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PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

fourth-wall.co.uk

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Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#311

Post by knighthack »

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…

I use Launchy in Windows, and Ulauncher for Linux. They're both as good and extendable as Alfred.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#312

Post by hulitu »

legalcorrection wrote: post #192
mixmastamyk wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

Our OS who art in CPU, UNIX be thy name. Thy programs run, thy syscalls done, in kernel as it is in user! Give us this day our daily cycles, And forgive us our GOTO's As we forgive them that also use BASIC. Lead us not into FORTRAN, But deliver us from COBOL. For thine is the for loop, the while and the switch For ever and ever, Amen.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#313

Post by pletnes »

PsylentKnight wrote: post #247
pletnes wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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’.

Yeah, I've tried PowerToys a couple of times but always end up going to back to Autohotkey for this because it's just so much more consistent.

I tend to remap caps to ctrl, for instance. Sometimes this fails, meaning that suddenly, the keyboard is stuck in caps lock mode and can’t be returned to «lower caps mode». I don’t know if autohotkey can intercept caps lock?

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#314

Post by gokhan »

corderop wrote: post #309

I find it funny when Microsoft says we love open source and their open source projects are a calculator and a utility tool. This is the same for almost any big company.

This is just wrong. I'm just dropping the two biggest ones:

https://github.com/dotnet/

https://github.com/microsoft/

What part of vscode you don't consider OSS, for example?

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#315

Post by robscallsign »

Zardoz84 wrote: post #288
RachelF wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one of the reasons I stay on Windows. I haven't found a Linux tool that works as well for file indexing.

So, you never try any Linux in 20 years ? Linux launchers had better file indexing in any metric before that Windows did it.

It can be hard for Linux fans to admit when anything on Windows is better, but Voidtools's Everything is one. I've used (and still use) most file indexing and search tools in Linux, and Everything is just categorically better. Aside from the search being just straight up faster, the UI being faster, and the setup and configuration being absolutely painless, the killer app of Everything is that because of the way NTFS has a service announcing file changes any new/deleted/modify file is instantly re-indexed, across any disk, whereas inotify in Linux has many, many limitations in that regard.

While I've got the conch another thing that Windows does much better than Linux is Remote Desktop access.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#316

Post by MonaroVXR »

innocenat wrote: post #293
Zardoz84 wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, you never try any Linux in 20 years ? Linux launchers had better file indexing in any metric before that Windows did it.

Nothing beats Everything. Seriously. When I changed to Linux 6 years ago I have to be more mindful of where I put my files, because on Windows Everything works extremely well. (I am talking about 5M+ files on disk)

I'm always mindful about where I put my files, whatever the operating system.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#317

Post by vxNsr »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #29
tester756 wrote: post #26

Also no built in screen recording software, wtf? 2022 at least gifs pls

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...

Just FYI, the game bar only allows you to record one app at a time, which isn’t usually what I’m trying to do.

Oddly enough, PowerPoint includes a screen recording tool that is fairly robust.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#318

Post by neurobashing »

gokhan wrote: post #314
corderop wrote: post #309

I find it funny when Microsoft says we love open source and their open source projects are a calculator and a utility tool. This is the same for almost any big company.

This is just wrong. I'm just dropping the two biggest ones: https://github.com/dotnet/ https://github.com/microsoft/ What part of vscode you don't consider OSS, for example?

The remote ssh/container stuff is closed, as is Pylance.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#319

Post by NelsonMinar »

ripley12 wrote: post #275
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…

The Sysinternals suite is incredible; acquiring Sysinternals and maintaining the tools is one of the best things the Windows team has ever done. I don't love everything about Windows these days, and I've mostly switched away from it. But Process Explorer and Process Monitor are a lovely reminder that it's still a powerful OS, and tools don't have to be text-first to cater to power users.

Buying Sysinternals is how Mark Russinovich started working at Microsoft, right? He's the CTO of Azure now!

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#320

Post by aceazzameen »

PowerToys is fantastic. So many great utilities. Another MS tool that I love is Microsoft Garage Mouse Without Borders. Someone mentioned it here on HN once, and I now use it all the time. Such a simple tool to use one mouse/keyboard across 2 or more computers. It works amazingly well!
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