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Essential Windows applications/tweaks for productivity? (Windows 11).

I've got my work done for the week so I'm using this Friday to tweak my work laptop.

I've not been a Windowscel for a decade-and-a-half so I'm pretty clueless what the 2023 essential tweak cowtools are.


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lol that's a Konami code butt feature. :marseyxd:


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first of all remove windows 11 and use 10, that is the first step in increasing your productivity.

Use any of the available mods to get rid of that los vegas billboard of a start menu and return it to its former glory.

install wls2 and learn linux so you can jump ship before support for win10 ends

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the decade and a half I was referring to was me using Linux as my daily driver.

The work laptop is managed by my company so I can't mess with the OS lol

I should add WSL2 though thanks for reminding me.


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Darn feelsbadman. At least you'll have unix cowtools with wsl.

Oh install Terminal (literally an app called Terminal)

gives u custom tab-enabled terminals

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Windows Terminal actually came pre-installed somehow, it is a very nice terminal all things considered!

Yeah it sort of sucks but I'm fine with treating it as an appliance to get my work done. It's not like I don't understand the fundamentals of the Windows UX either but I do still feel at home on GNOME 4x


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I have been using windows 11 for about two years and I think it is perfectly fine how it is. i originally modified it heavily with ThisIsWin11 but that made the system stop making backups for some reason so I had to reset and start over. You can get rid of most of the bloatware yourself. I'd definitely recommend windirstat if you don't have it already.

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im still upset that the taskbar is fixed at the bottom

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Yeah I was thinking more productivity style cowtools. I saw “Everything” mentioned the other day on HN so it got me thinking.


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Windows Terminal so you can ssh to another machine to do real work

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Preaching to the choir. I was

>installing gentoo

In elementary school :marseygroomerarch:

Funny thing is we have to use a scuffed Putty fork with program specific patches.


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Just enjoy the tabbed file explorer, king

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I love browser tabs but never cared for tabbed file explorers - even when having the option on Linux for ages.


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Adderall

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I get too jittery if I have more than like two cups of coffee a day lol


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I use the sysinternals cowtools from time to time at work. It's a huge collection of various cowtools, most of which you'll probably never use. procexp64.exe is the one I use the most, it's like task manager on steroids.

It's hard to recommend much else without knowing more about wtf u do tho

edit: oh win11? I use https://startallback.com to get the win10-style task bar back

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I'm kind of a jack of all trades jumping around with Remote Desktop Manager for Windows AD servers, to a scuffed putty install, to one off excel spreadsheets and lot of Teams calls.


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Ah, so IT generalist?

Do you have Search Everything installed? https://www.voidcowtools.com/downloads It's incredible. Lets you search for files across your whole hard drive with lightning fast speed (as you type, literally instantaneous). Supports regex's too if you wanna get fancy. I always have it running with an icon in my task tray (the bottom right by the clock) so I can click on it and search whenever I need to find something.

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Pretty much ATM even though Linux is my bread and butter.

Actually just installed it!

It looks like the Ueli launcher even integrates with it based on what I read on HN.


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Another tool you might find useful is WinDirStat https://windirstat.net, it basically can scan a drive or directory and show you a visual representation of what's taking up all the space. There's another app called WizTree that does the same thing but is faster, but only works with whole NTFS drives and not with arbitrary directories/network shares.

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Haha I actually showed that tool to my friend the other day and he had like 3 million files or something insane.


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rm -r \C:

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I saw this recommended on HN as well. I'll need to add it for sure.


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It is vv handy because it's basically all the little cowtools that you used to have to find and install separately.

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Notepad++

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I think that was legitimately my first text editor, definitely a classic.

I remember “Pokémon hacking tutorials” talking about how you needed a “real text editor”.


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  • Install WSL and windows terminal.

  • Pretend its not windows.

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I was legitimately expecting to use Windows and be impressed with it's stability and features but it is a dumpster fire.


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related

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16930226924403658.webp

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I legitimately had a blue-screen last round of updates. :marseydepressed:


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personally I installed a linux vm in virtualbox and do all my work in it

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:#marseyimam:

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