The rebirth of Windows PowerToys. Not.

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The hype machine is in high gear. Latest headline: Microsoft re-releases Windows PowerToys, this time as an open source project. Many of you have aske
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ve2mrx, Elly, PhotM

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N. does not sound very useful.

SysInternals still is a bit useful:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/

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ve2mrx, Microfix, John

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Sysinternals is wonderfully useful, in all sorts of situations.

But it isn’t a PowerToy. Microsoft bought the original Sysinternals when they hired Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell — two luminaries in the Windows world — and bought out their company. MS promised at the time, in 2006, to keep Sysinternals free and readily available. They stuck to their promise.

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doriel, Elly, PhotM

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Exactly, I was about to say, if you gyus know sysinternals

Lot of free cool stuff there

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I forgot to mention utility “notmyfault” hilarious, just hilarious

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They’re open source, so anybody can go in and change them. Which is great.

Except that I can modify that open source and create something identical in appearance with completely different functionality…

Nah, malware authors wouldn’t be that creative, would they?

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Meh, they could do that anyways. But it won’t be signed, and thus won’t run by default.

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woody

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Power Toy??
UnderPowered trinket

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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I wish I had kept the reference, so this falls into the category of anecdote – not fact. In any case, I once read that the code in SyncToy formed the basis for the synchronization of files in SkyDrive, nay OneDrive. That made sense to me when I read it. However, it also implies that MS began plotting the path to a cloud based windows way back, per the 1995 Internet Memo by Bill Gates. My theory is that MS was following that path, very logically, when the smartphone craze hit, shortly after or in parallel with the Tablet craze. As usual, they weren’t going to be left out or behind. So the Surface line was conceived and implemented. And at the same time someone, not Gates I hope, had the bright idea to merge the user experience between the smartphone interface and the traditional XP/Vista/7 interface – a big merge if you will. That spawned Win8. How frustrating it must’ve been for MS to not be able to gain a foothold in the smartphone market. I believe that frustration manifested itself in the interface goulash known first as Win8, then Win8.1, and finally WinX. They couldn’t help themselves by returning to a non-bifurcated UI.

In the background of it all though was the cloud. And with that a centrally managed OS. One of the big knocks on MS, compared to Apple, was that MS had to test their new software on an almost infinite number of platform combinations – combos of PC’s, video cards, processors, memory configurations, buses, etc., while Apple maintained strict control on the number of hardware combinations it supported. MS became hugely jealous of that, IMHO, and figured out that the internet, the Cloud, was the solution to that problem. WinX was the outcome.

I don’t know – anybody got a better theory? I lived through it and still can’t believe the mess MS has made of their UI. I still won’t understand why they don’t offer us little guys choices in UI and connectivity. The only connectivity choice we have is between the local account and the MS account. Or no connectivity at all.

Musings of a frustrated Windows user.

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Elly

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Rhetorically, why can’t MS offer a clean stable OS devoid of crapware and spyware for users willing to pay an annual fee? They are so frustrating with their one size fits all group think that seems to prevail in Redmond.

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Mature products like OSes and Office have a problem with finding features to generate new sales. There is no particular reason for anyone to get a newest version of Windows or Office because of some new ‘must have feature’. Plus software does not really wear out. And older version is often feature complete enough for most. Thus, the effort to get users to use an online, subscription version. Subscriptions will bring in regular revenue without having to get them to buy a new version every few years. And it is usually a bad deal in reality for most.

If MS could explain what ‘features’ of W10 are so great one must have it when it was released then there might have been some real interest in switching. In reality they could not give anyone a ‘must have’ to make the switch worthwhile for most. Hence most are staying with whatever until they have to replace the box. And with the ongoing farce W1o releases and updates have been, one can understand why many are gun shy.

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RamRod, Elly

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RamRod wrote:

Apple maintained strict control on the number of hardware combinations it supported. MS became hugely jealous of that, IMHO, and figured out that the internet, the Cloud, was the solution to that problem.

I doubt MS have ever been jealous of Apple’s 5% PC market share, why would they? Of course it would be much simpler to run any business if there weren’t those darned customers, but oh well.

I don’t think there was any particular push by MS to drive us towards the cloud. Rather, the other way round—the cloud was/is the obvious future of computing and information, so they got on board along with everyone else.

RamRod wrote:

the smartphone craze hit, shortly after or in parallel with the Tablet craze

Smartphones came first, ~3 years before tablets—if we’re talking about the Apple products which are what popularized them.

MS likely had tablets firmly in their sights for a while, though. I remember Bill Gates got very excited about the potential of tablets about a decade before the iPad came out. But the tech just wasn’t there in 2000 to make a viable product. I guess Steve Ballmer didn’t keep an eye on that ball last decade, but there would always have been the obvious underlying trend towards smaller and smaller devices which has characterized computing since the 60s. Stick PC will be next breakthru.

Lugh.
~
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RamRod

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This is in an E-Mail I got from ZDNet today:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-microsoft-is-bringing-back-one-of-windows-95s-most-popular-features/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&bhid=164474

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Elly

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Actually, on GitHub, Microsoft wants us to consider, which of following he should finish fisrt.

-Full window manager including specific layouts for docking and undocking laptops
-Keyboard shortcut manager
-Win+R replacement
-Better alt+tab including browser tab integration and search for running apps
-Battery tracker
-Batch file re-namer
-Quick resolution swaps in taskbar
-Mouse events without focus
-Cmd (or PS or Bash) from here
-Contents menu file browsing

I am surprised.. And quite optimistic about this

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