PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities • Hacker News Board

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#261

Post by erikbye » Mon, May 09, 2022, 12:57 AM UTC

Liquix wrote: post #216

NelsonMinar wrote: post #164

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…

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/

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#262

Post by erikbye » Mon, May 09, 2022, 12:58 AM UTC

NelsonMinar wrote: post #164

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…

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#263

Post by erikbye » Mon, May 09, 2022, 1:02 AM UTC

1vonzhang wrote: post #209

NelsonMinar wrote: post #164

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…

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#264

Post by erikbye » Mon, May 09, 2022, 1:05 AM UTC

anilakar wrote: post #150

tveyben wrote: 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.

How 'bout FancyWM?

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#265

Post by erikbye » Mon, May 09, 2022, 1:10 AM UTC

xen2xen1 wrote: post #208

t0astbread wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 specif…

Isn't I3 terminals only? Am I just missing something?

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#266

Post by marticode » Mon, May 09, 2022, 1:28 AM UTC

NelsonMinar wrote: post #164

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…

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)

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#267

Post by fuzzzerd » Mon, May 09, 2022, 1:29 AM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #47

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 ex…

That's a great idea. I'm sad it hasn't gained much traction yet.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#268

Post by DHPersonal » Mon, May 09, 2022, 1:30 AM UTC

maleldil wrote: post #178

tveyben wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you try to Alt-click on the green button?

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.

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#269

Post by efreak » Mon, May 09, 2022, 1:56 AM UTC

NelsonMinar wrote: post #164

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…

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.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#270

Post by mattferderer » Mon, May 09, 2022, 2:00 AM UTC

jen729w wrote: post #251

Falkon1313 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 l…

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 sto…

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.