#PowerToys

[porterdavis]

Serious software, silly name

I'm sure at least some people reading this would find PowerToys useful. It's a Microsoft suite of apps that in one way or another improve productivity (don't ask me why it's not included in Windows -- I don't know).

I got it mostly because I have two computers in my office, each using two screens on my desk (2X2). That meant two keyboards and two, er..., mice? (Also compounding my problem is that at my office in the country I have one computer and 4 screens, so only one mouse and kb). You see, I'm getting old and daft so two different set-ups tends to baffle me.

Enter PowerToys Mouse without Borders. After a painless set-up it allows one mouse and one keyboard to work on two computers at the same time without any switching. This may be old news, but to me it's a blessing. One less thing to worry about.

I should mention there are a passel of other functions PT can perform, some seem more useful than others.

[dashawfrostart]

These Few Weeks In "Time & Again" #31: There Are Reasons Why It's Taking So Long 😅 (Aside From Me Writing These HUGE Posts)

Phew. I'll get straight to the point right away, and it's a bit sad: the development of the chapter has slowed down a little bit immensely came virtually to a grinding halt within the last two weeks or so, due to some life matters (and lack of necessary focus). I'm still at the supermarket scene, and it's still not done. That makes me quite unhappy. Dammit, I hate when that happens!.. (and no, in the context of this post, that was NOT said about the abandoned shopping carts that are blocking the way from the parking lot) 🤣😅 As I said before, life takes away so much time from art!.. But I'm already picking up the pace and trying to refresh the vision after being near zero productive directly on the chapter. For example, I've made a promo art - one of a few I was thinking about for a nice representation of the essence of the latest chapters, with a cryptic and surreal twist. And boy it looks goooooood 😁 In my head though, I'm still constantly working on "Time & Again" and related stuff. But I need a spark (just like Lothar?.. ... ...?). It feels too grey to me right now (and that is BEFORE I applied the desaturation filter! Unholy snapmap!). It has always been a struggle to me - to spring back to the fired up state of readiness for whatever creative matters I attend to. Never ever in my artistic life have I answered the question of how to regain my creative spark that's been somewhat lost along the way, to lift my work to a higher level of productivity and awesomeness - even up to this day. I think listening to very good (read: hearty, conceptual, wholesome, wicked crazy, etc.) music albums used to help back in the day, but I'm not certain if that helps anymore. Or maybe I have become extra picky in my selection of inspirational art, because consuming and dissolving a lot of wonderful art into oneself is quite possibly bound to make oneself more demanding in regard of quality over time. I blame Lothar's thought pattern for my misfortune. That guy is no fun at all. Get your Sch***e together, Lothar, and be happy already so that I could be happy together with you.

To complicate the matters even further, while working on another piece the other day I happened to lose my progress due to Krita crash during an autosave, which broke my file to the point of complete rubbishness. I'm sure you're all familiar with that; I always hated losing any amount of my work, and I hate throwing away hours of effort like that just because of some random crap happening, especially since spare time is often a luxury to me. I ended up cursing a lot that day - most likely as much as Lothar does on the regular basis for no reason - or even more profusely. That was sure Sch***e, no exaggeration. ... Well, good thing I back up my files regularly 😁👍 But the sad thing is still sad: I resumed work on that piece later on, as if I haven't touched it after sketching at all. And saving incremental versions is now a must, although I never used to do that before. In the moments like that, I always think AI would've been so much help, because, well, why should I redo everything again if I already spent that much time but it all went down the drain for a reason that has nothing to do with me?.. Some people don't have nearly as much time to input into their art as I do. So help from aside to compensate would've been marvellous, for pesky little situations like that that make you want to play the new Doom and cherish moments of glory kills more (... says the person who hates glory kill mechanic as a whole). AI is nowhere near as terrible as the folks who have read too many horror sci-fi stories enjoy demonizing it; people just refuse to think how it might be helpful in resolving certain issues and boosting their own creativity, or using their limited time more efficiently. (I already wrote not just once about certain AI features I would like to utilize to boost my creativity).

... But the good thing is that my automation-fixated self found an easy way to speed up my work a little! I have installed Windows PowerToys - solely to be able to have the thumbnails and previews of the SVG files in file explorer! And I am furiously happy!!! 🥳 Such a simple thing makes my work so much easier and more enjoyable. Ich bin so erfreut 🤗 Now I don't need to start Inkscape every single time I need to quickly look up the speech bubbles placement. Neat-o! Art aside, PowerToys has so many little neat features that might come in handy for the nerds such as myself. Another one favourite of mine is Quick Accent - something I 've been dreaming about for, like, almost 15 years. I like typing (especially my large texts) on computer - I am not a cellphone person (says I, after copy-pasting the draft for this blog post from my Keep notes😅); so adding extra German and Spanish characters to the texts has been a bit of a nuisance - until now. The only downside to Quick Accent is that it sometimes starts off when the games are running (regardless of Game Mode being on), so instead of adding every single one of my 500 Steam games (and beyond) to the blacklist, I simply turn Quick Accent on only when typing in a mixture of languages. That's a small inconvenience, but I can certainly live with that 😁 On a side note, to share and confirm the already long existing joy: I love shell integration, context menus, and explorer previews that Krita provides! I can just look into my folder, enable preview pane in file explorer - and I can easily preview all my SVG and KRA work-in-progress files, if need be! Just like that:

(as depicted on the screenshot above: the SVG file has a thumbnail now, too, thanks to PowerToys; Krita thumbnails and explorer previews come with the installer, and that's super useful. Also, this is a perfect example of the notes I leave on a separate layer RIGHT in my Krita files, to remember what else I need to do or how certain something must be done. Yup, it's always a mess. And it's a fun mess. Almost surprising how the final editions of my art always turn out so clean, eh?!..)

Working on a comic is a complex task after all, and it requires tying the storyboard, the written voice lines, and the intended way of representation of the visuals all together. Every single element in a work like that must have the reason to exist in a specific place, in a specific way, for a specific reason. Because I says so 🧐. (objections are not accepted. Shoo, shoo, heretics!)

Speaking of Krita... There's also one more thing I thankfully resolved the other day, so I'm sharing it here, in case somebody has the same issues and hasn't yet found a solution. I have noticed a weird stutter/lag with my pen a few days ago inside and outside Krita. And yes, you're right: it was doubly weird, because it was happening outside Krita as well, just on the desktop or when I used file explorer with my graphic monitor on. Since Krita obviously was not the culprit, I thought it might've been a problem with my Huion app. But it was up-to-date, and that never happened before until recently. So I did a quick search, and - just as quick, which was pleasantly unexpected and lovely - came across this post that described the exact same issue I had. So I followed the post's instructions. Logitech LampArray Service - disabled. Now drawing is a pleasure yet again 😁 I'm always very happy when the solutions to my techy problems are resolved so quickly and easily 🥳 (now, onto the more hardcore troubleshooting: trying to make the original 2 CDs retail version of American McGee's Alice run on Win11... Unholy snapmapadoodlemap, that's gonna be an adventure, and I am NOT looking forward to it 😵‍💫😩)

But back to "Time & Again"! Now, on to why you gotta be really patient with me right now; there's a reason. And the reasons is of a truly grand scale. Perhaps I've never mentioned that - or maybe I have only briefly - but I think that Chapter 6 is going to be the most complex chapter of all. Even more complex than the last one, Chapter 8. While Chapter 8 is primarily going to be an emotional explosion (surprise surprise *slow clapping*), Chapter 6 requires a lot of peculiar research done by me in order to represent certain things right, for the proper feel. And it's all gonna be about urban scenery. I must admit, I kinda hate drawing urban scenery: too geometric, too little nature. Everything should be perfectly straight or diagonal, depending on the view angle. That's just boring. And yet, it has to be done for my story, since it's basically a sci-fi story (the setting is definitely sci-fi). That's a personal preference, of course... But I'd always prefer to draw lush trees instead of tall concrete buildings. I bet ya that's because I am a bird nerd, and the trees often have birds on them, and the buildings often don't... Unless the birds are rock pigeons. Rock pigeons have conquered the world long ago. I bet they're planning on something mischievous right now as we speak. But I digress. However, when I appreciate other people's art, I absolutely don't mind urban landscapes and sci-fi settings; on the contrary, I actually really like them. One instance stands out especially in my memory and is still fresh even though a few years had passed since I played it: that's the supermassive office building in Infested that was incredibly difficult to navigate due to - well, as the name suggests - demon infestations. In fact, that place was the main inspiration for the layout of the mysterious abandoned building in Chapter 4 of "Time & Again". In Chapter 4, when Lothar and Jeanny travel around to see what the peck is going on, they come across something that resembles a giant greenhouse. Planning and drawing those 2 pages was so much fun for me! And although they featured geometric shapes as well, those 2 extremely green pages were a delight for me to draw through and through! I never get that feeling from drawing urban scenery. But again, a̴r̸t̵ ̷r̴e̵q̴u̴i̴r̵e̴s̶ s̴̖͚̈́a̴̹̋̈́̊̐͒c̵̱̭̋̓͂̕r̴͕̙̰̖͊̎̈̈̆i̷̘̜̼̲̎̈́͗̃̓̈́͜f̶͔̼̗͔̯̬̈́̋i̷͍̦̭̦̰̊͗̈̚͘͜͝c̶̡̝̩͔̄̆̾ͅe̴̮̖̜͚̦̓̅̏̃̀s̸̱̅̈́͜.

And, since I already mentioned Doom mods above, and how much they contribute to my artistic life, I gotta note something else. Within the last couple of days, I had a few random visions that I thought might improve the feel of Chapter 6. Quite rarely, I reconsider the parts of the storyboard and panel placements, so they ever so slightly differ from the initial sketched variation. So one of these snow-white and deer-filled winter mornings, armed with a red pen to apply corrections, I took off to look at the ending of Chapter 6, neatly and consistently outlined in my sketchbook. In my to-do list, for a long time I had a note saying, "Look at that Doom mod again for the extra inspiration for Lothar's thoughts". So the last summer, I got to play RAMP 2023, and there was that incredibly peculiar, very narrative little level called "Mirror Mirror". I played it at least twice to uncover the promised different endings, and I recorded one of the playthroughs for a future reference. And just a couple days ago, I rewatched my recording. I was stunned. I know that I might be biased. I know that I, in fact, might be VERY biased, knowing how often "Time & Again" is on my mind. But holy smokies! - the main character's thoughts in that mod bear some unbelievable resemblance to Lothar's train of thought in Chapter 6! Also has to do with depression (I think). Also has to do with mirrors and reflections. Also has to do with giving a damn or not. This fits perfectly. So I took notes as I watched the video and I'm thinking about refreshing some of Lothar's voice lines with creatively reworked lines from that level - or maybe I'll flat out keep them unchanged, for a better, incredibly subtle reference that nobody will ever get 😅. Because they are just fantastic.

I really recommend y'all to play that short level. I don't think I have ever played anything like that before. The part with the mirror puzzles was quite entertaining, too.

I think it's time to wrap it up. I usually type on computer right away, but since I don't have enough time lately, I started to type my notes for the future posts in Keep (one might say I'm finally evolving, lol). And, knowing how much I can babble sometimes - just like Edgar - my Keep note hit its symbol limit, so I had to start a new one (that didn't take me long, yup). So I have A LOT of stuff left unspoken. I believe, some of my longreads might be very cucumbersome🥒 for some people to read. But it's not that you didn't know what you were getting yourself into when you visited my blog for the first time, right? 😉 Bis dann, until next time!

P.S. I know, I know: the "peck" joke is getting really old, but I really can't get over it. A Hat In Time was a real blast to play in co-op, and it left a few really nice sweet scars on my memory that will never dissipate. I really like writing "peck", even though I know that I pecking shouldn't curse in public.🐦‍⬛ (I also love northern flickers; can't wait to go see them by the lake this summer again... but I pecking-peckity-peck-peck digress🤪)

P.P.S. In the light of the aforementioned Doominess, I also started to wonder if I could replay Unloved as well. There were references to Unloved in Chapter 3, too, after all. And I never beat it without iddqd, maybe I could try harder this time? 😅

[ajguides]

10 Free Tools for Microsoft Windows

10 Free Tools for Microsoft Windows | https://tinyurl.com/2y2ddnjt | #Free #Guide #Microsoft #PowerToys #Tools #Windows Here are 10 free tools for Microsoft Windows that can enhance your productivity and make your computing experience even better: Microsoft PowerToys PowerToys is a set of utilities developed by Microsoft that provides various useful features, including a window manager, image resizer, and keyboard shortcut manager. To install Microsoft PowerToys, you should open a Powershell command box and run the following command: How to install Microsoft PowerToys Video Walkthrough Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) WSL allows you to run Linux distributions directly on Windows, enabling you to use Linux command-line tools and run Linux applications without the need for a […] Read more... https://tinyurl.com/2y2ddnjt

[seixyz]

PowerToys の悪さで、1年もPC使用不便を強いられいたことに、さっき気がついた。

ニトロです、緊急で記事を書いております。 1年以上もの期間、原因不明で対処ができなかったPCの不具合の原因が判明したんです。 99％以上の人には、関係ない、どうでも良い記事なんですが、まぁブログ記事にしておくと役に立つ人も居るかと思いましたので記事にしておきました・・・ 1年以上も日本語・英語のIME切り替えができない 僕のメインPC（Win11）は、USキーボードなので、IMEの日本語・英語入力切り替えは、「Ctrl ＋SPACE」に設定してあるのだが・・・ 1年ぐらい前か？　いや、もっと前かもしれないんだけど、デスクトップに置いてあるファイルやフォルダー名称を変更時に、日本語・英語の切り替えができなくなった。 OSを更新しても、Google…

[xikiea]

hey people who use windows, microsoft made this thing called "powertoys" that makes very specific tasks easy, and it is very useful for those tasks. i first used it for keyboard remapping because my up arrow doesn't work all the time and i wanted to play undertale, and it worked like it should have. it has random functionalities that are very cool, and you should get it (i am actually a user and not an agent of microsoft) just look at their website to see what it does

Microsoft PowerToys: Utilities to customize Windows https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

[kawaoneechan]

Nothing to see here, just me using what Microsoft has given me to disable the baked-in "launch LinkedIn" key combo.

[andrewolinek]

I am a self-taught artist, I work in both physical and digital art, mainly on Esty it is my digital art.

In terms of creation, this digital art was made with the help of various applications, including Krita, Xp-Pen graphics tablet, Blender, ZBrush, PlaygroundAI, Photoshop, PowerToys, and Adobe Express.

[raumflug]

Die Powertoys gibt es immer noch! Und sie sind tatsächlich supernützlich. Fast jedes einzelne! Habe sie nur installiert, um PDF-Previews im Explorer zu haben, aber so Zeug wie Texterkennung auf Screenshots ist für Twitterposts sehr nützlich. PowerRename, Awake, Immer im Vordergrund ist so Zeug was man gelegentlich mal braucht und dann doch nicht extra ein Programm dafür raussuchen will. Sehr praktisch alles!

[girderednerve]

my LAPTOP was DELIVERED! i am a sucker & bought a cheap windows machine, so now i must contend with making windows 11 not unusably horrible. guess how long that will take!

[kraniumet]

least spirited extortion campaign

[techdirectarchive]

How to Edit Windows Hosts File via PowerToy Editor Utility

The host file is a configuration file that tells a machine the appropriate host IP it should route a request to, it maps a particular hostname to an IP address, this mapping has a significant effect on the bypassing of DNS Servers outside the machine and navigating a request directly to the mapped IP address. The Windows Hosts file can provide you with instant results anytime you are migrating…

[msfoxfoundit]

Left and right mouse buttons have an unwanted highlight color circle when clicked. (Like Yellow and Blue)

You are operating your computer and enjoy your day until one moment or even one day some yellow or unique color shows up everytime you click around, and maybe even blue when you right click. If you related to that verb and dont know what it is, then you are in luck! It looks like you pressed a combination while living and typing on your everyday life keyboard. Maybe you smash the keyboard when losing in a game. Anyway there is a program called PowerToys in windows, and may have went off.

PROBLEM: Accidentally pressed a combination, and now everywhere you click has a Yellow and Blue highlighter!

SOLUTION: The highlighted sounds like windows PowerToys. It's in the PowerToys app under Mouse utilities, Mouse Highlighter. I assume windows lagged, and as it was catching up on all the button presses, it assumed you pressed the key combo [Windows Key]+[Shift]+[H]. Try either pressing the combo again, or disabling the slider in PowerToys.

CREDIT: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/left-and-right-mouse-buttons-have-an-unwanted/db84ffe0-49fb-40f1-9cd1-c26d9c0cc833

[viiridiangreen]

Copied from the comments so I can save this as reference: If you’re on windows, Powertoys has this feature! it’s called quick accents. Great utility program, I highly recommend it.

I gotta say. The iPhone (and presumably other smartphones too) think of being able to hold down a key to see accented versions of the letter for other languages and such is extremely convenient. Whenever I’m typing on a computer I have to look up the name of the symbol and then copy it because I don’t want to learn all the different command inputs or sort through the massive list of symbols in word

[good-fwiend-in-wome]

microsoft powertoys are fucking awesome and everyone on windows should install them

the post popup on tumblr is 540 pixels wide

[ntaflos]

Microsoft PowerToys: Ein leistungsstarkes Werkzeug zur Anpassung von Windows

Entdecken Sie Microsoft PowerToys, eine Sammlung von Hilfsprogrammen, die es Powerusern ermöglichen, die Windows-Benutzeroberfläche effizienter zu nutzen und sie für individuelle Workflows anzupassen. Mit Funktionen wie ColorPicker, FancyZones, File Expl

Microsoft PowerToys ist eine Sammlung von Hilfsprogrammen, die es Powerusern ermöglichen, die Windows-Benutzeroberfläche effizienter zu nutzen und sie für individuelle Workflows anzupassen. Diese Hilfsprogramme umfassen unter anderem ColorPicker, FancyZones, File Explorer Add-Ons, Image Resizer, Keyboard Manager, PowerRename, PowerToys Run und eine Tastenkombinationsübersicht. Einige der derzeit…

[bob3160]

PowerToys v0.70.0 - Preview Pane