91–100 of 336 posts
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.
> 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.
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)
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!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 anythin…
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.
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 co…
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.
Isn't it ironic that the operating system called "Windows" offers one of the worst window management user experiences?
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.
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.