[HN Gopher] PowerToys - open-source Windows utilities ___________________________________________________________________ PowerToys - open-source Windows utilities Author : thunderbong Score : 419 points Date : 2022-05-08 15:12 UTC (7 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.fourth-wall.co.uk) (TXT) w3m dump (www.fourth-wall.co.uk) | bsnnkv wrote: | 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 | fleaaa wrote: | 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... | Timothycquinn wrote: | 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. | jasomill wrote: | 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. | JadeNB wrote: | 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).) | jimnotgym wrote: | Worth installing just for the image resizer | yread wrote: | 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... | LegitShady wrote: | 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. | doomlaser wrote: | 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 | jjeaff wrote: | I've noticed that in windows 11, the file explorer shows a | document preview, at least for certain documents when selected. | bobbylarrybobby wrote: | 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 | filmgirlcw wrote: | 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. | filmgirlcw wrote: | 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. | Geezus-42 wrote: | Keypirahna | | https://keypirinha.com/ | mixmastamyk wrote: | Fish or cocktail? | s1291 wrote: | On Linux, I use Gnome Suchi. | jiripospisil wrote: | 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. | dtgriscom wrote: | 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. | wildrhythms wrote: | 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. | benjaminpv wrote: | 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 | umutcnkus wrote: | 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? | maleldil wrote: | That's if you're using Finder's embedded preview on Columns | mode. If you're using Spacebar to preview, there will be a | button on the top right corner to open in the relevant app. | umutcnkus wrote: | Actually I'm almost sure that was working with both options | before. Weird. Thanks anyway! | stjohnswarts wrote: | If you are in the market for alternatives, I highly recommend | Process Hacker in lieu of the powertoys version. | DiabloD3 wrote: | 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. | apson wrote: | I literally have a AutoHotkey script to make windows to stay | always on top. This is great! | Zardoz84 wrote: | 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) | stardenburden wrote: | 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 | k__ wrote: | I'm using fancy zones. | | Without it, Windows would be a nightmare to use on a 45" display. | zeeZ wrote: | Fancy zones and the double Ctrl to find the cursor are pretty | much essential for me on an ultrawide. | Someone1234 wrote: | 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. | tveyben wrote: | 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 :-) | anilakar wrote: | FanzyZones is absolutely essential if you're using large | monitors. | dr_kiszonka wrote: | 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. | anilakar wrote: | 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. | di4na wrote: | It has a setting to remember. If it does not it means you | have a problem with display detections | jpeter wrote: | PowerToys has a batch rename utility that is integrated into | explorer | ZoomZoomZoom wrote: | 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 | ApostleMatthew wrote: | 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. | iamkroot wrote: | Wait, is this an official MS utility? | | https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/ | | Why aren't these just bundled by default?? | AmVess wrote: | 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. | thrwyoilarticle wrote: | A lot of these things seem like they could cause extreme | confusion for a low-ability user. | slantyyz wrote: | 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. | judge2020 wrote: | 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... | das_keyboard wrote: | 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. | 13of40 wrote: | 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. | filmgirlcw wrote: | 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. | no_time wrote: | 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. | gjvc wrote: | win2k was peak windows; all it needed was 64-bit support and | cleartype | spookthesunset wrote: | And support for high DPI displays, and Bluetooth, and | modern Wi-Fi, and probably a bunch of other stuff I'm | forgetting! | lwkl wrote: | PowerShell, BitLocker, SSH, WinRM, Appx and msix and MDM | integration come to mind. I don't want to go back to the | days where managing Windows meant clicking around in | GUIs. | gjvc wrote: | my win32 needs are more modest than yours :-) | [deleted] | dang wrote: | 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) | Timothycquinn wrote: | A great OS Utility is Path Copy Copy | (https://pathcopycopy.github.io/) | kevingadd wrote: | 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! | texaslonghorn5 wrote: | > 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. | zamadatix wrote: | 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). | drdec wrote: | That wouldn't stop them from shipping it by default. | filmgirlcw wrote: | 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) | texaslonghorn5 wrote: | Good to know, thanks for your insight! | lhoff wrote: | 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 | azalemeth wrote: | 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. | [deleted] | gmueckl wrote: | 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. | nickjj wrote: | 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. | Forge36 wrote: | Is that a Windows feature? I know Intel's graphics driver | does Ctrl+alt arrow. | | It can be turned off. | tveyben wrote: | It it's the default config - thus 99% will have it | enabled... | frutiger wrote: | > The crazy thing is it's happened 4 times now. | | So it should be back to normal! | tveyben wrote: | Spot on !!!! | hnlmorg wrote: | 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. | transcriptase wrote: | 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. | com2kid wrote: | 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! | kevingadd wrote: | 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. | drittich wrote: | 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. | HWR_14 wrote: | 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. | megaman821 wrote: | 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 | dukeofdoom wrote: | Do you know of one for ImageResizer? | megaman821 wrote: | For Mac; select the images you want, right-click, select | tools, adjust size. | maleldil wrote: | * 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. | Spooky23 wrote: | 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". | philliphaydon wrote: | Considering the 2nd most used desktop OS is MacOS and you can't | even maximise a window properly out of the box... | tveyben wrote: | Did you try to Alt-click on the green button? | maleldil wrote: | 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. | philliphaydon wrote: | It's the same feature. Zoom. As it's called in MacOS. And | it resizes vertically only most of the time. | foobarchu wrote: | 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. | [deleted] | skeletal88 wrote: | 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. | spookthesunset wrote: | 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... | dvtrn wrote: | > 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 | philliphaydon wrote: | 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. | Wowfunhappy wrote: | 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... | ziml77 wrote: | 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. | na85 wrote: | 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. | Wowfunhappy wrote: | 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? | servercobra wrote: | 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. | Wowfunhappy wrote: | 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. | na85 wrote: | > 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. | Wowfunhappy wrote: | > 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. | na85 wrote: | >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. | Wowfunhappy wrote: | 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. | krono wrote: | 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. | JadeNB wrote: | > 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). | Wowfunhappy wrote: | 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. | bubbab wrote: | 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. | [deleted] | layer8 wrote: | 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. | whywhywhywhy wrote: | 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. | samstave wrote: | 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. | oneplane wrote: | It is, minus the built-in import/export (but plists can be | copied): https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac- | help/mchlp2262/12.... | joe_guy wrote: | 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... | oneplane wrote: | 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). | pletnes wrote: | 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'. | billybrocas wrote: | NelsonMinar wrote: | 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. | tbezman wrote: | 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. | moogly wrote: | 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. | artimaeis wrote: | 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 `<`. | mariusmg wrote: | This works with Wox + Switcheroo plugin. Here is how it looks | in action : | | https://i.imgur.com/O9ubcEF.png | afterburner wrote: | Finally, a replacement for Launchy, down to the easy calculator | feature! | joaoco wrote: | 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 | mariusmg wrote: | >but none ever worked quite right for me | | Try Wox, it has built-in integration with "Everything". | sascha_sl wrote: | PowerToys Run is Wox.[1] | | 1: https://docs.microsoft.com/en- | us/windows/powertoys/run#attri... | V-2 wrote: | 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. | 1vonzhang wrote: | 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. | Geezus-42 wrote: | https://keypirinha.com/ | acemarke wrote: | 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. | Liquix wrote: | 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/ | skirmish wrote: | Wofi [2] is inspired by rofi but is Wayland native. Works | very well for me with Sway. | | [2] https://hg.sr.ht/~scoopta/wofi | robertwt7 wrote: | What's the difference between alfred and spotlight? I always | yse spotlight for launcher and app switching and it's great | asimpleusecase wrote: | Never heard of Alfred before, just looked it up. Will try it | out this week. | hilbert42 wrote: | randomhedgehog wrote: | What browser and version are you using? | hilbert42 wrote: | Lightning 5.1.0 with JS enabled and no other 'nasties' in | place (no browser spoofing etc.) on Android 7. | | Its fork SmartCookieWeb evokes the same reaction. There are 5 | different browsers on this phone including two of those | suggested, (Firefox and Chrome) but I wouldn't even bother | trying them on this site on principle. | [deleted] | thisismyswamp wrote: | I use the window zoning thing all the time to center windows at | less than full width on my ultra wide screen. | Slikey wrote: | Isn't it ironic that the operating system called "Windows" offers | one of the worst window management user experiences? | [deleted] | Deltitt wrote: | 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. | megaman821 wrote: | Windows does have multiple desktops. Win+Tab to add and move | between them. | Deltitt wrote: | Wow never seen this. | | Tx :D | InvaderFizz wrote: | 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 | readams wrote: | Windows does have multiple desktops. It was new in win10 I | believe. | adam_arthur wrote: | 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 | Zardoz84 wrote: | Simply try a native Linux install. You will find far better | that "our way or the highway" behavior of Windows and OSX . | withinboredom wrote: | That assumes the kernel supports the hardware. There's | nothing more annoying than only having a left speaker work, | or WiFi not working, etc | adam_arthur wrote: | 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 | xen2xen1 wrote: | Keep thinking I need to use X from a Fedora box to my | windows desktop. OK, now to look into that.. | bladegash wrote: | 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). | adam_arthur wrote: | 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 | alar44 wrote: | 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. | dagw wrote: | 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. | haswell wrote: | 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. | adam_arthur wrote: | 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. | haswell wrote: | That's a completely fair question, I'm just curious why | the parent comment required a bunch of tools. | mdavis6890 wrote: | I think Windows window management is better than Mac, and I use | both (and Linux too) throughout every day. | pizza wrote: | 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. | ChuckNorris89 wrote: | 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. | sascha_sl wrote: | 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. | adam_arthur wrote: | 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? | sascha_sl wrote: | "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. | coderintherye wrote: | 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) | 616c wrote: | 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. | coderintherye wrote: | 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. | majkinetor wrote: | 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. | greatpnwfood1 wrote: | classic batchfiles scheduled via Windows Task Scheduler, use | WinSCP (free) | cshokie wrote: | 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. | coderintherye wrote: | 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. | cshokie wrote: | 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). | eightysixfour wrote: | Powershell and Task Scheduler. Are you looking in particular | directories or across the whole system? | coderintherye wrote: | Anything in C:/ essentially, because there is no standard | place to where different users keep their associated files. | mandeepj wrote: | SyncToy - https://filehippo.com/download_synctoy_64/ | | It's not actively maintained though | coderintherye wrote: | 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. | fleaaa wrote: | 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. | octagons wrote: | 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. | samstave wrote: | 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. | Jenk wrote: | i3/bspwm/dwm (x11) or sway (wayland). FancyZones is a poor | imitation (but still worth using compared to not) of those | window managers. | loeg wrote: | 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. | Zardoz84 wrote: | KDE had it BEFORE Windows 8.1/10 copy it. | arendtio wrote: | 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/ | Symbiote wrote: | 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. | indymike wrote: | KWin Scripts is where all the magic snapping is hiding in | KDE. | t0astbread wrote: | 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.) | xen2xen1 wrote: | Isn't I3 terminals only? Am I just missing something? | t0astbread wrote: | Maybe you're thinking of tmux which splits your terminal | into multiple panes and can look similar. | vladvasiliu wrote: | 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. | desi_ninja wrote: | Windows 11 has snap layout feature which is very similar to | fancy zones | di4na wrote: | Imho the best approximation for gnome is pop_os Windows manager | tough wrote: | The new best launcher app for mac is raycast.app by miles though. | | Alfred was king but no more | claimred wrote: | 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... | bschne wrote: | 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. | a-dub wrote: | 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? | [deleted] | NoahKAndrews wrote: | 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. | nrabulinski wrote: | 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. | legalcorrection wrote: | 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. | mixmastamyk wrote: | 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. | legalcorrection wrote: | 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. | vetinari wrote: | 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] | fassssst wrote: | Fancy Zones was an inspiration for Windows 11's Snap Layout | feature, which is a bit simplified but provides many of the | same benefits. | V-2 wrote: | It is essentially the same thing, with FancyZones only adding | the ability to enhance default presets with custom layouts - | am I wrong? | judge2020 wrote: | 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". | xen2xen1 wrote: | 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. | Shadonototra wrote: | 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 | baq wrote: | 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)) | xen2xen1 wrote: | 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". | RajT88 wrote: | Trillion dollar companies don't like funding their support | departments any more than < million dollar companies do. | status200 wrote: | "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. | alar44 wrote: | 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. | status200 wrote: | 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. | tester756 wrote: | Also no built in screen recording software, wtf? 2022 | | at least gifs pls | detaro wrote: | Windows has screen recording, but weirdly enough only under | gaming "branding". Win + G in an app for the Game bar, record | from there. | ChuckNorris89 wrote: | 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... | tester756 wrote: | 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. | drakenot wrote: | 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. | 369548684892826 wrote: | Teams added something like this recently, hold down ctrl+space | to temporarily unmute | | https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/muting-and-unmuti... | dalex00 wrote: | Also would enjoy such feature for bugger meetings as hangout | setting | drittich wrote: | I went the other way and wrote a utility that mutes my mic when | I type. | jcrben wrote: | 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. | GekkePrutser wrote: | 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. | lifthrasiir wrote: | Agreed it's stupid, but it still remains a good idea to have | a separate distribution without Awake. | R0b0t1 wrote: | 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. | cercatrova wrote: | 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. | slantyyz wrote: | For those situations, there are wobbling mouse platforms | that effectively do the same thing as a plug-in USB mouse | jiggler. | __s wrote: | 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 | 5d8767c68926 wrote: | filmgirlcw wrote: | 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) | jcrben wrote: | It's sort of filed already, you can see | https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/3170 and the | linked issues | StarlaAtNight wrote: | My favorite tool in this is PowerRename | nayuki wrote: | 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. | lloydatkinson wrote: | It's written in .NET but historically HN isn't keen on that kind | of thing | GrantsUsername wrote: | I run it all the time on Windows 11. FancyZones are great for | ultrawide monitor use. Would definitely recommend it. | iconhacker wrote: | 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. | dorfsmay wrote: | 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! | bityard wrote: | It looks like your text-to-speech doesn't work very well either | westcort wrote: | Here is a good TTS implemented in a few lines of HTML and | JavaScript: https://www.locserendipity.com/TTS.html | dorfsmay wrote: | It wasn't text-to-speech, but me typing too fast helped by | Android auto-incorrect. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-05-08 23:00 UTC)