PowerToys – open-source Windows utilities
fourth-wall.co.uk
fourth-wall.co.uk
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 by Microsoft. Process Explorer from there is indispensible, as is Autoruns.
The ability to search for an application and bring those windows into focus. This is my primary way of switching between applications (except for the terminal which I have bound to Ctrl+Shift+Space). It's much easier for my brain to just type the first two letters of the app I want to focus then to remember the state of the app switch history.
It's now been moved into a bundled plugin named after the original app that was morphed into this: WindowWalker. I don't remember what the special character you have to type to target the plugin is because I made my installation of PowerToys Run use that plugin by default without a prefix and I disabled all the other plugins.
https://ueli.app/ is way better, and has incredible plugins.
Try Wox, it has built-in integration with "Everything".
1: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/run#attri...
Sorry to disappear for almost three years and then reappear in this way. I have so many feelings to share with Listary and especially with you, the users who have always been with Listary for the past few years. [...]
In the future, Listary will continue to focus on keeping files/applications at your fingertips and providing you with an extreme user experience.
A brand-new vision, a brand-new product, and a brand-new journey. A better Listary, hope you will like it again
-- https://discussion.listary.com/t/a-letter-to-listary-users/7... (which is actually an automated translation of the original Chinese https://discussion.listary.com/t/listary/7237)
Also Wayland native, but supports X11 and ncurses backends too.
If you are only looking to launch apps, do a few math calculations, and maybe search for files then Spotlight probably has you covered. In fact when spotlight stepped up its game I was a little worried Alfred has been Sherlocked [0] or that the developer might stop supporting it but thankfully that's not the case.
You can do a number of cool things with Alfred like creating "workflows" to create your own little mini-programs to do various actions. I know that sounds vague but that's because it's so open-ended. For example, I have a workflow for launching different versions+mods for a game I like (Factorio). I play with different sets of mods depending on how I'm feeling and so I have a workflow that I type "Factorio", then select my "Launch Factorio" workflow from the list Alfred provides, then Alfred gives me a list of my mod packs, I select one, and it launches Factorio after symlinking the mods/saves into the right place.
That example is super-custom to me but I have other that are more general-use. Like I have one for Zoom that will show me a list of zoom rooms I regularly connect to (Daily Standup, my boss, my coworker, my Bad Movie Night group, etc). At it's core it's a very simple map of "Label" -> "Zoom Link" but it's a really nice QoL improvement over launching the app, selecting the room from my recent rooms, and then clicking "Join".
Pretty much anything I find myself doing over and over, I'll create a little workflow to handle it. Even something as simple as running a single command, I've got one that runs DisplayPlacer (and must-have if you have a multi-monitor setup that you connect/disconnect from). Now I could probably wire up DisplayPlace to run automatically when my mac sees a new monitor but I'm fine running it manually. I have another to unmount all external drives, I have one that pings a coworker to ask if they are free to chat, I have one that formats the unix timestamp I drop in, I have one that can convert/format the Timezone on a date or timestamp, the list goest on.
Most all of my workflows are really just shelling out to call a script and display the result back to me and I could pop my terminal open, navigate to the right directory, and run the script but it's so much nicer to do it all in Alfred's popup UI.
Then you have the other features Alfred provides (some of which can be done with other apps of course). The main ones I use are snippets (text expansion) and clipboard history. Knowing I can always type "clip"+enter and see a list of the last 1000 things I copies has saved me more times than I can count. I encourage you to checkout the full list [1] of what Alfred can do. Also the PowerPack is worth every penny for me, I bought it years ago (Mega Supporter) and would pay full price again without a second thought.
[0] https://www.howtogeek.com/297651/what-does-it-mean-when-a-co...
find ~ > ~/index/home.txt ; find / > ~/index/root.txtWhen 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)
While I've got the conch another thing that Windows does much better than Linux is Remote Desktop access.
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 like WIN+[arrow key] or WIN+TAB or CTRL+WIN+[arrow key] that let you move windows around, snap them, tile them, divide the screen between two, switch to another desktop, etc. All those basic functions which if you have MacOS, for some reason you need to buy separate apps just to get that basic functionality. Haven't ever felt a need for a separate app for that either.
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 stopped using the OS – a Windows 'application launcher' that does this. If Win+R does this then you've just blown my mind, but I don't think it does.
Is this a result of the way that Windows and Mac treat running apps differently? I only ever have one instance of Safari.app running, for example. That isn't the case on Windows, so how would a 'switcher' know which instance to pick?
The problem with *-tab is that each application has no fixed place in that space. So on every invocation I have to look, find, switch.
Contrast with bringing up Mail using Alfred. The behaviour is always the same, and therefore muscle-memory-learnable: Cmd+space, ma, return. Messages: Cmd+space, me, return. Near-instant for me because I've done it literally thousands of times.
BTW Win+1 to Win+9 will switch to the first 9 pinned items in taskbar. If there isn’t an available window it will open one. I have Outlook pinned as the 4th item on my taskbar so navigating to it is always Win+4.
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.
It's more reliable and predictable. The standard windows search often prioritizes online searches vs searching through your files. Even when I type in math, sometimes it gives me bing results instead of just solving the math. Especially for subtractions.
Having online searches in the start menu is cool, but I want that 15% of the time I search, Not 80%.
> What does PowerToys Run do that the standard WIN+R run dialog doesn't?
-- Autocomplete
-- Search files, settings, services, the registy and more (all of these can be enabled, disabled or assigned to a shortcut e.g. settings is $ for me)
-- Open windows terminal with specific shell
-- Walk open windows, allow you to search currently open applications and browsers
> Or just hitting the WIN key to get the search dialog?
-- Not constantly try and open Bing and/or Edge
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.
You can bring it to Windows with this useful open source tool: https://github.com/QL-Win/QuickLook
Between this project and PowerToys, the Windows experience is a lot more enjoyable.
PowerToys Run especially (essentially Alfred or QuickSilver for Windows), is much faster and better than standard Win-S searches.
- Command-Delete to delete the current file
- Return, type a new name, and return, to rename the current file
In both cases the view will properly update.
If any PowerToys feature deserves to be added to Windows, it's gotta be the Keyboard Manager.
Back when I used to use Adobe Fireworks there was a shortcut for flattening the current selection, I believe it was cmd+ctrl+shift+Z and I'm pressing this hundreds of times a week and eventually it gave me RSI.
After this happened I remapped it to cmd+F, luckily the app had the ability to do that but honestly I consider it important enough that the OS should provide it. I know a lot of windows users point to AutoHotKey but it's a horrible janky feeling hack and requires you to write actual scripts.
And it should be a global panel for all installed apps..
With a tab for each app-map, and the ability to export/import a settings file.
Just frustrates me other OSes don’t match this bar that I consider the bare minimum.
https://www.ghacks.net/2010/06/06/the-ultimate-guide-to-keyb...
#SingleInstance force
if not A_IsAdmin
Run \*RunAs "%A_ScriptFullPath%" ;
LControl::Capslock
Capslock::ControlIn the meantime I’ll stick with AutoHotkey.
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 won’t :-)
Cross-platform, feature packed, constantly updated, Lua-scriptable, supports TC plugins, written in Free Pascal.
There's an enhanced TC called TC UP with additional utilities:
Ultimately I went with 'Ultrawide Windows' [1], mostly because I like it better than the defaults and at the same time it is still simple to use. The Github page gives an impression of its capabilities and lists the hotkeys, but it is also available via the KDE integrated tools [2]. What I am still missing is a tool to simply define and use custom layouts.
There are plugins (Window Management → KWin Scripts) that add options, I see Tiling, FlexGrid, KWin QuickTile, and several more.
Win+shift plus arrow moves window to each monitor
Three finger swipe on track pad give you open windows as displayed on each desktop, with ability to drag window to whatever desktop.
I keep three desktops, all with a different wallpaper so I know which desktop for what.
All work windows on D1 - research - d2 - and primary app I’m using if needs full screen on d3.
The only problem is forgetting to switch desktop when you switch mental modes…. Like opening a bunch of HN links in your app desktop…
So just redraft them from whatever to wherever.
I’ll check out fancy…
—-
What I also like, is I have two external USB monitors for my laptop..
And I have a diff display layout depending on which of the additional screens I have plugged in. It remembers the location of each.
So when I have just one screen plugged in, the second is to the right.
When both are connnected: it knows that one is right and one is up above.
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.)
As GP said, by default, it's automatic, so there are no pre-defined "zones". But it can be scripted to do quite a lot of things.
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.
(disclosure: former Microsoft employee (now at GitHub) who knows the PowerToys team)
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.
I've had environments where the system was pretty locked down, but had access to VBScript: https://gist.github.com/valdergallo/0e05d9e0c90b7be77458
> dystopian environments
Some places block streaming purely because it clogs the VPNs if they route everything through the in house infra
Depends on how locked down the security setup is. The more sensitive the info the worse it is
But they didn't lock out YouTube, because sometimes YouTube had a business purpose. So people just switched to YouTube for listening to music, which used even more bandwidth. In protest of the ridiculousness of the no-music-streaming policy, some people even forced their YouTube to stream in 4K even when they had a 1080p monitor.
The blocking of music streaming was lifted within a couple months.
Fancy Zones, a tiling window manager - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20895031 - Sept 2019 (163 comments)
PowerToys: Windows system utilities to maximize productivity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20890828 - Sept 2019 (126 comments)
PowerToys – Windows system utilities to maximize productivity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19845287 - May 2019 (29 comments)
I never visited your webpage before, I didn't even get to read the article, why the hell are you asking me to give you my personal data and subcribe to some spammy emails?
Of course you could argue that you always have to be very careful not to overload and bloat your software product, especially if it's an OS — but windows contains two different consoles, about three versions of the system preferences management, ..., it just doesn't seem like MSFT to be that picky about what they'll put into their product.
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
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))
My uncle works tech support for a major ISP. He gets at least a couple calls a day from people thinking they need to call him because their Windows PC won't turn on or some other non-Internet related issue.
And then there's the sheer number of trivial calls. Do you know how many people call Amazon because they forgot their password, rather than just using the password reset function? Or how many people call their bank to find their balance rather than checking the website? And of course, these people demand to talk to a human.
are they features that were planned but then abandoned?
do developers at microsoft have the autonomy to build features they personally find interesting while on the clock?
do they come from hackathon like events?
do they now all come through a dedicated team?
Also, my understanding is that PowerToys is sort of an incubator; successful experiments may eventually make it into Windows itself.
This PowerTools has something close but not exactly what I’m looking for.
I’ve gotten used to PTT in apps like Ventrilo / Discord and hate having to constantly unmute / remute in Teams.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/muting-and-unmuti...
https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/sysinternals-suite/9...
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 anything in focus. I swear I spend 30% of my time clicking on things just so I can type in them!
I had no idea it was there for that long!
Honestly, from their perspective it probably makes sense to keep it separate from the main OS if they like keeping it open source.
The first release of the current applicaiton was 2019. The wiki article is quite detailed: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerToys
The genesis of PowerToys was to provide a way to create utilities for power users that could be quickly iterated in public. When it’s part of the core OS, that makes updates/iteration harder (hence, why Windows Terminal, WSL2 beta, calculator, Notepad and some other components have moved to getting updates in the Microsoft Store separate from the main OS. So you can run an older IT mandated version of Windows but still ostensibly have a newer version of a certain component), and with stuff like PowerToys, the intended audience is different than the standard OS user, who may not be comfortable with things that can change more frequently.
That said, the feedback from PowerToys and some of those components has been upstreamed back into core Windows.
The improved window management stuff in Windows 11 is a less-advanced version of Fancy Zones (FZ has more features and options), and the same is true for the universal mute button in Windows 11, that started out as a PowerToys feature.
(Disclosure: former Microsoft employee (currently at GitHub) who knows the PowerToys team well)
[1]http://misweb.cbi.msstate.edu/~rpearson/tips/tweakui.html
[1]: https://github.com/lars-berger/GlazeWM
[2]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/fancywm-dynamic-tiling-win...
What part of vscode you don't consider OSS, for example?
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 exact checks, so it would just save an extra step.
OSX and XDG (Gnome etc...) based systems have nothing close last time I checked.
Recent Finder versions relegate custom actions to a "Quick Actions" submenu by default, but you can restore an action to top-level by removing the "NSIconName" entry from the action's Info.plist in ~/Library/Services.
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
(EDIT: I was "posting too fast". In the meantime, I think that jasomills has pointed this out (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31305652).)
https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
On a different note, can you please omit swipes and putdowns (like "Your analytical skills could use some work") from your HN posts? That sort of thing degrades discussion and evokes worse from others, so we're trying to avoid it here. Your comment would be just fine without that leading bit.
Is there any reliable way to get a real dark mode on Windows 11?
On my MacBook, one hotkey changes every app, native window, and (modern) website (with system dark theme support) to dark mode. I only wish Darkreader would add a system theme event listener so I wouldn’t have to turn it on manually.
It doesn't do what I know you want (I'm not on Mac however i.e. Samsung's Edge has that amazing "make the sites NOT white" Dark Mode feature, which I love and imagine to be similar), yet it will stop the retina burning at least.
(More applicable on desktops where software control of monitor brightness isn't really a thing that I've seen).
Should be available under Setting app -> Accessibility -> Vision -> Contrast theme
Alfred was king but no more
It’s not actively maintained though
Built into windows since Windows 7 iirc.
Maybe something in Powershell to find the files and then copy them into a folder which is then set up with Robocopy?
Note, I have no access to the computer itself and the users are incapable of doing much beyond downloading a .exe file and installing a program, so whatever is done has to be as close to simple as that for them.
There is a PowerShell module for managing scheduled tasks. It should be possible to write a script that will create the appropriate scheduled tasks on behalf of the non-proficient user. They just need to run the PowerShell script once to get things going.
I've used Task Scheduler via remote desktop (which itself was a pain to get them able to set up) to set things up for them before but that is not scalable.
It can be helpful to send along a tuple of {PowerShell, cmd} where cmd just forwards arguments to PowerShell. That way you can run “PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass myscript.ps1 %*” and avoid the pain of changing the system-wide security policy for PowerShell scripts. (Unsigned PowerShell scripts are blocked by default).
1. Just powershell in a loop working as a service 2. Task Scheduler 3. Rundeck 4. Pode
WinScp is awesome for linux, and you can use simple PowerShell remoting for windows.
If you really must, you can always write the program yourself, it sounds very easy. Deploy it with an installer that copies a link into Startup, the whole bit.
Without it, Windows would be a nightmare to use on a 45" display.
It can be turned off.
So it should be back to normal!
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.
It'd be more useful if it worked with any messaging app that was running on my phone though!
* PowerToys Awake - Amphetamine
* PowerToys FancyZones - Moom
* PowerToys Run - Alfred
* EarTrumpet - Rogue Amoeba SoundSource
* Windows Terminal - iTerm
* QuickLook - Mac Native Functionality
* Nothing for Windows - HazeOver
* Windows Native Functionality - Bartender
* Snipping Tool - Clean Shot X
* Windows Terminal - iTerm
* Snipping Tool - Clean Shot X
These are not fair comparisons. The Mac tools you list here are much more powerful than the Windows counterparts, and there are good enough built-in alternatives (Spotlight, Terminal and the default screenshot tool).
* PowerToys FancyZones - Moom
This isn't fair either. FancyZones is much more powerful; Rectangle is a better comparison.
(There's also the possibility that there are amazing things I wouldn't use, of course. I have discovered that while I like keyboard shortcuts and Moom's hover dropdown for window resizing/movement, I find "drag a window to the screen edge to resize it" to be a maddening anti-feature.)
By keeping little toys like this outside of the main Windows feature set, they stay out of the 500 review and design steps, where any of 5000 people can kill the feature.
There’s a lot of politics too. Something like a unmute button may be “owned” by the liaison to the Teams program management, who in turn want universal unmute to be an Azure service that is incorporated into “Azure Live Office Solutions for Windows (Govcloud) for Business E7”.
Installing of applications is done by dragging them into some place, and then there is no feedback about what is happening. And so on and on.
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
The only way to replicate the Windows behaviour of truly maximising is to use third-party tools like Rectangle.
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 that can add features to the global UI. New users have a basic system with easily-understood behaviors, and experienced users can enable the features they need.
In an alternate universe where I believed it was possible to compete with the major vendors, this is the platform I would build...
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.
The files app should be exclusively for listing/moving/copying files. Files themselves should be created by and opened with different apps.
This isn't to say apps shouldn't be able to talk to the files app. On macOS, for example, apps can install QuickLook plugins.
It's been a few years since I had that phone so the details are a bit fuzzy but I seem to recall it was very discoverable from the email attachment interface, at the very least.
Problem with a separate app is that it's a separate codebase and thus easier for it to fall to neglect.
That's great if I'm sending an email, but what if I want to upload the documents to a website, or send them via iMessage, or Airdrop them to another Apple device, or print out the scan to effectively make a second paper copy? Do you add the icon to each of these interfaces, taking up screen real estate and adding mental load? (One new icon is never a problem, but do it 30 times and you'll be in a bad spot.)
IMO, Apple's strategy significantly railroads users, while making interfaces ever-more complicated.
> Problem with a separate app is that it's a separate codebase and thus easier for it to fall to neglect.
Yeah, bundling everything into iTunes worked really well for Apple, didn't it? :D
I really don't think we should be making UI decisions based on this.
I'm not really an "Apple Guy" so it's not clear to me what you are referring to.
When Apple finally killed the Mac version of iTunes on stage at WWDC, they basically admitted that they'd tried to cram in too much functionality, by joking that they were considering a Calendar and Web Browser.
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 living, but if I just dropped thousands of dollars on a computer and then had to pay $5 for each small convenience feature I wanted, it would definitely be a significant downgrade in experience. I don't live in the Windows ecosystem any more, but the macOS freeware ecosystem has significantly degraded (and it's not just a matter of “I have to use something old”—due to architecture changes, most of the old stuff doesn't work any more, and, understandably, even if the original maintainer is still keeping it up, they now often charge for the product).
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.
First off, macOS is missing its own features such as three-finger tap to middle click and window snapping, and what you get on Linux is going to vary based on your DE.
Second, building something in adds bloat for people who don't use it and can kill off choices of third-party options that might do the feature (subjectively) better (I still see people mad that Apple killed Sherlock by building their own version of it in)
I like the idea of something pluggable, but also with sane and disableable default features that 98% of users will be totally fine with.
at least gifs pls
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...
Video recording isn't gaming feature, it's the same kind of app as paint, notepad or calculator are.
Oddly enough, PowerPoint includes a screen recording tool that is fairly robust.
https://www.irfanview.net/tutorials/bartosz_makuch2/images/i...
For me, Windows 11 has one of the best window management experiences out of the box, far ahead of MacOS and in line Linux.
The ease of resizing, snapping and tiling windows out of the box is really well implemented in Windows 11 so I really don't get your claim.
macOS also has a way to treat an application (or two, with a split view) as a virtual desktop, where the shell disappears and wouldn't allow you to open additional windows on that desktop. I particularly want this seperation because I put VMs on different desktops, but because the shell is there I inevitably have to drag over some windows that opened on that desktop over after a few hours of mindless use.
While I like my awesome more on a laptop, every is can be configured one way or the other to feel similar across OSes.
Tx :D
I use BetterTouchTool, but there are many tools that accomplish the same thing as far as window snapping is concerned.
Here is an article that goes over many options: https://techwiser.com/snap-windows-on-macos
I used to prefer MacOS for development, but Windows has far surpassed it in recent years, between native linux experience in WSL and better QOL tooling via Power Toys. The removal of vertical taskbar has been pretty annoying though... pretty awful on a 49" monitor. All that's left now is to get some 5nm chips in Windows machines
I'm not against running linux alone per se, but to me being able to run both Windows (with better app support, polish), and Linux at the same time is kind of the best of both worlds. Windows feels nicer as a daily driver, and can do all dev work directly in a linux environment
However, I started to run into a lot of issues with the file systems being a bit too commingled though, especially when using things like VSCode’s WSL integrations where you’re regularly reading/writing to the Linux file system from Windows (or vice versa).
I guess I mention this to say that I ended up putting Ubuntu on a Hyper V VM and it was a huge improvement. If you enjoy WSL, but need something a bit less integrated, I highly recommend it. Using VSCode’s remote container/host extensions work just as well (if not better for things like Docker).
But WSL1 would've been super slow for the same use case
I've actually never heard anyone mention Windows windows manager because the only people in the world who care don't use Windows.
Out of curiosity, what other tools do you use?
I do find this a bit annoying, but on the other hand, it gives me some flexibility to choose the style of window management I prefer through choice of utility.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/
Why aren't these just bundled by default??
0: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/snap-your-window...
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.
You can install it through the Microsoft Store, WinGet, Choclatey, Scoop or directly from GitHub. It would be nice if there was maybe a pointer to it inside the OS to alert some users of its existence, but the premise was similar to the OG PowerToys, which were downloadable off of the Microsoft website.
As I said in the linked comment, stuff from PowerToys does get upstreamed into the Windows shell, sometimes with modifications or refinements, but some of the utilities are things that wouldn’t necessarily make sense to be included by default.
Hopefully Microsoft sees the writing on the wall and includes these in an update, instead of being stubborn and pretending that they have had a reason to exclude them all this time.
I don't know what fuckin planet you people live on. Microsoft is a business oriented ecosystem. The fact that you can play call of duty on it is a bonus.
Do they have to pay attention to it? No. Will it help improve their OS as a daily driver for non enterprise users? Sure.