://github.com/microsoft/
What part of vscode you don't consider OSS, for example?
https://github.com/dotnet/
https://github.com/microsoft/
What part of vscode you don't consider OSS, for example?
The remote ssh/container stuff is closed, as is Pylance.
PowerToys is fantastic. So many great utilities. Another MS tool that I love is Microsoft Garage Mouse Without Borders. Someone mentioned it here on HN once, and I now use it all the time. Such a simple tool to use one mouse/keyboard across 2 or more computers. It works amazingly well!
I opened the site in a new tab, and when i opened the tab, there was a popup asking me for my first and last name and an email address to sign-up (for something?) + of course a captcha.
I never visited your webpage before, I didn't even get to read the article, why the hell are you asking me to give you my personal data and subcribe to some spammy emails?
I never visited your webpage before, I didn't even get to read the article, why the hell are you asking me to give you my personal data and subcribe to some spammy emails?
Yes, I've got this too https://imgur.com/a/ZxClPqQ
It's odd that it tells nothing about why?
How about a link to the PowerToys: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/
Whatever OS/machine I'm on one of the first things I do is map the Caps Lock key to nothing. PowerToys requires you to map it to something, though, so it gets to be Left Shift. Either way, no shouting.
It's a while that I have no doubt Linux desktop is ahead of Windows. Both stability and features.