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PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

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Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#132
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

> 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 liv…

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#133
post #97

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…

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

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#134
post #115

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 produc…

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#135
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)

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#136

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.

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.)

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#137

Quoted post unavailable.

What browser and version are you using?

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#138

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

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#140

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)
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