Powertoys | TheaterFire

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Sinwithagrin@reddit

Powertoys is disabled by our Infosec team. Even for the admins. :(

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FostWare@reddit

I’ve seen it disabled for the AlwaysAwake functionality. Can’t have people circumventing inactivity timeouts for locking the PC

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Sinwithagrin@reddit

Yeah, I get it. They really need to make it feature compliant and add gpo/policy blocks so they don't have to block the whole thing. Plus we already have monitoring software.

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and yet that's it's one killer feature, since corp decided to give me a laptop and a dock, so I lose all connections and displays when the screen locks! Just waiting for peripherals to reattach so I can authenticate (when I used these peripherals to wake the damn thing!) is frustrating. But that's really about how/why I hate docks more than anything...

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TheGreatNico@reddit

On the one hand, I get it, on the other hand, if they block it at my job I'm going to fucking riot.

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SpotlessCheetah@reddit

Been using Powertoys since XP.

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grimson73@reddit

When code is shipped inside Windows it becomes part of the product Microsoft is responsible for under its support and lifecycle policies. That responsibility means Microsoft must investigate and, when possible, provide fixes, workarounds, or documented guidance for failures customers report under their support agreement. space pinball anecdote That’s why we can’t have nice things 😋

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Friend_Of_Mr_Cairo@reddit

They bought powertoys tho...

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grimson73@reddit

Same for sysinternals but not native to Windows unfortunately.

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ORA2J@reddit

Wait till you learn about sysinternals.

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frac6969@reddit

It’s probably not talked about often because almost everyone know about it. PowerToys first came out for Windows 95/XP and then was re-released for Windows 10. It’s been a while.

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Anticept@reddit

Seeing a slash between 95 and xp, considering that they are several products apart, is such a funny thing.

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mixduptransistor@reddit

but 95 and XP were dividing lines between kernels and architectures. It's not that odd of a way to indicate the two eras of Windows...the 9x era and the XP and forward era

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duke78@reddit

Weren't XP and Windows 2000 the same architecture?

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ImperiumStultorum@reddit

Yes and no, it felt like WinNT core came with half-assed driver and user security approach from Windows 9x. Even with some DLL hell on the side.

Had to sit out early WinXP with Win2K, until things were fixed in SP2.

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BrainWaveCC@reddit

it felt like WinNT core came with half-assed driver and user security approach from Windows 9x

Absolutely not.

The NT core predates Windows 9x. NT 3.1 and 3.5 and 3.51 were somewhat contemporaneous with the Windows 3.1 and 3.11.

NT4.0 and Windows 95 were contemporaneous, and nothing about NT4 came from the Win9x architecture.

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ImperiumStultorum@reddit

Read the context - I replied regarding the architecture of Windows XP. Not the timing of OS versions.

WinXP combined the WinNT core from Win2K and the architecture of driver/user security from Win9x. Win2K was not as buggy as WinXP because of that.

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BrainWaveCC@reddit

I'm aware of the context.

XP added DirectX and the ability to run games that had previously only run on the Win9x OSes. This does not equate to "driver/user security from Win9x."

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mixduptransistor@reddit

Yes, but 2000 was not a consumer mass market OS like XP

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duke78@reddit

Correct, but not relevant, as XP Home and XP Pro would still be the same architecture.

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sunburnedaz@reddit

They were both based on the windows NT kernel yes. In some cases you could use windows 2000 drivers with XP to get older hardware working. No guarantees when you did that though.

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MindlessHorror@reddit

95, 98, and ME were all part of the 9x line.

XP and 2000 were both descendents of the NT line, which has carried on through Windows 11

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pdp10@reddit

95 was contemporaneous to NT 3.5.1 and NT 4.0.

98SE was generally still contemporaneous with XP, even though Windows Me existed.

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RansomStark78@reddit

You donot understand kernels and rings

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Anticept@reddit

Windows XP uses the NT kernel line. NT came out before 95.

The only thing XP does that is special here is it is the first in the line of OSs specifically marketed to consumers and not just businesses.

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mixduptransistor@reddit

and that is the dividing line I'm talking about

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Anticept@reddit

Why did you say architectures?

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Fritzo2162@reddit

95/98/ME/Vista were essentially the same OS with a different shell and Powertoys worked on all of them. That's probably what he's getting at.

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MindlessHorror@reddit

Vista was an NT release: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista

ME was the last release of the 9x line, with XP (also NT) being the first unified release for consumer and commercial markets, succeeding both ME (9x, consumer) and 2000 (NT, commercial).

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sunburnedaz@reddit

Vista was not the same as 9X/ME. Vista was basically windows 7 pre release alpha.

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TheSmJ@reddit

The 9x kernel was used for Win 95 through ME. Vista's kernel was new (with some roots in NT/2k/XP's kernel) and Win7's was built off of Vista's.

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Fritzo2162@reddit

Haha...I used to wreak havoc on office PCs with Powertoys in Win95. "HOW DID YOU SET THAT???"

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kuzared@reddit

At this point, I honestly have no idea what’s in PowerToys and what’s not, it’s one of the first things which I install on my system.

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HawkExotic2515@reddit (OP)

That's just blowing my mind, I've been involved in IT since 2010 and I'm just now finding out about it.

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Inner-Relative-7268@reddit

Check out “PSR”

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OgdruJahad@reddit

OK but you do know about Sysinternals Tools right?

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CleverMonkeyKnowHow@reddit

If they don't know about PowerToys, I'm almost certain they now nothing about Sysinternals.

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Abyssaldemon@reddit

Dunno about OP, but I've been using sysinternals for years, and never heard of powertoys.

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ordiclic@reddit

Same here, I discovered SysInternals a 15 years before PowerToys.

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KC-Slider@reddit

That’s me too

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HearthCore@reddit

How? I found out about them more than 8 years ago while working, looking through free tools for some of its functions. I mean, how is a research process as to not find microsoft developers toys?

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Zedilt@reddit

In that same vein, might I introduce you to Microsoft Garage.

A Microsoft program that encourages employees to work on projects about which they are passionate, despite having no relation to their primary function within the company.

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cdtekcfc@reddit

Same here

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Unable-Entrance3110@reddit

It started off with a good set of utilities but has become the dumping ground for everyone's pet project now.

I came for the mouse without borders and power rename and stay for the constant bloat and instability from multiple updates...

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Tikuf@reddit

What you mean you bought it? Power Toys has been around sense XP days, and has always been free.

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Russ3ll@reddit

From OP's comment below it sounds like they purchased paid software for some of the features that PowerToys provides.

Unrelated, I also just recently learned about PowerToys. I mentioned PowerToys on a team standup and our head Ops guy told me it's been a thing since Windows 95. Blew my mind

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sodiumbromium@reddit

...I feel real old now, thanks ;)

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Xibby@reddit

I mentioned PowerToys on a team standup and our head Ops guy told me it's been a thing since Windows 95. Blew my mind

You know, sometimes I forget that I’m older than MS-DOS and then I see a comment like this and think “Fuck I’m old. When did that happen?” 😂

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nascentt@reddit

Waaaay before XP days.

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No_Winner2301@reddit

Next you will tell me you do not know about https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/

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WayneH_nz@reddit

And there is a way to map them to a drive letter.

https://tech.joshbrade.com/mapping-sysinternals-to-a-drive-in-windows/

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Nu11u5@reddit

I don't know how to feel about SMB over internet.

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No_Winner2301@reddit

normally it is not possible due to a firewall and common sense.

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No_Winner2301@reddit

TCPVIEW is the bomb for troubleshooting on windows

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robertmachine@reddit

Remember HijackThis lol, used to use it with powertoys all the time

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Xibby@reddit

I usually forget that I’m older than MS-DOS and then I see a comment like this and think “Fuck I’m old. When did that happen?” 😂

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bogusputz@reddit

I have not been a sysadmin longer than many of the folks posting have been one.

It's hell getting old but it beats the alternative.

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Xibby@reddit

It's hell getting old but it beats the alternative.

When you’re older and wiser you do know how to have a good time… and you tend to have more financial resources to make that good time happen. I’m kinda cringing on the cost up updating my skis and boots… but I’m going to have a blast riding them for years.

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inkgrrl@reddit

Same 🤣🫠

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LALLANAAAAAA@reddit

It's hell getting old but it beats the alternative.

Very well put, thank you for this.

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chefkoch_@reddit

Around 1990.

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quadranog@reddit

1985 Prime system. Pascal.

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IAmTheM4ilm4n@reddit

Inside every old person is a young one wondering what the hell happened.

Source: me, who started with punch cards on a System/36.

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Pisnaz@reddit

I am training up my number 2, though we both sat back and realized it has now been 3 years, and occasionally I will get on a tangent about old tools, systems, and things and he says some bullshit like "I was not even born then". If anyone tried to mess with my PFY I would become pure BOFH, but man sometimes when he does that I think "this fucking kid is on my lawn". Then I see his shit eating grin.

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can3gxw@reddit

These damn kids can get off my LAN

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robjeffrey@reddit

Damn. I feel ya.

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nefarious_bumpps@reddit

When my youngest got her driver's license. Confirmed when my 4th grandkid was born.

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QuietGoliath@reddit

You're not alone 👋😁

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sylvar@reddit

This post is xkcd 1053–compliant.

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buttbait@reddit

Yeah PowerToys is super underrated. FancyZones alone makes multitasking so much easier.

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TheMcSebi@reddit

Better late than never :) it's been around for 30 years, so no big news. The cool thing about it is that MS open sourced it some time around windows 10.

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Apprehensive_Bat_980@reddit

I started using PowerToys the other day for the multi screen layouts. Super handy

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

Good stuff.

First version i remember was out shortly after Windows 95.

Just sayin. Im old.

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HawkExotic2515@reddit (OP)

I've bought software that lets you move the mouse between multiple computers. I had no idea this was a feature provided by Microsoft. Also the mouse utilities, I've worked with training departments that could highly benefit from the highlight options they provide

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frac6969@reddit

That would be Mouse Without Borders which had been around since 2011 or so and was a Microsoft Garage project separate from PowerToys. It was merged with PowerToys not long ago and I hated that.

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Alaknar@reddit

It was merged with PowerToys not long ago and I hated that.

Why?

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frac6969@reddit

Yeah I worded that poorly. We just want the Mouse Without Borders functionality without all the other stuff, many of which are enabled by default and confused the users.

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Alaknar@reddit

Oh yeah, I get that. I'd love for there to be an install option that would let you list the stuff that's supposed to be enabled/disabled by default.

And some policies to control that globally.

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jmbpiano@reddit

Policies like these?

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OpenGrainAxehandle@reddit

We used to use a free product called 'Synergy' for that.

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BortLReynolds@reddit

You can still use one of the open source forks of Synergy.

https://github.com/deskflow/deskflow/wiki/Project-Forks

Nice thing about these is that they work on all the operating systems and not just Windows, so you can have a Linux machine next to a Windows machine and share inputs between them.

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HotelVitrosi@reddit

Wait till you find out about the sysinternals suite.

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FostWare@reddit

Wait util you play with devtoys

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NetworkPIMP@reddit

WTF, it's talked about all the time ...

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Silent_Rule_S@reddit

There used to be lots of application tips and troubleshooting tips in this sub but now 90% is complaints about working conditions/vacation/pay/unions in the USA. 👍 Sub has changed to the worse.

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die-microcrap-die@reddit

I have to admit, I havent look much into the Win 10 versions, only the Win 95 version.

I do remember that for some reason, I wasnt impressed by the W10 version as I was for the original.

I need to check back and see what its offering.

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jeffrey_f@reddit

There are some improvements. Great tools for the power-user.

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die-microcrap-die@reddit

Cool, will take another look.

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jeffrey_f@reddit

winget install Microsoft.PowerToys

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ScherPegnau@reddit

Similar funky collection is DevToys. Cert decoding, yaml-json formatter/converter, and a bunch of other utilities. Love it.

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slugshead@reddit

What bothers me about powertoys, it's one huge bundle.

There are certain powertoys I'd like to deploy to specific collections of devices e.g. Awake to presentation laptops - The amount of people that don't run presentations in full screen to prevent sleeping is mental.

Unless I'm missing something?

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matroosoft@reddit

You can specifically disable or enable certain tool within Powertoys using GPO. We deploy it by default and have certainty tools within it disabled.

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

It should be a toggle in settings to enable/disable various parts, not just policies.

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TurnItOff_OnAgain@reddit

You can do that on power toys. I only have 2 or 3 modules enabled

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stromm@reddit

Yea, it really pissed me off when MS got rid of the individual downloads.

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binaryhextechdude@reddit

No point discussing it when it’s blocked at my org.

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Alaknar@reddit

What's worth discussing is that it'd be great to be able to block certain features of PowerToys via policy.

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matroosoft@reddit

This is possible, you can use GPO to enable/disable certain tools within it.

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JaredSeth@reddit

Exactly. We make PowerToys available to all of our users for self-installation via the Company but block the use of Awake, since it can be used to bypass our screenlock policies, and a couple other tools (with an exception group for those systems where we want to allow those).

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aguynamedbrand@reddit

Yet here you are talking about it.

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TrulyScarring@reddit

Also an active project that looks to be bringing it over to gnome as well: github.com/domferr/Linux-PowerToys

I have struggled with decent windows tiling on llinux, so far the fancy zones implementation is great.

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nothing_pt@reddit

It's well known.

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StevieRay8string69@reddit

I use powertoys all day at work. Its amazing

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expiro@reddit

It‘s huge. Chunky. No one would invest time in it. Especially a mind fucked sysadmin :)) but it contains really cool things though. Copying text from image, setting desired window in foreground etc.

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aguynamedbrand@reddit

Microsoft powertoys has so much funtion I wish I knew about and features I've bought stand alone versions for personal use.

Seems strange to pay for free software that is publicly available for download on the Microsoft website. Microsoft described it as follows.

Microsoft PowerToys is a set of free Microsoft Windows utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience for greater productivity.

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Alaknar@reddit

Seems strange to pay for free software that is publicly available for download on the Microsoft website. Microsoft described it as follows.

He says he's purchased software that has the functionality of PowerToys, not the other way around.

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