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PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

fourth-wall.co.uk

141–150 of 336 posts

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#141

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)

Powershell and Task Scheduler. Are you looking in particular directories or across the whole system?

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#142

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)

SyncToy - https://filehippo.com/download_synctoy_64/

It’s not actively maintained though

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#143
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…

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#145

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)

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#146
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…

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

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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))

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#148
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#149
post #5

Wait, is this an official MS utility? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/ Why aren't these just bundled by default??

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#150
post #48

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…

FanzyZones is absolutely essential if you're using large monitors.
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