Powertoys: "Run" was my favorite.

No, it doesn't make Windows behave like Linux.
It are just a collection of apps made by the engineers behind Windows with features that never made it into the official build because of all kinds of reasons.

Powertoys on windows are a boon, but there's absolutely no word you can say they make windows "behave like linux". Not even close.

Oh, yes all the tools that should already exist in their crappy, uninnovated OS.
- They still haven’t figured out how to do updates without installing during a reboot.
  Something Linux has been doing since the 90’s
  
  Sometimes those updates only apply when you reboot.

Proud victim of the Powertoys to Linux pipeline reporting in
- Holy shit! It's real
  Windows - > Powertoys - > Winget - > Win Debloater - > Minimal Windows - > Bazite - > Debian
  
  It's so beautiful!
  That's my journey too, except a few of those didn't exist yet, when I first walked it.
  Portable Windows apps and Ubuntu live Boot CDs awkwardly bridges some of the (previous) gaps, for me.
  
  Pretty much my desktop experience, with popos rather than bazzite.
  
  You forgot the arch/Gentoo phase before Debian.

Holy shit powertotys run is the one of the only reasons i can tolerate windows 11 on a works laptop.
Local admin to go digging through group policy settings, just so i don't have to scroll past 2 pages of ads and internet results in the start menu to open fucking "settings"?
They can absolutely fuck right off with that.
- What does it do?
  
  it's an alt-space launcher.
  you press alt+space, a little box pops up in the centre of the screen and works the way the search box in the start menu is supposed to work.
  No ads, no internet search results, just application and file search, perhaps some cheeky addition or multiplication.

All fun and games but I'm still missing the "paste without format" keybind.
Powertoys is a great addition and while there probably are addons for all of these in linux I kinda wish they would come in one package together too.
Maybe it's just me but I feel like I'm not helping my system by tagging on add on after add on just to get back some basic functionality from Window like a clipboard and status indicators for some apps in my taskbar
- You are not a Plasma user it seems.
  
  Nope Gome 48 on Fedora 42
- Does ctrl-shift-v not work for you? Or do you want to rebind it?
  
  I did not know that was a think until now but yes I want to rebind it 🙈 I will need to look into this for gnome
- KDE plasma has like 90% of the feadures.
  
  I think I will need to go over to KDE anyways soon
- I kinda wish they would come in one package together too.
  You may be able to find themed meta packages (single packages that install a suite of related features) for this, depending what you're looking for.
  Lately, I have been confused because I was looking for Gnome add-ons for features that vwere already included but just toggled off.
  I now find that most of what I want, as a power user, is a quick settings search and then a toggle button.
  The general dividng line, lately, in Gnome, is that plugins may still have bugs, while built-in features tend to be very reliable. Most of what PowerToys contains (that I care about) is just a settings toggle in Gnome. A notable exception is Window tiling, which I use a plugin for.
  
  I will go through the list of power tools and see what I can get from Gnome settings 🤔

No true. I use it only for FancyZones. A feature not native to Linux. In gnome I also have to install a plugin to get this functionality.
- I'm thankful for both.
  The plugin install on Gnome is quicker and less invasive (doesn't require escalated permissions) than installing PowerToys.
  I also like that Gnome plugins let me choose only the plugins I want. PowerToys leaves me with many installed features I'm not using. I think they at least all default to turned off. Gnome does save me a few moments of configuration, too, as the plugin can default to "on" since each plugin is separate.
  And Gnome's tiling has good defaults. PowerToys still uses "these are power users" as an excuse to ignore usability feedback.
  
  Gnome plugin are great. I've seen complaints about them breaking when gnome is upgraded, but I haven't experienced any problems myself.
  My only complaint is discoverability. I was rawdogging gnome in fedora for a while before i discovered the extension manager app in the Store. This should be built in!

The fact that Microsoft refers to the application suite that makes Windows marginally useful as "toys" should tell you everything you need to know about their OS philosophy. I prefer an OS that takes my use cases seriously.

Meh... switch to linux, already

Power toys is so bad now. Almost all the features are completely useless and it hogs a ton of system resources.

I remember using it way more in 98/XP. Group Policy manager is what I have to use for most of the shit I wanna do with 10. Which is only available with a Pro license.
- not using https://massgrave.dev/ for windows licences
  statements made by the utterly deranged
  
  I didn't mean imply I don't have one. It's just stupid that such a feature is only available through a more expensive tier if you actually pay for it.

Have been using PowerToys for years, can't imagine using Windows without it.

It’s for average users to make Windows easier to use. Though that’s the same as making it more Linux like

Is there a Linux application that does what fancyzones does?
- If you are under KDE, there is a plugin for this, but I don't recall the name. I'll tell you later when on my computer. I use it everyday.
  
  So it is a separate app you have to manually install?
  Kind of like PowerToys itself?
- Gnome also has a plugin(s) for this.
  I use both, Fancy Zones and Gnome, but I like (one of) the gnome version(s) better.
  Mainly, the Gnome version puts a quick toggle on screen for switching layouts with the mouse, and it makes better choices about what windows to display when shifting between windows with Alt+Tab.

- What's the second one? PowerToys and?
  
  It's WSL, I think the logo is relatively new though or maybe not official idk

wait til you hear about WSL
- until you realise it's just a Microsoft-flavored VM
  
  only the second version. wsl1 is pure black magic. the communication layer is 9P, which means that windows is currently the only mainstream OS capable of talking to a Plan9 network out of the box.
  
  i think that’s oversimplifying, but kinda…
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Subsystem_for_Linux
  
  good bot

I miss the window tiling one. Its ability to span multiple "areas" with a window by holding a modifier key is something I sorely wish KDE's tiling had.
Edit: FancyZones! Finally remembered the name.
- Thought KDE did have one? Unless I installed an extension and forgot about it.
  Super + T to configure
  And works with Super + left click to move windows (no more hunting that pesky titlebar up top)
  Edit: I'm on KDE 5 so things may be different, but I found it under Workspace Behaviour>Desktop Effects>Window Management
  
  Yeah this is inbuilt (not an extension) and very similar to Windows fancy zones.
  
  Meta as in Super?
  
  It does, but in Plasma you can only snap a window to a single area. With FancyZones you can create a more detailed grid and hold a modifier key to make the window span multiple areas, so it's much more flexible than the fixed layout of KDE. For example you can make a 4x4 grid and choose to span a window across 4x1 or 1x4. That's impossible in Plasma (for now).
  
  they talked about a specific functionality and they specifically said they wish kde's tiling had it. i can't check whether it does but the commenter clearly isn't unaware of the zones, they just want different functionality.
- I know it’s not KDE Plasma, but Gnome on Ubuntu has Tiling Shell. It also lets you span multiple tiles too.
  
  Yeah, but then I'd be using Gnome.
- Fancy zones and alt snap rule! (Although I believe alt snap - click-dragging windows with a keyboard activator - is core window manager stuff?)
  
  It isn't the snapping I was referring to, but the ability to make a window span multiple areas. In KDE the window can only snap into a single area.

I’ve never heard of PowerToys Run, but it looks like Spotlight on MacOS but for Windows. Is this correct?
- Yes! And they also have an Everything (way better search program than Windows has EVER been) plugin that I’ve tweaked to include Everything’s results at the top since the index it does is exponentially better than Windows’ own. Highly recommend for those that want that two button search that has always found what I was looking for on my own computer.
  Shoutout to KDE for their search function, KRunner?, as it is amazing and ready to go from the get go.
- Windows Power Toys is a suite of programs and tweaks for Windows, one of which is “Run” that behaves similar to spotlight search on macOS. If you have to operate in Windows, I’d say the suite is a must-have for Run, Fancy Zones, File Renamer, Screen Ruler, and Color Picker alone. It’s good software that should be built into the OS but for some reason is not— built and maintained by a dedicated open source community these days as opposed to just a couple individuals from inside Microsoft back in the day when Power Toys was a proprietary tool first released on Windows 95.
  
  I use the plain text paste from powertools daily. Also does text OCR to clipboard.
  
  Also has a “find cursor” macro
  
  All the things you say are mandatory are a distraction at best. And hog a lot of resources.
  Spotlight run: adds nothing except being a slow down. It's not that different from the standard search/run box. It just looks nicer. Way nicer.
  Fancy zones: does not work reliable on multi monitor/big monitor setup. Useless in my use case. Has been for several years.
  Fie renamer: .... Really? This is a power tot these days?
  Screen ruler: i don't need rulers on my desktop, i need them in my apps.
  Color picker: same. I do not have any use case for it. This is standard app functionality.
  Every time i installed powertoys in the last 4/5 years i shrugged, cursed at Fancy zones for not working in my setup and removing it after a few days.
  That's the same usage loop as rainmaker or most stardock tools by the way. Good ideas but fucks up to many things.
  The new tabbed shell. (Or not so new anymore these days) Now that is a real powertoy. Or the lnx subsysteem.
- Pretty much.

winsock.dll
- Where's my trumpet?
  
  @BagOfHeavyStones @homesweethomeMrL stolen by Trump?