5 ms·

PowerToys Run: extensible quick launcher for power users

76 points by nateb2022 2y ago

lodovic 2y ago
So Microsoft just copied Spotlight?
- Dma54rhs 2y ago
  It's a community project and Spotlight wasn't the first app launcher either.
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    A lot of Mac users are oblivious to anything outside the Apple ecosystem. To them Steve Jobs basically invented sliced bread and everything else is a copy. Good thing the industry didn't also copy Apple's OOTB window management.
- evanjonr 2y ago
  This comment is pretty amusing, seeing as Apple "Sherlocked" Watson with the predecessor to Spotlight
- magnio 2y ago
  PowerToys Run is more featureful than Spotlight and should be compared to Alfred or Raycast. Basically, the biggest differentiator is whether you can write a custom plugin for it or not.
- BoredPositron 2y ago
  You mean they both copied 9menu (1994) from Bell Labs?
oezi 2y ago
I would rather like to see a file explorer launcher such as Listary [1]. The ability to quickly navigate to files and folders is much more important to me than launching apps. [1] https://www.listary.com/ https://www.listary.com/
- hiyer 2y ago
  Everything [1] used to be the pretty good for this on Windows. Have you tried it out? 1. https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/ https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/
  - Springtime 2y ago
    A key difference with Everything is it's not a weighted search, it just returns all matches sorted in whatever column is active, so less useful as a launcher (though a tip: if you press Enter it will skip to the most previously clicked result). While the programs from this thread (at least those I'm familiar with) score results by relevancy.
  - Ylpertnodi 2y ago
    >...used to be... Still is 'pretty good' - I'd say 'above excellent', especially the portable version.
  - rezolva 2y ago
    I'm actually working on a sideproject right now that can work as a Windows Explorer replacement with Everything as an indexer in the background. Among other things, this provides advantages such as that you can create virtual folders in the operating system that are based on everything queries. The latest thing I'm working on right now is being able to use plain text for searches by having an LLM AI translate plain text into everything queries. Feel free to check out the project at https://thefile.ninja https://thefile.ninja or check the predemo video: https://youtu.be/JREufgkf5pk https://youtu.be/JREufgkf5pk
snthpy 2y ago
The whole PowerToys suite looks useful. I'm trying to find some time to get familiar with it all. Also want to get going with komorebi (https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi) as I've looked at the Linux tiling window managers for years with envy.
- the_cramer 2y ago
  Komorebi is quite good, although it has it quirks with some applications that spawn child processes. Make sure to make yourself familiar with application specific configs, there's already a whole community-driven config for that [1]. But all in all it's very beginner friendly, since it does enable you to float windows still (and pause komorebi). [1] https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi-application-specific-configuration https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi-application-specific-conf...
- sourcecodeplz 2y ago
  It does look useful at first but once you get familiar with it, you will see it actually is not that useful.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - PennRobotics 2y ago
    PowerToys can be counterproductive. Consider Ctrl + Space in Windows Explorer. For literal decades, it has been the method for selecting multiple nonsequential files. Now it is the default shortcut for the Peek file preview window. But it doesn't have the title PowerToys or Peek. It's just the filename of whatever gets opened. So now you have two problems: figure out why you can't select multiple files in Explorer like you did last week and last year and ten years ago; and figure out how to disable this mystery preview window so it doesn't keep happening. Hopefully the first time you discover Peek, you aren't trying to delete a subset of sensitive documents in a shared space without using the mouse. But that's okay; the lead dev states PowerToys is an incubator, and that justifies enabling new features by default, so sensitive files should get previewed using Ctrl + Space without warning! (Only that last part is mine.) The tools are too opinionated for the amount of productivity they claim to provide. (Yeah, even Quick Accent. I'll stick with my insecure AHK script. At least it only activates when I ask for it.)
danpalmer 2y ago
I find it interesting that, to my knowledge, launcher/assistant tools like this aren't common on platforms other than macOS. Windows has had one or two that I've seen, but not common, and I don't hear every Windows user swearing by them. Linux has GnomeDo, but I found it lacking, and again I haven't heard people swearing by them. ChromeOS has one I think, but I can't remember the name, and again it doesn't seem popular. macOS on the other hand has had Quicksilver, Launchbar, Alfred, and Raycast, to name just those that I've personally used, and Spotlight has been built in to macOS for a long time, with a launcher/utility interface for many years. I've also heard many people (at least in techie/knowledge worker circles) using them, and have met strong proponents of all of these options. Is this difference just down to my lack of knowledge of other platforms, or is there a grain of truth to this? If so, why? What makes macOS conducive to this (is it that these are all built on Spotlight and therefore can exist easily), and do users just demand this more on macOS?
- Zanfa 2y ago
  Could it be due to the high percentage of Macs being used by devs compared to Windows and the fact that Mac software typically puts more focus on UI, even for developer-focused tools, compared to Linux?
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    >due to the high percentage of Macs being used by devs compared to Windows Depends where. Where I live, most IT and development jobs are on windows and globally speaking the picture seems to be the same. Mac dominating SW development work seems mostly a SV/US thing.
    - Zanfa 2y ago
      I was implying more that among Mac users, the percentage of devs is significantly higher than among Windows users. I'd assume the same is true for higher cost PCs vs entry level as well. That aside, Macs are definitely overrepresented outside of SV/US as well, being from EU myself, I don't think I remember a single office I've visited over the last 10 years in a number of countries that didn't look like an Apple store. Granted India/China alone are populous enough to dictate global statistics.
the_cramer 2y ago
If you want to use powertoys run, i highly recommend the plugin for everything here. [1] Everything [2] is an indexer that will make finding your local files super fast. If you couple those two, you have a launcher that is able to find all files on your drive very fast (and launch applications of course). [1] https://github.com/lin-ycv/EverythingPowerToys https://github.com/lin-ycv/EverythingPowerToys [2] https://www.voidtools.com/ https://www.voidtools.com/
- raincole 2y ago
  What's the difference between this and the search bar in the start menu?
  - batrat 2y ago
    For me is 10X faster and it finds what I need. For example if I search for "power" it shows powerautomate (why??) , powerpoint, powershell in this order. No powertoys. Also if I dont have internet it takes ages before it shows somethig in search. Yea it's much more usefull.
  - jve 2y ago
    Everything works always and searches everything. Windows start... I don' t even know if search works or file not found. And is way slower.
  - KineticLensman 2y ago
    Everything is instant and doesn’t piss about with internet results. Just what’s on your local system
  - alisonatwork 2y ago
    It seems the sibling commenters don't know about the DisableSearchBoxSuggestions registry option, which I highly recommend keyboard users of Windows to set up on every system they work with. When the setting is applied the start menu will go back to the old behavior where results appear instantly and always point to your local machine. I'm sure dedicated launchers can do an even better job for deep searches, but personally I've never found myself particularly slowed down by the built-in behavior after disabling that borked web search functionality.
prmoustache 2y ago
Isn't the main start menu already a quick launcher? My experience on windows in the last decade is limited but every time I used a windows 10 machine, the windows key followed with whatever keyword would act as a launcher. Or am I missing something obvious? Did they remove start menu from win 11?
- ginko 2y ago
  >Isn't the main start menu already a quick launcher? That was my first thought as well. I haven't really used Windows all that much since Windows 7, but at least then I found the start menu to work a lot better than anything we have in Linux land. Simply press <Win> and type out what you need, be it some application or a system setting you want to change.
  - Semaphor 2y ago
    It works as long as you previously configured it properly (by default it shows websearches), and don’t need many configuration options or features in general. For most users it’s enough, power users might want more.
  - thereisnospork 2y ago
    The functionality has sadly gone significantly downhill since Windows 7 - which I concur worked quite well, type 2-3 letters and press enter and the obvious thing usually launched. Nowadays mostly I just get a prompt to search something on Bing which will of course disregard my browser preference and launch edge. Not that I ever want the start menu to launch a search anyway...
    - alisonatwork 2y ago
      This (awful) behavior can be disabled with a one line registry tweak, after which Windows 10 and 11 start menus more or less work the same as in previous versions. Search for DisableSearchBoxSuggestions.
- Krssst 2y ago
eikaramba 2y ago
Having tested all launchers which are available on earth I settled with fluentsearch. Most capable launcher of them all and also works with everything(although the internal indexer is also incredible powerful)
andro_dev 2y ago
It also comes with telemetry that one can’t disable
tracker1 2y ago
So, what the start menu search should be, before they added web results (and ads).
NikkiA 2y ago
The one feature that keeps me on KeyPirinha over PowerToys Run is the ability to configure and launch portable apps from specific locations (and subdirectories). I strongly suspect that 'Run has the feature, but I cannot for the life of me find it. Beyond that they mostly occupy the same space, with 'Run slightly faster to popup (and by slight I mean measured in mS).
rijavecb 2y ago
[dead]

76 points by nateb2022 2y ago

lodovic 2y ago

So Microsoft just copied Spotlight?

Dma54rhs 2y ago
It's a community project and Spotlight wasn't the first app launcher either.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  A lot of Mac users are oblivious to anything outside the Apple ecosystem. To them Steve Jobs basically invented sliced bread and everything else is a copy. Good thing the industry didn't also copy Apple's OOTB window management.
evanjonr 2y ago
This comment is pretty amusing, seeing as Apple "Sherlocked" Watson with the predecessor to Spotlight
magnio 2y ago
PowerToys Run is more featureful than Spotlight and should be compared to Alfred or Raycast. Basically, the biggest differentiator is whether you can write a custom plugin for it or not.
BoredPositron 2y ago
You mean they both copied 9menu (1994) from Bell Labs?

oezi 2y ago

I would rather like to see a file explorer launcher such as Listary [1]. The ability to quickly navigate to files and folders is much more important to me than launching apps. [1] https://www.listary.com/ https://www.listary.com/

hiyer 2y ago
Everything [1] used to be the pretty good for this on Windows. Have you tried it out? 1. https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/ https://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/
- Springtime 2y ago
  A key difference with Everything is it's not a weighted search, it just returns all matches sorted in whatever column is active, so less useful as a launcher (though a tip: if you press Enter it will skip to the most previously clicked result). While the programs from this thread (at least those I'm familiar with) score results by relevancy.
- Ylpertnodi 2y ago
  >...used to be... Still is 'pretty good' - I'd say 'above excellent', especially the portable version.
- rezolva 2y ago
  I'm actually working on a sideproject right now that can work as a Windows Explorer replacement with Everything as an indexer in the background. Among other things, this provides advantages such as that you can create virtual folders in the operating system that are based on everything queries. The latest thing I'm working on right now is being able to use plain text for searches by having an LLM AI translate plain text into everything queries. Feel free to check out the project at https://thefile.ninja https://thefile.ninja or check the predemo video: https://youtu.be/JREufgkf5pk https://youtu.be/JREufgkf5pk

snthpy 2y ago

The whole PowerToys suite looks useful. I'm trying to find some time to get familiar with it all. Also want to get going with komorebi (https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi) as I've looked at the Linux tiling window managers for years with envy.

the_cramer 2y ago
Komorebi is quite good, although it has it quirks with some applications that spawn child processes. Make sure to make yourself familiar with application specific configs, there's already a whole community-driven config for that [1]. But all in all it's very beginner friendly, since it does enable you to float windows still (and pause komorebi). [1] https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi-application-specific-configuration https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi-application-specific-conf...
sourcecodeplz 2y ago
It does look useful at first but once you get familiar with it, you will see it actually is not that useful.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- PennRobotics 2y ago
  PowerToys can be counterproductive. Consider Ctrl + Space in Windows Explorer. For literal decades, it has been the method for selecting multiple nonsequential files. Now it is the default shortcut for the Peek file preview window. But it doesn't have the title PowerToys or Peek. It's just the filename of whatever gets opened. So now you have two problems: figure out why you can't select multiple files in Explorer like you did last week and last year and ten years ago; and figure out how to disable this mystery preview window so it doesn't keep happening. Hopefully the first time you discover Peek, you aren't trying to delete a subset of sensitive documents in a shared space without using the mouse. But that's okay; the lead dev states PowerToys is an incubator, and that justifies enabling new features by default, so sensitive files should get previewed using Ctrl + Space without warning! (Only that last part is mine.) The tools are too opinionated for the amount of productivity they claim to provide. (Yeah, even Quick Accent. I'll stick with my insecure AHK script. At least it only activates when I ask for it.)

danpalmer 2y ago

I find it interesting that, to my knowledge, launcher/assistant tools like this aren't common on platforms other than macOS. Windows has had one or two that I've seen, but not common, and I don't hear every Windows user swearing by them. Linux has GnomeDo, but I found it lacking, and again I haven't heard people swearing by them. ChromeOS has one I think, but I can't remember the name, and again it doesn't seem popular. macOS on the other hand has had Quicksilver, Launchbar, Alfred, and Raycast, to name just those that I've personally used, and Spotlight has been built in to macOS for a long time, with a launcher/utility interface for many years. I've also heard many people (at least in techie/knowledge worker circles) using them, and have met strong proponents of all of these options. Is this difference just down to my lack of knowledge of other platforms, or is there a grain of truth to this? If so, why? What makes macOS conducive to this (is it that these are all built on Spotlight and therefore can exist easily), and do users just demand this more on macOS?

Zanfa 2y ago
Could it be due to the high percentage of Macs being used by devs compared to Windows and the fact that Mac software typically puts more focus on UI, even for developer-focused tools, compared to Linux?
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  >due to the high percentage of Macs being used by devs compared to Windows Depends where. Where I live, most IT and development jobs are on windows and globally speaking the picture seems to be the same. Mac dominating SW development work seems mostly a SV/US thing.
  - Zanfa 2y ago
    I was implying more that among Mac users, the percentage of devs is significantly higher than among Windows users. I'd assume the same is true for higher cost PCs vs entry level as well. That aside, Macs are definitely overrepresented outside of SV/US as well, being from EU myself, I don't think I remember a single office I've visited over the last 10 years in a number of countries that didn't look like an Apple store. Granted India/China alone are populous enough to dictate global statistics.

the_cramer 2y ago

If you want to use powertoys run, i highly recommend the plugin for everything here. [1] Everything [2] is an indexer that will make finding your local files super fast. If you couple those two, you have a launcher that is able to find all files on your drive very fast (and launch applications of course). [1] https://github.com/lin-ycv/EverythingPowerToys https://github.com/lin-ycv/EverythingPowerToys [2] https://www.voidtools.com/ https://www.voidtools.com/

raincole 2y ago
What's the difference between this and the search bar in the start menu?
- batrat 2y ago
  For me is 10X faster and it finds what I need. For example if I search for "power" it shows powerautomate (why??) , powerpoint, powershell in this order. No powertoys. Also if I dont have internet it takes ages before it shows somethig in search. Yea it's much more usefull.
- jve 2y ago
  Everything works always and searches everything. Windows start... I don' t even know if search works or file not found. And is way slower.
- KineticLensman 2y ago
  Everything is instant and doesn’t piss about with internet results. Just what’s on your local system
- alisonatwork 2y ago
  It seems the sibling commenters don't know about the DisableSearchBoxSuggestions registry option, which I highly recommend keyboard users of Windows to set up on every system they work with. When the setting is applied the start menu will go back to the old behavior where results appear instantly and always point to your local machine. I'm sure dedicated launchers can do an even better job for deep searches, but personally I've never found myself particularly slowed down by the built-in behavior after disabling that borked web search functionality.

prmoustache 2y ago

Isn't the main start menu already a quick launcher? My experience on windows in the last decade is limited but every time I used a windows 10 machine, the windows key followed with whatever keyword would act as a launcher. Or am I missing something obvious? Did they remove start menu from win 11?

ginko 2y ago
>Isn't the main start menu already a quick launcher? That was my first thought as well. I haven't really used Windows all that much since Windows 7, but at least then I found the start menu to work a lot better than anything we have in Linux land. Simply press <Win> and type out what you need, be it some application or a system setting you want to change.
- Semaphor 2y ago
  It works as long as you previously configured it properly (by default it shows websearches), and don’t need many configuration options or features in general. For most users it’s enough, power users might want more.
- thereisnospork 2y ago
  The functionality has sadly gone significantly downhill since Windows 7 - which I concur worked quite well, type 2-3 letters and press enter and the obvious thing usually launched. Nowadays mostly I just get a prompt to search something on Bing which will of course disregard my browser preference and launch edge. Not that I ever want the start menu to launch a search anyway...
  - alisonatwork 2y ago
    This (awful) behavior can be disabled with a one line registry tweak, after which Windows 10 and 11 start menus more or less work the same as in previous versions. Search for DisableSearchBoxSuggestions.
Krssst 2y ago

eikaramba 2y ago

Having tested all launchers which are available on earth I settled with fluentsearch. Most capable launcher of them all and also works with everything(although the internal indexer is also incredible powerful)

andro_dev 2y ago

It also comes with telemetry that one can’t disable

tracker1 2y ago

So, what the start menu search should be, before they added web results (and ads).

NikkiA 2y ago

The one feature that keeps me on KeyPirinha over PowerToys Run is the ability to configure and launch portable apps from specific locations (and subdirectories). I strongly suspect that 'Run has the feature, but I cannot for the life of me find it. Beyond that they mostly occupy the same space, with 'Run slightly faster to popup (and by slight I mean measured in mS).

rijavecb 2y ago

[dead]