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PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

fourth-wall.co.uk

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Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#51

Post by na85 »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #25
azalemeth wrote: post #2

Many, if not most of these tools contain functionality that is built into other major OSes, and had been for a long time. I don't really understand why Microsoft doesn't include them by default.

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…

Disagree. Fancy features are awesome for "normies".

iPhones have a feature where you can create PDFs page by page, using the camera as a scanner. After you snap the photo it offers you a crop and transform tool, and does a little image recognition to assist you and make the edges of the crop tool snap to the page within the photo.

I've found that feature immensely useful in a professional context and (it was a company device) when I gave the phone back I seriously considered switching away from Android for my personal phone.

Little things like that, baked into the OS, make for a really awesome UX.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#52

Post by loeg »

octagons wrote: post #15

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.

KDE has Windows-style snap-to-halves or quarters by default. If you’re happy with those basic zones, it definitely works well. I don’t know if there’s a way to configure more complex zones.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#53

Post by krono »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #25
azalemeth wrote: post #2

Many, if not most of these tools contain functionality that is built into other major OSes, and had been for a long time. I don't really understand why Microsoft doesn't include them by default.

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…

Windows is so far past that point now, could just as well pile these on too < edit: I'm actually positive about these tools, MS could do with a little less focus on consumer usecases I think.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#54

Post by s1291 »

doomlaser wrote: post #36

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

On Linux, I use Gnome Suchi.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#55

Post by dvtrn »

skeletal88 wrote: post #46
foobarchu wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Double clicking any unused portion of the title bar will maximize a window within it's current space without going full-screen (the green button). It's not the most intuitive way to do it, but that's a far cry from being impossible out of the box.

Yes.. but how would I know it had I not read about it here? I have to use macs at work and it's filled with "WTF?" moments. Like why the hell would I want to make something fullscreen with the green button on the window title bar, when coming from linux/windows I expect it to maximise the window.. and window maximising is done by some weird incantation. Installing of applications is done by dragging them into some pl…

> but how would I know it had I not read about it here?

Presumably you’ve been a windows user long enough, or at least exposed to Windows enough times to have figured out you can double click a title bar in that operating system and maximize a window, so it’s probably not too far of a stretch to guess you would have figured it out in macOS by simply trying to do the same thing

Agreeably macOS is highly opinionated when it comes to “discovering” some of the hidden interaction features, but come on. You really wouldn’t have had any other way to figure how to embiggen a window without without having to come to HN and read the above comment?

That feels like an extreme example for the sake of being oppositional

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#56

Post by gjvc »

no_time wrote: post #16
iamkroot wrote: 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??

I was about to say "because of the maintenance burden and separation of core and extra features" but then I remembered that half the stuff they added since win2k is borderline useless.

win2k was peak windows; all it needed was 64-bit support and cleartype

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#57

Post by hnlmorg »

gmueckl wrote: post #3
azalemeth wrote: post #2

Many, if not most of these tools contain functionality that is built into other major OSes, and had been for a long time. I don't really understand why Microsoft doesn't include them by default.

It's probably a combination of 1. retaining backwards compatibility with applications that don't interact well with these features and 2. exposing users to behaviors that are hard to understand and undo once they are activated by accident.

It's not a backwards compatibility thing, PowerToys has been a thing since Windows 95 and we've seen breaking changes in a few iterations of Windows since.

The clue is in the name "Power" -- it's additional functionality for power users. Since Windows generally caters for the lowest common denominator, features like this would be deemed too complicated (sometimes even dangerous) for some folk. So it is an optional addon for power users.

It's just like how WSL, PowerShell, etc aren't installed by default either.

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#58

Post by Wowfunhappy »

na85 wrote: post #51
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #25

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…

Disagree. Fancy features are awesome for "normies". iPhones have a feature where you can create PDFs page by page, using the camera as a scanner. After you snap the photo it offers you a crop and transform tool, and does a little image recognition to assist you and make the edges of the crop tool snap to the page within the photo. I've found that feature immensely useful in a professional context and (it was a compan…

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?

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#59

Post by tveyben »

philliphaydon wrote: post #20
azalemeth wrote: post #2

Many, if not most of these tools contain functionality that is built into other major OSes, and had been for a long time. I don't really understand why Microsoft doesn't include them by default.

Considering the 2nd most used desktop OS is MacOS and you can’t even maximise a window properly out of the box…

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

Re: PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities

#60

Post by com2kid »

transcriptase wrote: post #6
azalemeth wrote: post #2

Many, if not most of these tools contain functionality that is built into other major OSes, and had been for a long time. I don't really understand why Microsoft doesn't include them by default.

Instead we get “Paint 3D”, “Mixed Reality Portal”, and “Your Phone”. Absolute essentials that I’m certain are chart-toppers in the telemetry activity charts.

I'd guess Your Phone is a direct response to iMessage on MacOS.

It'd be more useful if it worked with any messaging app that was running on my phone though!

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