All I want is a video on how I can change the sequence of items on the right click context menu. It's okay if they want to have a Share option but that option doesn't let you share to anything I care about. Linus should run Microsoft then they might not be killing Skype and thinking Teams is a comparable replacement. I hate Teams. I was used to Skype. So once, it was so easy a caveman could do it, they tell us to switch to Teams so we can feel dumb again. Plus, Teams really slows down the Windows 365 Outlook a lot.
I'm the dev that worked on the Keyboard Manager PowerToy back in 2020 when we first released it along with PowerToys Run, and I'm so happy that people are finding it useful! I'm always surprised by the creative uses of the shortcut/key remapping that I see online - from making complex shortcuts more simple to making certain applications more accessible.
Thank you very much. Right now I'm playing company of heroes (the first one from 2006) and tactical-pause is set to the pause key instead of something resonable like space. Very handy for fixing stuff like that
Speaking of keyboard managing, do you know if there have been any advances in regards to combining keyboard layouts? As someone who uses three languages on the regular (Dutch, English and Korean), it would be incredibly valuable to combine the functionality of the US International layout (which is the layout used for Dutch) with the Korean layout (which combines Korean with the standard US layout). The regular US layout is basically a feature-stripped version of the US International layout, and I need those features! It's extremely awkward and confusing to switch between my 3 layouts with 2 different buttons, as is currently (and has been) the case with Windows. What I've essentially been looking for, for the past 5 years, is a way to use the US International layout, and then switch to the Korean part of the Korean layout (and back again) with a single button. ideally while omitting any other layouts.
We need more of these kinda videos PLEASE! I feel like a lot of your target audience is like me, not professionals but enthusiasts who stop just short of knowing a lot of these types of things. Well done 👍
@@TechSupportDave Well, and also there are lots of other ways to do the same kinds of things mentioned in this video. I will say though that the sysinternals suite is by far the most useful group of tools in my IT arsenal. It's great that they're covering them, even if the average user likely wouldn't be able to make heads or tails out of most of it. It's good to know they exist.
yeah, I work in the IT field as well, didn't know about most of this. But that's how it is, you tend to pick up on the fly in my experience and if lucky your next issue will have a solution from a previous problem.
The writer for this video was Anthony. This is one of the best LTT videos in a longggg time if you ask me. So many useful things. Definitely rewatching this one when I’m back at my PC lol
My favorite is probably the clipboard history. Use winkey+v to open a list of previously copied elements (text, images etc.) and choose the one to paste. Wouldn't that have been super useful in the multi text boxes cd-keys era?
Worth noting, however, that it might need to be activated in the settings. But I use it all the time when copying GUIDs from Azure, it's really useful :)
Clipdiary is more useful, backup friendly and just better in almost every way. I only have history for the clipboard on ctrl+v since 6 hours ago and there isn't an easy way to back it up. My current Clipdiary database file goes back around a year and it's one database file you can easily back up. After the max limit of clips, you can just rename it, or copy and rename the copy and then remove everything in current database if you want to keep pinned items, I think there is a dedicated button for removing all clips excluding pinned in the options menu. It's easy to go back to previous databases, but if you've something new in the clipboard when switching to an old database, you will modify the old database immediately after loading it. If you keep them short and keep track of dates, it should be easy and quick to go back to anything from many years ago if you forgot about something. A less lazy way is to make documents and skip using the clipboard, but I'm lazy like that so I don't. I still have documents and I use Agent Ransack to find anything old in them. Clipdiary is faster to find anything in, if both of them are quite big. 1.43GB database file and about 1.8GB Notepad++ folder, it's definitely faster to just copy all the Notepad++ documents into Clipdiary at the time and search like that. I prefer using Notepad++ or whatever I originally saw the text on, but it could be possible to get used to searching in Clipdiary, pressing F2 and reading it like that but I may still be too lazy to use function buttons and open the original program, like a web browser to read the page there, instead.
Just a note on WSL: Don't turn on WSL if you are already using other VM software like VirtualBox. It slows those down A LOT and this has been an unresolved bug for a while. Also once you've turned it on, it doesn't help turning it back off to fix the issue.
It's not a bug, that's by design due to how it works. Exactly the same if you activate memory integrity protection etc. I believe there's a workaround for VMwaare Workstation but haven't had a chance to sus it properly yet. Either way it can be undone.
That affects only WSL2 I think? Because WSL2 requires the Hyper-V subsystem, and Hyper-V messes up VirtualBox. WSL1 still plays nice with VB but WSL1 cannot run full Linux.
Just dropping in to say you can totally get your performance back in Virtualbox by turning it off; at least it does in my situation; and it's still a pain in the butt (Thanks Microsoft!). I have it installed on my system, along all required windows features and manage it with these and a reboot: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off They turn off or on the Hyper-V fiddledeedoo, the turtle will disappear in Virtual Box and it will use it's native driver again.
Okay, this is probably my favorite video in a long time, Linus. I really really enjoyed this format. Please keep making educational type content like these
As a graphic designer, the "Colour picker tool" from power toys has been a godsend. You can get the hex value by just highlighting anything on the screen, and it gives you similar colours based on what you selected
I never use colors so I was surprised they ported that over to Paint. You can just use the eye dropper now and click edit. It shows the hex on top now. You should still use power toys but if you're lazy or have a new install that you don't have admin rights it works in a pinch.
Btw idk if you know this but i think its important, if you press the keyboard shortcut to open up the color picker and then use the scroll wheel it will zoom in on a square of color and you can be more accurate.
@Matt M If you'd like to listen, I have a piece of debate advice: If you want to convince people of something, try coming from a place of understanding rather than elitism. My first reaction to your comment was "Do not care" because of how pretentious you seemed.
Just a bit of a heads-up: if you are using multiple input languages on your computer, by default Win-Space is the keyboard shortcut to switch between input languages, and this will conflict with PowerToys Run if you set that as its keyboard shortcut. To get around this, you can change the keyboard shortcut to switch input languages by going to Settings > Time & language > Typing > Advanced keyboard settings, clicking on the "Input language hot keys" link, and then assigning a key sequence for the "Between input languages" action. Once that is done, you can then set PowerToys Run to use the Win-Space shortcut; check the "Use centralized keyboard hook" box if Win-Space keeps popping up the input language switcher.
This video is probably the most useful one from LTT, for me. I just got an ultra-wide and been janking my way through multiples windows. The LG software that came is just to buggy for me to work smoothly, so I appreciate the incredible timing of this.
There is also a script that can change the resolution. Let's say a game has horrible support for Ultrawide or you just don't want to find a solution for some game. Can even make the script to launch the game and chance resolution back again to what it was before. Wish I knew this when I had a Ultrawide, all the web answers we ancient software that did not work properly ( The reason why I changed was because of game annoyances )
@@Andreas360dkwait, you mean to tell me I’ve been manually adjusting my resolution this entire time.. big ups for the tip brother, you’ve saved me so much sanity you have no idea.
@@Andreas360dk another great tip. I've been suffering from this exact problem. The game just outright crashes, even though it seems to have ultrawide support. Thanks for the tip!
So glad someone's finally talking about all of those features. There are so few people (even developers) who truly know how to use the full potential of Windows.
The true potential is to a: only use wsl or b: to wipe it and install gnu (linux, bsd or hurd, kernel does not really matter, since even hurd is better, than nt xD)
@@kilteddwarf some people need to work with creative softwares like Adobe or Affinity suite. And before you say it, wine is not a stable solution to run softwares like this on Linux. Not even talking about more underground OSes
It’s almost crazy to think how many people don’t realize that people getting payed to develop an OS *can* copy successful features from other OSes. Windows is very capable, but they need to hide all that power to avoid confusing 99% of their users. Now we just need them to drop that back compatibility and switch to the properly oriented slashes!
I’ve been doing IT for years and genuinely learned some cool new tips and tricks from this video. Thank you Linus and team for putting this one out. One of my favorite videos of yours yet
As a Windows user for the past 35 years... this video made me nerdgasm, and brings so much joy. I think I might nerd out over the weekend and check some of these things out that I've long forgotten or never gotten around to using. Windows is so versatile and powerful, I think we forget that sometimes. Perhaps next we can have a video about Power Automate?
Oh man, Power Automate.... Definitely one of the most intuitive RPA application ever. The integration with microsoft stuffs are also really neat. Also, honestly now that I use gmail for work after moving.... I missed my Outlook. Outlook have so much stuffs you can do with it, especially if you have the Web Power Automate integration. Gmail in comparison feels so clunky.
This is one of the best videos that LTT has made recently. I really appreciate the input from the LMG team, sharing their insight that can only be gained through years of experience with an OS. This will become my go to reference for these topics in the future. Thanks
@13:06, a much simpler alternative is to similarly select the app in the taskbar to ensure it has focus and then while holding the windows key, tap the arrow keys in whichever direction youd like said window to move until it becomes visible. this same feature is in general very handy as it jumps windows between different snap locations
In addition, shift+right-click on a taskbar icon will show the alt+space menu in the taskbar for applications that have one. Proton apps like discord, for example, do not utilize shift+right-click and need the win+arrow shortcut to move a stuck window.
@@Blap7 its more the simplicity of the steps than the time savings, press two buttons rather than navigating unseen menus, but youd be surprised how much a couple seconds here and there adds up over time 😉
This is your most useful video in years. Didn't know almost 50% of that stuff, and what I already knew you went deeper. Thank you!! I'll share with my team.
@@GasssFreak oh for sure some of these are relatively new things. the reason for this is because most of us probably don't know WHERE to see the windows update CHANGELOGS... well not like any of us would be keeping up with OS changelogs. Most people don't keep up with any changelogs.
You can also move windows by holding the windows key and pressing an arrow key to move the window in that direction. The window will move between half-screen-snap and windowed with left and right and win+down is un-maximize or minimize and win+up is maximize or un-minimize if you just used win+down one too many times.
Problem is, this is often clunky, not snapping directly between two halves of a screen. Even worse, it's almost entirely useless on a monitor in portrait mode. Been using Fancy Zones for months and it's so much more intuitive.
@@BlueDrew10 Try pressing windows key+shift then the arrow key to make it keep the same size/position on the monitor you would like to move it to . So if it's full screen on horizontal monitor, it'll be full screen on the portrait monitor.
I am not a developer, but I am a Solidworks Admin at work and an enthusiast at home. Knowing some of these things and putting them to use is of incalculable value. As others have said, THIS is the kind of Tech Tips we need!!
I've been using PowerToys and Sysinternals for many years - probably the best utilities ever made for Windows. They're often the first things i install on a new system. Autoruns is a great tool for troubleshooting, and Process Explorer is an order of magnitude better than Task Mangler, which is useless. Nice to know the additional Shutdown options.
After repeated installs and then uninstalls (over a decade), I never found anything in Powertoys that useful. Could you give me a couple examples that might help me? Thanks.
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus One thing I've done with the keyboard tool is binding Ctrl+Shift+Esc (which opens task manager) to the Insert key (which I don't use) since I often like to open up TM. You can use any unused keys on your keyboard to open apps or do other stuff. Of course, if you don't have any use for any of the tools, there's no need to use it.
I hate finding tools like this, then learning they can only be installed through the Windows store with a MS account, which eternally links my entire machine, which I fucking hate.
I use it mostly for the Video Conference Mute function, it's great, I can mute my microphone with a keyboard shortcut even when I'm in a game, very useful for when I'm in Discord with friends
For that crazy "can't see the window" trick where you use Alt-Space, etc... you can just Shift-Right Click the taskbar entry for that window and it gives you the same menu. When you pick 'Move' it snaps your cursor to the taskbar of the window, even off-screen. You just click and drag from there.
I don't see this happening anymore on Windows 11. WHen a virtual desktop has no device underneath the window position resets to the current main display.
Awesome tips! Just one thin, when changing the keyboard shortcut of the Search Powertoy, just be wary that Win+Space is already used for switching keyboard languages in case anyone needs to know
Went back to Windows after five years of using Mac, and I was so delightedly surprised how easy it was to set up a folder in Windows that my Mac just could drag and drop files into over the network.
Yeah, recently Windows is becoming much more user friendly experience than mac is. Especially with multi monitor setups that windows handles flawlessly while mac borks the bed every single update.
What I love about Fancy Zones: I was able to effectively turn off window snapping when I drag, by setting it to require the Shift key, while still having all the keyboard shortcuts (like Win+Shift+Right) for moving windows around when I want them. For all its “customizability”, it is baffling to me that standard Windows 10/11 won’t let you separately turn on/off window snapping via drag and windows snapping via keyboard shortcut.
I mostly hate that you cannot snap windows to the top or bottom of the screen with default windows zones :(. I haven't messed around with PowerToys much before, but this alone got me to download it and start looking.
PowerToys keyboard manager can also be used to "unbind" existing shortcuts. For example, Windows 11's WinKey+W to launch the news side panel, I rebound WinKey+W to nothing with PowerToys and now that does, as you'd guess, nothing. No more accidentally getting Bing news thrown in the face.
@@Dracossaint Win11 is essentially just Win10 with a few UI changes, plus a bunch of great features for developers and power users. People always complain about the latest version of Windows, but then whine when it eventually gets continued after they've grown used to it.
As an IT Professional of over 8 years I'm happy to see LTT shine a spotlight on some of the lesser known pro tools available from Microsoft like SysInternals and the like. Extremely helpful and productive tools that make life a lot easier for those of us in the industry and it's nice to see normal users be be exposed to it and all the others as well.
This title is so true, most people don't realise just how much you can modify and personalize Windows. For example with a few hours it is possible to make Windows look almost 1:1 to any previous version, you can make custom shells, custom themes, icon packs, etc
Videos like these are a godsend for power users, productivity, and pros. Thank you so much!!! Seriously this totally can save us so much time and make things so much more simple.
An alternative tip regarding the "alt space move window" tip I think it's better to use the "windows key + shift + left/right arrow key" to move the window to the other monitor.
12:24 - You don't have to remember the key combination Alt+Space. You can instead make a right click on the window preview of the task bar. You have the "move" option there as well. You still have to press any arrow key afterward through.
or you can open the windows view thingy with a windows key + tab, rightclick on a thing you want to move and select move to the right or to the left option.
Despite the unhelpful title, this was one of the most informative and useful LTT videos in a while. More of this type please, and make one for Linux and OSx too!
You can rage against what works all you want, but this video has 2.3 million views as of April 2023, 3 months later, so it comes down to what you think the purpose of a videos title is. You may want it to describe the contents, which would cause fewer people to watch it, and be "less helpful", or it could be a title that people would want to click on and help more people, which makes it "more helpful".
The powertoys, I think is in this last version, introduced an amazing OCR feature for anything in your screen, also a feature to se what app is using a file in context menu...
Holy crap I just today used an OCR off the web for something like that. Glad to see the powertoys have expanded I looked at them like a week after they were in the press and wasn't impressed.
This video shows the true power user tips for Windows. I just add one extra tip for the Task Scheduler: use Event Viewer to find out a specified event id and program an XML in the Task Scheduler as the trigger. I was using this to synchronise a folder to my USB drive as soon as it is plugged in. Extremely powerful. You can see the Group policy as a visual way to tweak the registry entities. However, you can definitely add an specified entity in the registry editor to add more features for Windows, which might appear in the group policy editor.
Hearing about power toys and sysinternals again gave me such nostalgia of early windows days, thanks for sharing these awesome utilities with the new comers and the gratification "oh yeah I remember that" good vibes
An easier way For moving windows (especially ones off screen), select the app by clicking on taskbar, and then hold windows key + left or right arrow to move the window around and across the various snap areas. You can also use up for maximize and down arrow for minimize.
Yes! these are the kind of tech tips I want! I know it's hard to come up with stuff like this regularly, but I'm always grateful when it happens, thank you!
Sysinternals Process monitor also deserves a mention to log what processes are doing, this helps a lot when diagnosing why a certain program that used to work doesn't any more instead of just looking at the current state and open files.
I remember looking at Process Explorer way back in like, idk, Vista or maybe somewhere around that? I've been using it for almost 11 years now because it changed my fucking life. Such an excellent program.
6:21 the top bar in the Registry editor can be edited like the path bar in the file explorer, so you can also just paste the registry path you want to open there without needing an extra program.
13:35 An easier method is to use Win + Arrow keys. You can use Win + Down to minimize, Win + Up to un-minimize or maximize, and Win + Left/Right to snap a window to a part of your screen. Win+Left/Right also allows you to change screens, but in case the app isn't maximized, it allows you to snap. Meaning, if you lose your window, Win+Left/Right is a single shortcut to find your window back.
@@aMp- it's way more reliable than alt space though. A lot of programs don't even have an alt-space menu. But yea, definitely not 100% effective, some windows respond to neither, like nox 😐
Better way is pressing windows key+shift then the arrow key to make it keep the same size/position on the monitor you would like to move it to . Thank you and your welcome!
5:10 For those of you who use several keyboards in Windows, Win+Space is already used for switching keyboards, so you might want to find another shortcut.
@@ajbp95 i started learning programming and speak spanish, while having a english keyboard without the ñ, when i use the spanish setting i can't use so yeah i just change from one to another
Actually had a window spawn half way above my monitor just now and couldn't get the mouse to it to move it anywhere. The Alt+Space, M, Arrow Key method saved me! I remembered you guys talking about it so I pulled up this video to get the exact method again! Thank you!
This felt like a REAL tech tips video. I get that information like this isn't always going to be new or novel, and that's okay, because at some point people will know all about this stuff and it becomes common knowledge. Otherwise, this was absolutely phenomenal. It's been a long time since I sat completely engaged by 16 minutes of a youtube video. Really great stuff.
Linus: "It is just a step away from the tilling window managers you find in the Linux world" Also Linus a few seconds later: "There is nothing quite like it on any other operating system" Edit: I don't mean that they are 1:1, the ways fancy zones does it is different to tilling window managers, I just wanted to point out how he said it is like Linux, and then said there is nothing like it almost immediately after.
I think this is the best video LTT has ever released. Thank you so much to the writers and whoever came up with the video idea, there are some very annoying things in Windows that I've been looking for ways to improve or get around… and you've just solved most of them. Thank you.
Would love if Anthony did a Linux equivalent of this, even for someone who rarely uses Windows (usually just to fix weird registry issues or to recover someone's data) this video was great.
@@Chris-rg6nm wrong. I actually have a Linux machine on my house for my wife. She never used the terminal - at all. She was able to do about anything she needed - even to the point of downloading photos from our camera directly into the system, and making a videoclip with it. She's also not a power user, which actually HELPED - like, she never had the familiarity with Windows so that when things were "different" on Linux, she didn't notice. Things that she did included also installing software to handle the camera, because Ubuntu suggested the app to install, finding missing files that she didn't remember where it was (Recent files, and the search), etc...
@Anon1337 thats because Linus is a Shill who was running WINDOWS as his Enterprise Server OS until 18 months ago. They are laymen at best. Anthony seems to know what he is doing the rest I think are faking it until they make it. Remember, they're journalists, not actual technical people.
You also should've said about Edge browser application guard, it's a virtual sandbox where you can install some suspicious files from the internet and run them to check if they are malicious without infecting your machine.
13:30 a simpler solution is to snap a window to an edge of your screen and select your lost window from the options brought up to fill the remaining space.
You can also right-click the start bar and click on 'cascade windows', which should also bring over anything outside the visible area, though I've only used it for single monitor setups, so...80% certain it works. There are several ways to do it, knowing more than one is useful if you are multi-tasking or don't have a working mouse or your laptop is missing the 'context menu' button, such as my Lenovo E560, which does not have said button. Enjoy your day!
3:00 Pro tip: You can use Task Scheduler to backup your files to another computer on your home network. This setup isn't for the faint of heart, but I've had it running in Win10 for over a year with zero issues.
Wow. Just great, useful content, no filler. Thank you. This could be an ongoing series, perhaps possibly also covering Linux or even macOS (don't hate, educate!). Product reviews are great, and the tech news is hilarious, but compared to these tips...fluff. This was educational and engaging. Hope to see more of this in the mix.
13:10 for getting hidden windows back, you an also select the app/window, then use windows+left/right to move it from screen to screen until it snaps into one you can see. Bit faster than the hidden menu option method.
I think this doesn't work for an error notification windows that can't be closed, maximized or 'snap' into a corner (that type of windows doesn't have these options, also can't close it from the taskbar!). I had an application once that displayed an error notification on a different non-existing screen. win + L/R arrow key didn't work back then. I didn't know about the other option described in this video. Might give that a try once I encounter something like this again!
Linus has just set the bar for top tech tips and tweaks for Windows. This is the kind of stuff that people should be learning to fully utilize Windows 👌 Side note, that graph of good and bad MS windows versions is actually hilariously accurate! I never realized that. I guess win11 broke the cycle though 🥺
Technically Windows 8.1 (remember that?) was marketed as a different OS from Windows 8. So it broke the trend by being 2 bad OS in a row Even though yes I know it was technically the equivalent of a service pack or the 22H2 update, Microsoft still tried to market it as a real OS like Windows 98 and Windows ME
Windows 11 is technically still windows 10 so it didn't count too. If you use Windows 11, just get ExplorerPatcher to ditch the inferior Taskbar and use the old one and ditch the annoying new context menu too. But I love the new start menu 😋 and the tabs on explorer and the new icons and most settings fixes, the Android runtime and the new WSL 2. I prefer the legacy conhost that is now open source. And I love the gaming performance improvements I feel with Windows 11. So give it a chance but get yourself ExplorerPatcher
This is actually a very good video. There are few tools here I haven't seen before and I've been working in this field for 10 years. Thank you for providing such great content.
Something they didn’t show but should have is through process explorer you can also have it run VirusTotal scores on every running processes or just selected ones, which is definitely helpful to people who aren’t power users yet but on their way to be! Edit: it’s in the right click menu for processes and under options in the top menu. There is a better guide in the replies of this by @GSAOKami
This video easily deserves a Part 2 or Part 3. There's so much ground to cover and so many extra tools that even normal, everyday users probably wanted and didn't even know they could have.
I just tried it out because of your comment, and it's so cool! I even went as far to replace the regular Task Manager For those wondering how, just open Process Explorer (better as admin) and right click any task, the option should be right above "properties" It's gonna show "Hash submitted..." on the last tab, and then the result as x/y (ex.: 1/69) You can even click the number to see the result directly on the website in details
There's honestly quite a lot if Linux channels already doing that. Brodie Robertson and DistroTube would be a good start. I'd personally like to see ways to make Windows behave more like Linux since this video showed that Windows doesn't need to completely suck. Despite being largely decentralized, I feel Linux is actually better documented than Windows, which bugs me about Windows.
When a window is off the screen, I tend to just use the Win+Arrow keys. It's basically the same thing but utilising the snap feature of Windows to move the window instead.
A set of shortcuts I use a lot are under the `WIN+X, U+*` this opens the power options list in the taskbar, you would replace the `*` with whatever power option hotkey you would like to run next, e.g. U would shutdown, S would sleep, R would restart. So say you want to quickly put your PC to sleep, just press `WIN+X, U+S`
That menu is super useful, until the 1 out of every 30 or so times I try to use it and the shortcuts to choose options in the menu don't work. Thanks Microsoft!
A good few years ago I used task scheduler to have my friendsl/roommates pc launch VLC every five minutes... They couldn't figure out how to turn it off and after an hour told me he was convinced he had a virus. It was not the last little joke we'd played on each other but was one of my favourites.
the move shortcut has always been a blessing as someone who sometimes uses two monitors, and sometimes doesnt. another way to do a similar thing. while the window is "active" you can hit win+arrow key to automatically move it to one side of the screen. different directions do different things.
Win+X is great! it has sub-commands too: each option has an underlined letter which you can use to select it, recursively into the submenus. So Win+X M opens device manager, Win+X U R restarts the computer, etc. Super useful.
for those wondering, that tip at 13:11 doesn't work anymore if you have 2 monitors and you've 'lost' your windows in the 2nd monitor. It only works to move windows from the 1st monitor and that's it.
I figured out it won't work if you were watching a youtube video, while pressing arrow keys instead of "attaching" the windows to you mouse, the video goes forward/backward / volume up/down depending on the arrow you pressed. So yeah it doesn't work if you were watching vids, which is what most of us do.
Been using PowerShell+WSL ever since I started working remotely, it works great honestly + for me the drop-down terminal seems to be working by default using Win+` shortcut. You can even change the settings to run Ubuntu terminal by default when openin PowerShell. Saved me from having to dual-boot my laptop/use other VMs.
I work remotely sometimes as well to overlook 100+ tools. You gotta try out ClickPaste! It lets you use copy/paste on VNC no matter what, even if it's disabled on the remote side of the tool you're logged in to! "The Best Program You NEVER Heard Of (ClickPaste)" -Chris Titus Tech th-cam.com/video/i7cgD_KCh10/w-d-xo.html
This is the most useful video you've ever made. I am an IT professional and have been for some time now, but I wasn't aware of quite a lot of the stuff you mentioned in this video. Especially the sysinternals were an eye opener for me - every app from the suite you mentioned solves a problem I've had so many times.
Same as you. I know about powertoys because my colleague teach me about it, but SysInternals are definitely first time I heard about it. Another thing is the SSH feature on Windows Terminal. Now I can use SSH from Terminal using Powershell instead of using Git Bash lol.
I have fond memories of the shutdown command. The PCs in my middle school used to have some rather shoddy security. Basically nothing was locked down on the computers the students ran. We had freaking install privileges! We discovered the shutdown command and slowly figured out what PC had what IP. We had a very fun time causing random shutdowns until the IT department of the school wizened up and locked basically everything down.
@Danny Michelle my guy if someone is unable to determine how to turn useless option in windows what makes you think they can navigate/use linux. Don't get me wrong I love linux but to have a bias view that everyone should use it because windows sucks is just wrong. For an average user which has the greater learning curve... ill give you a hint it aint windows my friend. You want to use it cool but stay in ur lane when it comes to what you tell less powerful users.
@@Doogle7821 idk man i didnt rlly know how to do that on windows and was fine, just occasionally broke things first ~3 months while i was learning. linux is rlly much more user friendly than it's made out to be so long as you know how to read a wiki and forums. plus if you use one of the more user friendly distros like mint it practically sets everything up for you and you prolly wont even have to do that that much
@Danny Michelle idk but I'm not in the mood on switching everything to manual mode. Sometime automatic is easier, I'm a manual guy on a bike but maybe less in computer. If you ride on something more than 10hour, automatic is less painful
@@Doogle7821 I've tried to use linux as my day to day OS but I was too used to windows as well being able to play games without having to worry about support and anti cheats not working. I do use linux in a vm for my uni work but thats only because theres software on there that I need to use.
Adding -f is equivalent to forcibly ending the process via task manager. The application will not be asked to close by itself, but will instead be MADE to close. This can lead to data corruption if the program in question is doing something at that moment. Don't use the -f paramater unless you're dealing with programs that aren't playing nice in the first place. -s -t 0 or -r -t 0 are perfectly fine for the vast majority of users.
For WSL window sub system for linux. Make sure you turn on virtualization in the bios. Its called different in the bios, depending if you are using an AMD or Intel chip.
as a security professional and reverse engineer i have been using sysinternals tools for years! glad to see it get some attention on a huge channel like LTT 6:28
I really enjoy the majority of your videos, but this was definitely the most useful video I've seen so far, I'll be using most of what's in here from now on. Thank you for the video. Would you please consider making more content like this?
These are all things i knew and felt like a "windows tech god" for knowing them, learning them in the past 20+ years, now i'm not special anymore because of Linus!!! Joke aside really cool that this kind of clips started to pop up, i'm really curious to see what else will they show, maybe i'll also get to know more :). Cheers!
The 'shutdown -s -t' command is also brilliant for telling your computer to shutdown in a given amount of time. I use it a lot for when a programme or game is installing an update. It means that I can leave my PC on for an hour or so at night while it downloads whatever, but then shutdown so that the PC isn't running all night wasting electricity and being a (slight) fire hazard. Just go to run and type 'shutdown -s -t 3600' where the number is the amount of delay in seconds that you want (3600 would equal an hour). You can even create a shortcut to shutdown in a set amount of time.
It wasn't mentioned here but there's a Sysinternals tool in the PSTools suite called PSShutdown that I normally use instead. It's great for rebooting servers overnight. The syntax is similar to the shutdown command but you can give it a set time rather than trying to work out the number of seconds to your desired time.
This might actually be the most tech tip video that Linus Tech has ever tipped.
It’s almost like it’s in the name of the channel
I like the bit where he tipped all over the place
Truly one of the tips of all time
It has to be said, Linus has shown us so many of his tips over the years.
But the clickbait title def sucks for finding it later.
Watching LTT actually give out tech tips made me feel like when you see music videos on MTV
Lol, yeah 🤣🤣
All I want is a video on how I can change the sequence of items on the right click context menu. It's okay if they want to have a Share option but that option doesn't let you share to anything I care about. Linus should run Microsoft then they might not be killing Skype and thinking Teams is a comparable replacement. I hate Teams. I was used to Skype. So once, it was so easy a caveman could do it, they tell us to switch to Teams so we can feel dumb again. Plus, Teams really slows down the Windows 365 Outlook a lot.
Their actual tech tips are on their lesser channel, this one is basically an ads tech tips.
Do you even D Brand? (they have stuff you glue on your expensive stuff... I think)
Its still around ?
This is by far one of the best pieces of content LTT has ever produced. I was shocked to see this amount of tech tips in a single video.
THIS is the best content? Oh come on, I mean sure this might be the best guide/tip video he's uploaded but far from his best content.
Linus Tech Tips has come.... I mean been *dropped* full circle
anthony wrote all of this
Linus Tech Tips
@@angelherrera4855 Yeah, this has to be him :D Dope as heck.
I miss power user focused videos like this, glad to see one again for the first time in ages.
I'm the dev that worked on the Keyboard Manager PowerToy back in 2020 when we first released it along with PowerToys Run, and I'm so happy that people are finding it useful! I'm always surprised by the creative uses of the shortcut/key remapping that I see online - from making complex shortcuts more simple to making certain applications more accessible.
Thank you very much.
Right now I'm playing company of heroes (the first one from 2006) and tactical-pause is set to the pause key instead of something resonable like space. Very handy for fixing stuff like that
Thank you sir! It's a very useful tool :)
Make a PowerToy that stops Microsoft from spying on its users.
Linux goes brrr
Speaking of keyboard managing, do you know if there have been any advances in regards to combining keyboard layouts? As someone who uses three languages on the regular (Dutch, English and Korean), it would be incredibly valuable to combine the functionality of the US International layout (which is the layout used for Dutch) with the Korean layout (which combines Korean with the standard US layout). The regular US layout is basically a feature-stripped version of the US International layout, and I need those features!
It's extremely awkward and confusing to switch between my 3 layouts with 2 different buttons, as is currently (and has been) the case with Windows. What I've essentially been looking for, for the past 5 years, is a way to use the US International layout, and then switch to the Korean part of the Korean layout (and back again) with a single button. ideally while omitting any other layouts.
We need more of these kinda videos PLEASE! I feel like a lot of your target audience is like me, not professionals but enthusiasts who stop just short of knowing a lot of these types of things. Well done 👍
don't be fooled by assumptions, I'm a proffesional and had no idea about 80% of this, and that's probably the case for 80% of professionals
@@ArrakisMusicOfficial well depends what you're a professional in... most areas likely don't require what was talked about in the video.
@@TechSupportDave Well, and also there are lots of other ways to do the same kinds of things mentioned in this video. I will say though that the sysinternals suite is by far the most useful group of tools in my IT arsenal. It's great that they're covering them, even if the average user likely wouldn't be able to make heads or tails out of most of it. It's good to know they exist.
My official titel is IT expert system and devices. I had no clue about about 70% of stuff in this video.
yeah, I work in the IT field as well, didn't know about most of this. But that's how it is, you tend to pick up on the fly in my experience and if lucky your next issue will have a solution from a previous problem.
Honestly, some of the best LTT content ever. Big thanks to the writing team!
The writer for this video was Anthony. This is one of the best LTT videos in a longggg time if you ask me. So many useful things. Definitely rewatching this one when I’m back at my PC lol
This was one of the most tech tip packed videos I've ever seen on this channel, it's absolutely one of my favorites
I liked when Linus said “It’s Tech Tippin Time” and tech tipped all over Windows. Truly one of the LTT moments of all time
It's most iconic catchphrase. I'd rank it above MKBHD's "Let's get HIGH DEFINITION!" with his strong man pose.
My favorite is probably the clipboard history. Use winkey+v to open a list of previously copied elements (text, images etc.) and choose the one to paste. Wouldn't that have been super useful in the multi text boxes cd-keys era?
Don't tell my wife that clipboard history exists.
Worth noting, however, that it might need to be activated in the settings. But I use it all the time when copying GUIDs from Azure, it's really useful :)
Clipdiary is more useful, backup friendly and just better in almost every way.
I only have history for the clipboard on ctrl+v since 6 hours ago and there isn't an easy way to back it up.
My current Clipdiary database file goes back around a year and it's one database file you can easily back up.
After the max limit of clips, you can just rename it, or copy and rename the copy and then remove everything in current database if you want to keep pinned items, I think there is a dedicated button for removing all clips excluding pinned in the options menu. It's easy to go back to previous databases, but if you've something new in the clipboard when switching to an old database, you will modify the old database immediately after loading it. If you keep them short and keep track of dates, it should be easy and quick to go back to anything from many years ago if you forgot about something.
A less lazy way is to make documents and skip using the clipboard, but I'm lazy like that so I don't. I still have documents and I use Agent Ransack to find anything old in them. Clipdiary is faster to find anything in, if both of them are quite big. 1.43GB database file and about 1.8GB Notepad++ folder, it's definitely faster to just copy all the Notepad++ documents into Clipdiary at the time and search like that. I prefer using Notepad++ or whatever I originally saw the text on, but it could be possible to get used to searching in Clipdiary, pressing F2 and reading it like that but I may still be too lazy to use function buttons and open the original program, like a web browser to read the page there, instead.
Essential in my work i can have my passwords all accessible when opening different apps
If only i knew before..
Now this is Tech Tips, and also Linus. Would love to see more of this educational type of content
You're on the wrong channel for real tech tips!. Good luck! LOL
ikr... Linus used to teach not cooling CPUs with tea
@@KavorkaDesigns I think he was sarcastic.
Just a note on WSL:
Don't turn on WSL if you are already using other VM software like VirtualBox. It slows those down A LOT and this has been an unresolved bug for a while. Also once you've turned it on, it doesn't help turning it back off to fix the issue.
It's not a bug, that's by design due to how it works. Exactly the same if you activate memory integrity protection etc.
I believe there's a workaround for VMwaare Workstation but haven't had a chance to sus it properly yet.
Either way it can be undone.
@@shaunclarke94 i see no issues in vmware, i just used another user
Bookmark comment later
That affects only WSL2 I think? Because WSL2 requires the Hyper-V subsystem, and Hyper-V messes up VirtualBox. WSL1 still plays nice with VB but WSL1 cannot run full Linux.
Just dropping in to say you can totally get your performance back in Virtualbox by turning it off; at least it does in my situation; and it's still a pain in the butt (Thanks Microsoft!).
I have it installed on my system, along all required windows features and manage it with these and a reboot:
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
They turn off or on the Hyper-V fiddledeedoo, the turtle will disappear in Virtual Box and it will use it's native driver again.
Okay, this is probably my favorite video in a long time, Linus. I really really enjoyed this format. Please keep making educational type content like these
It's been a long time since a video actually included tech tips, will definitively keep this one on my favorites.
I could tell it was likely a new writer. The script sounded different.
@@Jimmy_Jones it says the writer at the end of the video and it was Anthony
Agreed. This was very helpful and saved in my "helpful stuff" playlist
so true ~~~
but don't forget that things like which memory or a graphics card to get, could also be tech tips
As a graphic designer, the "Colour picker tool" from power toys has been a godsend. You can get the hex value by just highlighting anything on the screen, and it gives you similar colours based on what you selected
I never use colors so I was surprised they ported that over to Paint. You can just use the eye dropper now and click edit. It shows the hex on top now.
You should still use power toys but if you're lazy or have a new install that you don't have admin rights it works in a pinch.
There's chrome extension for this as well
Huh. I do that within GIMP from the color picker.
Btw idk if you know this but i think its important, if you press the keyboard shortcut to open up the color picker and then use the scroll wheel it will zoom in on a square of color and you can be more accurate.
@Matt M If you'd like to listen, I have a piece of debate advice: If you want to convince people of something, try coming from a place of understanding rather than elitism. My first reaction to your comment was "Do not care" because of how pretentious you seemed.
Just a bit of a heads-up: if you are using multiple input languages on your computer, by default Win-Space is the keyboard shortcut to switch between input languages, and this will conflict with PowerToys Run if you set that as its keyboard shortcut. To get around this, you can change the keyboard shortcut to switch input languages by going to Settings > Time & language > Typing > Advanced keyboard settings, clicking on the "Input language hot keys" link, and then assigning a key sequence for the "Between input languages" action. Once that is done, you can then set PowerToys Run to use the Win-Space shortcut; check the "Use centralized keyboard hook" box if Win-Space keeps popping up the input language switcher.
This video is probably the most useful one from LTT, for me. I just got an ultra-wide and been janking my way through multiples windows. The LG software that came is just to buggy for me to work smoothly, so I appreciate the incredible timing of this.
There is also a script that can change the resolution. Let's say a game has horrible support for Ultrawide or you just don't want to find a solution for some game. Can even make the script to launch the game and chance resolution back again to what it was before.
Wish I knew this when I had a Ultrawide, all the web answers we ancient software that did not work properly ( The reason why I changed was because of game annoyances )
@@Andreas360dkwait, you mean to tell me I’ve been manually adjusting my resolution this entire time.. big ups for the tip brother, you’ve saved me so much sanity you have no idea.
The copy text from picture feature inside of power toys is great too!
@@Andreas360dk another great tip. I've been suffering from this exact problem. The game just outright crashes, even though it seems to have ultrawide support. Thanks for the tip!
@@Andreas360dk where is this script?
So glad someone's finally talking about all of those features. There are so few people (even developers) who truly know how to use the full potential of Windows.
The true potential is to a: only use wsl or b: to wipe it and install gnu (linux, bsd or hurd, kernel does not really matter, since even hurd is better, than nt xD)
@@kilteddwarf ah, one of that sect...
@@kilteddwarf The true potential is using enterprise unbloated versions.
@@kilteddwarf some people need to work with creative softwares like Adobe or Affinity suite. And before you say it, wine is not a stable solution to run softwares like this on Linux. Not even talking about more underground OSes
It’s almost crazy to think how many people don’t realize that people getting payed to develop an OS *can* copy successful features from other OSes.
Windows is very capable, but they need to hide all that power to avoid confusing 99% of their users. Now we just need them to drop that back compatibility and switch to the properly oriented slashes!
I’ve been doing IT for years and genuinely learned some cool new tips and tricks from this video. Thank you Linus and team for putting this one out. One of my favorite videos of yours yet
Same for me. I've used Windows all my life and STILL learned something new!
Yeah, same. A good few tools in there I wasn't aware of. Goes to show you that you're never done learning!
As a Windows user for the past 35 years... this video made me nerdgasm, and brings so much joy. I think I might nerd out over the weekend and check some of these things out that I've long forgotten or never gotten around to using. Windows is so versatile and powerful, I think we forget that sometimes.
Perhaps next we can have a video about Power Automate?
Oh man, Power Automate.... Definitely one of the most intuitive RPA application ever. The integration with microsoft stuffs are also really neat.
Also, honestly now that I use gmail for work after moving.... I missed my Outlook. Outlook have so much stuffs you can do with it, especially if you have the Web Power Automate integration. Gmail in comparison feels so clunky.
Should I update to Windows 11?
@@RKaiser yes
This is one of the best videos that LTT has made recently. I really appreciate the input from the LMG team, sharing their insight that can only be gained through years of experience with an OS. This will become my go to reference for these topics in the future. Thanks
@13:06, a much simpler alternative is to similarly select the app in the taskbar to ensure it has focus and then while holding the windows key, tap the arrow keys in whichever direction youd like said window to move until it becomes visible. this same feature is in general very handy as it jumps windows between different snap locations
In addition, shift+right-click on a taskbar icon will show the alt+space menu in the taskbar for applications that have one. Proton apps like discord, for example, do not utilize shift+right-click and need the win+arrow shortcut to move a stuck window.
@@thebeav9282 yeah that's what I always do with lost windows. The editor really seems to be the one that does that the most
true, it's saved seconds of my life!
@@Blap7 its more the simplicity of the steps than the time savings, press two buttons rather than navigating unseen menus, but youd be surprised how much a couple seconds here and there adds up over time 😉
i like how they mentioned Win+Arrows moments before explaining that method though
This is your most useful video in years. Didn't know almost 50% of that stuff, and what I already knew you went deeper. Thank you!! I'll share with my team.
Refreahing to see actual Tech Tips on Linus Tech Tips 💪😅
This was genuinely mind blowing. I consider myself a power user and have used windows since the XP days but most of these were completely new to me!
That's because at least half of them are just few years old! The clipboard manager wasn't there when I was looking for tricks few years back.
@@GasssFreak oh for sure some of these are relatively new things. the reason for this is because most of us probably don't know WHERE to see the windows update CHANGELOGS...
well not like any of us would be keeping up with OS changelogs. Most people don't keep up with any changelogs.
You can also move windows by holding the windows key and pressing an arrow key to move the window in that direction. The window will move between half-screen-snap and windowed with left and right and win+down is un-maximize or minimize and win+up is maximize or un-minimize if you just used win+down one too many times.
Problem is, this is often clunky, not snapping directly between two halves of a screen. Even worse, it's almost entirely useless on a monitor in portrait mode. Been using Fancy Zones for months and it's so much more intuitive.
Holding Shift+Windows+arrow will move it between monitors as well if you have multiple
12:32 4th bullet point
@@BlueDrew10 Try pressing windows key+shift then the arrow key to make it keep the same size/position on the monitor you would like to move it to . So if it's full screen on horizontal monitor, it'll be full screen on the portrait monitor.
Afaik this doesn't work for windows that have a fixed size
I know software videos don't perform well but this was really useful to me! Thanks Anthony
XD fr
isn't Anthony a Mac user
@@defnotatroll lol no
@@defnotatroll You don't become educated by using a Mac. Macs are the antithesis of having control over your machine.
I am not a developer, but I am a Solidworks Admin at work and an enthusiast at home. Knowing some of these things and putting them to use is of incalculable value. As others have said, THIS is the kind of Tech Tips we need!!
I've been using PowerToys and Sysinternals for many years - probably the best utilities ever made for Windows. They're often the first things i install on a new system. Autoruns is a great tool for troubleshooting, and Process Explorer is an order of magnitude better than Task Mangler, which is useless. Nice to know the additional Shutdown options.
After repeated installs and then uninstalls (over a decade), I never found anything in Powertoys that useful. Could you give me a couple examples that might help me? Thanks.
The dude that created Sysinternals now runs Azure.
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus One thing I've done with the keyboard tool is binding Ctrl+Shift+Esc (which opens task manager) to the Insert key (which I don't use) since I often like to open up TM. You can use any unused keys on your keyboard to open apps or do other stuff. Of course, if you don't have any use for any of the tools, there's no need to use it.
I hate finding tools like this, then learning they can only be installed through the Windows store with a MS account, which eternally links my entire machine, which I fucking hate.
PowerToys is the most usefull tool ever for windows. It's a life changer for every worker out there.
@DontReadMyProfilePicture.3 ok
On my work OC we still have Windows 10 but at home I often work off an Ultrawide. PowerToys' FancyZones are so good
@Don't Read My Profile Picture shut uuuuuup
I use it mostly for the Video Conference Mute function, it's great, I can mute my microphone with a keyboard shortcut even when I'm in a game, very useful for when I'm in Discord with friends
@Don't Read My Profile Picture
K.
For that crazy "can't see the window" trick where you use Alt-Space, etc... you can just Shift-Right Click the taskbar entry for that window and it gives you the same menu. When you pick 'Move' it snaps your cursor to the taskbar of the window, even off-screen. You just click and drag from there.
And what about win+shift+arrow keys to move the window, far simpler
@@Hell_Jager win shift arrow is always the go to for me
I don't see this happening anymore on Windows 11. WHen a virtual desktop has no device underneath the window position resets to the current main display.
@@marsovac i'm on Win 11 and just started plex after some months.. it's off my screen and none of these options are working for me
I figured it out, I 'snapped' one of my other apps to one half of the screen and I was able to select plex to be used on the other half :)
Awesome tips! Just one thin, when changing the keyboard shortcut of the Search Powertoy, just be wary that Win+Space is already used for switching keyboard languages in case anyone needs to know
For me it's control-shift.
Went back to Windows after five years of using Mac, and I was so delightedly surprised how easy it was to set up a folder in Windows that my Mac just could drag and drop files into over the network.
It runs flawlessly on my Mac
Yeah, recently Windows is becoming much more user friendly experience than mac is. Especially with multi monitor setups that windows handles flawlessly while mac borks the bed every single update.
But.. That's been very easy for 10 years though?
@@jj-icejoe6642 As a Mac user, you probably didn't understand it
@@JMNTN Mac users can't "think"
What I love about Fancy Zones: I was able to effectively turn off window snapping when I drag, by setting it to require the Shift key, while still having all the keyboard shortcuts (like Win+Shift+Right) for moving windows around when I want them.
For all its “customizability”, it is baffling to me that standard Windows 10/11 won’t let you separately turn on/off window snapping via drag and windows snapping via keyboard shortcut.
I mostly hate that you cannot snap windows to the top or bottom of the screen with default windows zones :(. I haven't messed around with PowerToys much before, but this alone got me to download it and start looking.
PowerToys keyboard manager can also be used to "unbind" existing shortcuts. For example, Windows 11's WinKey+W to launch the news side panel, I rebound WinKey+W to nothing with PowerToys and now that does, as you'd guess, nothing. No more accidentally getting Bing news thrown in the face.
I'd like to get it with gestures too, like sliding from left to change opened apps instead of opening widgets.
or use GPO to turn off the news panel all together
Or just uninstall the news forever 😅
...... God help me the day I'm forced to use Windows 11. God help me.
@@Dracossaint Win11 is essentially just Win10 with a few UI changes, plus a bunch of great features for developers and power users.
People always complain about the latest version of Windows, but then whine when it eventually gets continued after they've grown used to it.
As an IT Professional of over 8 years I'm happy to see LTT shine a spotlight on some of the lesser known pro tools available from Microsoft like SysInternals and the like. Extremely helpful and productive tools that make life a lot easier for those of us in the industry and it's nice to see normal users be be exposed to it and all the others as well.
Was thinking the same thing. *Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme* half the video.
SysInternals tools is a must have. The amount of default and added bloatware that you can manhandle/disable with those tools is insane.
Should I update to windows 11?
This title is so true, most people don't realise just how much you can modify and personalize Windows. For example with a few hours it is possible to make Windows look almost 1:1 to any previous version, you can make custom shells, custom themes, icon packs, etc
Sadly many think that a Mac just runs a different version of Windows and have no idea of the real differences beyond the looks.
It's being a long time since something this useful was provided on this channel. Please do more of this...
Yeah I miss it, like this example of how things used to be: th-cam.com/video/rWXFCzflOi8/w-d-xo.html
Videos like these are a godsend for power users, productivity, and pros. Thank you so much!!! Seriously this totally can save us so much time and make things so much more simple.
I would love a series of tips like this expanded for windows and Linux
You mean.... Like.... Actual Tech Tips? 💪😅🙏
An alternative tip regarding the "alt space move window" tip I think it's better to use the "windows key + shift + left/right arrow key" to move the window to the other monitor.
as another another tip, holding shift and right clicking the icon on the taskbar gives you the Application Menu directly
But that doesn't always work.
@@polibidophlin big
I want my Linux response video from Anthony now!😂❤❤
Well, this one was written by him...
12:24 - You don't have to remember the key combination Alt+Space. You can instead make a right click on the window preview of the task bar. You have the "move" option there as well. You still have to press any arrow key afterward through.
About that... it doesn't always shows up there. That part of task bar is super glitchy....(fair to say, Taskbar itself overall super glitchy)
or you can focus the window and press Win + Shift + Arrow Left/Right to move the window between screens
or you can open the windows view thingy with a windows key + tab, rightclick on a thing you want to move and select move to the right or to the left option.
The whole idea is to not use the mouse anymore for stuff run supports :). Using a hotspot to activate it kinda defeats the purpose.
@@FunctionGermany This works 95% of the time, but few times I've lost windows into some void where Win+Shit+Arrows didn't do the trick.
Despite the unhelpful title, this was one of the most informative and useful LTT videos in a while. More of this type please, and make one for Linux and OSx too!
You can rage against what works all you want, but this video has 2.3 million views as of April 2023, 3 months later, so it comes down to what you think the purpose of a videos title is. You may want it to describe the contents, which would cause fewer people to watch it, and be "less helpful", or it could be a title that people would want to click on and help more people, which makes it "more helpful".
The powertoys, I think is in this last version, introduced an amazing OCR feature for anything in your screen, also a feature to se what app is using a file in context menu...
Yup, use it always. Super helpful
Holy crap I just today used an OCR off the web for something like that. Glad to see the powertoys have expanded I looked at them like a week after they were in the press and wasn't impressed.
This video shows the true power user tips for Windows.
I just add one extra tip for the Task Scheduler: use Event Viewer to find out a specified event id and program an XML in the Task Scheduler as the trigger.
I was using this to synchronise a folder to my USB drive as soon as it is plugged in. Extremely powerful.
You can see the Group policy as a visual way to tweak the registry entities. However, you can definitely add an specified entity in the registry editor to add more features for Windows, which might appear in the group policy editor.
Hearing about power toys and sysinternals again gave me such nostalgia of early windows days, thanks for sharing these awesome utilities with the new comers and the gratification "oh yeah I remember that" good vibes
An easier way For moving windows (especially ones off screen), select the app by clicking on taskbar, and then hold windows key + left or right arrow to move the window around and across the various snap areas. You can also use up for maximize and down arrow for minimize.
Came here to say this. You can also bring the window in to focus with alt + tab if your mouse isn't available.
Yes! these are the kind of tech tips I want! I know it's hard to come up with stuff like this regularly, but I'm always grateful when it happens, thank you!
Sysinternals Process monitor also deserves a mention to log what processes are doing, this helps a lot when diagnosing why a certain program that used to work doesn't any more instead of just looking at the current state and open files.
I was about to comment the same, I found it very useful to see which files a process is reading or writing
I remember looking at Process Explorer way back in like, idk, Vista or maybe somewhere around that? I've been using it for almost 11 years now because it changed my fucking life. Such an excellent program.
ProcMon also reveals which programs are badly coded. Half the reason I moved away from Dropbox.
@@alystair: what does Dropbox do?
6:21 the top bar in the Registry editor can be edited like the path bar in the file explorer, so you can also just paste the registry path you want to open there without needing an extra program.
Wow, as an IT-Admin for over 10 years, I still love to learn new things. Thanks man!
13:35 An easier method is to use Win + Arrow keys. You can use Win + Down to minimize, Win + Up to un-minimize or maximize, and Win + Left/Right to snap a window to a part of your screen. Win+Left/Right also allows you to change screens, but in case the app isn't maximized, it allows you to snap.
Meaning, if you lose your window, Win+Left/Right is a single shortcut to find your window back.
That doesn't work all the time though, but most of the time (like 90%+). So it has a good use case, if that works. I'm on Win 10 Pro so can't try..
@@aMp- the shortcuts work on win10 too
@@aMp- it's way more reliable than alt space though. A lot of programs don't even have an alt-space menu. But yea, definitely not 100% effective, some windows respond to neither, like nox 😐
This. I have a ghost monitor that windows constantly get moved into and using Win+Left or Win+Right always brings them back quickly.
Better way is pressing windows key+shift then the arrow key to make it keep the same size/position on the monitor you would like to move it to . Thank you and your welcome!
5:10 For those of you who use several keyboards in Windows, Win+Space is already used for switching keyboards, so you might want to find another shortcut.
I used powertoys itself to remap that
Just being curious. In what settings do you need multiple keyboards?
@@eccentricOrange It works too, was just saying that so people don't get confused when both happens.
@@ajbp95 i started learning programming and speak spanish, while having a english keyboard without the ñ, when i use the spanish setting i can't use so yeah i just change from one to another
@@ajbp95 Multiple keyboard *layouts*. Very common if you need to type in multiple languages with different characters.
Now this is an interesting tech tip! Feels like it's been a while since LTT published a comprehensive tech tip.
Actually had a window spawn half way above my monitor just now and couldn't get the mouse to it to move it anywhere. The Alt+Space, M, Arrow Key method saved me! I remembered you guys talking about it so I pulled up this video to get the exact method again! Thank you!
This felt like a REAL tech tips video. I get that information like this isn't always going to be new or novel, and that's okay, because at some point people will know all about this stuff and it becomes common knowledge. Otherwise, this was absolutely phenomenal. It's been a long time since I sat completely engaged by 16 minutes of a youtube video. Really great stuff.
Linus: "It is just a step away from the tilling window managers you find in the Linux world"
Also Linus a few seconds later: "There is nothing quite like it on any other operating system"
Edit: I don't mean that they are 1:1, the ways fancy zones does it is different to tilling window managers, I just wanted to point out how he said it is like Linux, and then said there is nothing like it almost immediately after.
lol
It's true tho, I'm on Linux and I still miss fancy zones :(
Linux Shill Tips
@@ItsDreamplay Why tho? You can easily do the same thing with linux as far as I understand Linus description of those powertoys.
@@murzilkastepanowich5818 lol
I think this is the best video LTT has ever released.
Thank you so much to the writers and whoever came up with the video idea, there are some very annoying things in Windows that I've been looking for ways to improve or get around… and you've just solved most of them. Thank you.
13:30 u can also just win+ to move the window
win+left arrow for example
Would love if Anthony did a Linux equivalent of this, even for someone who rarely uses Windows (usually just to fix weird registry issues or to recover someone's data) this video was great.
As a full-time Linux user, I agree. You want customization and control? Linux.
@Anon1337 Because you don't need to use the Terminal in windows but can. In linux you need to use it.
@@Chris-rg6nm wrong. I actually have a Linux machine on my house for my wife. She never used the terminal - at all. She was able to do about anything she needed - even to the point of downloading photos from our camera directly into the system, and making a videoclip with it. She's also not a power user, which actually HELPED - like, she never had the familiarity with Windows so that when things were "different" on Linux, she didn't notice.
Things that she did included also installing software to handle the camera, because Ubuntu suggested the app to install, finding missing files that she didn't remember where it was (Recent files, and the search), etc...
@Anon1337 thats because Linus is a Shill who was running WINDOWS as his Enterprise Server OS until 18 months ago. They are laymen at best. Anthony seems to know what he is doing the rest I think are faking it until they make it. Remember, they're journalists, not actual technical people.
I wanna see it too. Linux is much better than MacOS or Win11
These are my favorite types of ltt videos, thanks
I think a segment about Power Automate that is preinstalled in Windows 11 would've been a great addition to this video!
You also should've said about Edge browser application guard, it's a virtual sandbox where you can install some suspicious files from the internet and run them to check if they are malicious without infecting your machine.
Easily one of my top 10 LTT videos. Would love to see more tips and tricks.
Love this type of video, had no idea about any of these “hidden” programs. Super useful 👏🏻
13:30 a simpler solution is to snap a window to an edge of your screen and select your lost window from the options brought up to fill the remaining space.
That may not work if snapping is turned off. Also, the method Linus mentioned works all the way back to Win 3.11.
You can also right-click the start bar and click on 'cascade windows', which should also bring over anything outside the visible area, though I've only used it for single monitor setups, so...80% certain it works. There are several ways to do it, knowing more than one is useful if you are multi-tasking or don't have a working mouse or your laptop is missing the 'context menu' button, such as my Lenovo E560, which does not have said button. Enjoy your day!
3:00
Pro tip: You can use Task Scheduler to backup your files to another computer on your home network. This setup isn't for the faint of heart, but I've had it running in Win10 for over a year with zero issues.
Wow. Just great, useful content, no filler. Thank you.
This could be an ongoing series, perhaps possibly also covering Linux or even macOS (don't hate, educate!). Product reviews are great, and the tech news is hilarious, but compared to these tips...fluff. This was educational and engaging. Hope to see more of this in the mix.
13:10 for getting hidden windows back, you an also select the app/window, then use windows+left/right to move it from screen to screen until it snaps into one you can see. Bit faster than the hidden menu option method.
I think this doesn't work for an error notification windows that can't be closed, maximized or 'snap' into a corner (that type of windows doesn't have these options, also can't close it from the taskbar!). I had an application once that displayed an error notification on a different non-existing screen. win + L/R arrow key didn't work back then. I didn't know about the other option described in this video. Might give that a try once I encounter something like this again!
Linus has just set the bar for top tech tips and tweaks for Windows.
This is the kind of stuff that people should be learning to fully utilize Windows 👌
Side note, that graph of good and bad MS windows versions is actually hilariously accurate! I never realized that.
I guess win11 broke the cycle though 🥺
Technically Windows 8.1 (remember that?) was marketed as a different OS from Windows 8. So it broke the trend by being 2 bad OS in a row
Even though yes I know it was technically the equivalent of a service pack or the 22H2 update, Microsoft still tried to market it as a real OS like Windows 98 and Windows ME
Who says Windows 11 is good LOL!
windows 11 sucks tho
Windows 11 is technically still windows 10 so it didn't count too. If you use Windows 11, just get ExplorerPatcher to ditch the inferior Taskbar and use the old one and ditch the annoying new context menu too. But I love the new start menu 😋 and the tabs on explorer and the new icons and most settings fixes, the Android runtime and the new WSL 2. I prefer the legacy conhost that is now open source. And I love the gaming performance improvements I feel with Windows 11. So give it a chance but get yourself ExplorerPatcher
Yep
This is actually a very good video. There are few tools here I haven't seen before and I've been working in this field for 10 years. Thank you for providing such great content.
Something they didn’t show but should have is through process explorer you can also have it run VirusTotal scores on every running processes or just selected ones, which is definitely helpful to people who aren’t power users yet but on their way to be!
Edit: it’s in the right click menu for processes and under options in the top menu. There is a better guide in the replies of this by @GSAOKami
That saved me multiple times. I wish Linus mentioned it.
As usual the real gems in the comments
How do you do that?
This video easily deserves a Part 2 or Part 3. There's so much ground to cover and so many extra tools that even normal, everyday users probably wanted and didn't even know they could have.
I just tried it out because of your comment, and it's so cool! I even went as far to replace the regular Task Manager
For those wondering how, just open Process Explorer (better as admin) and right click any task, the option should be right above "properties"
It's gonna show "Hash submitted..." on the last tab, and then the result as x/y (ex.: 1/69)
You can even click the number to see the result directly on the website in details
PowerRename is grossly under appreciated
Can agree with that. Saved me a lot of time while renaming my video library for NAS migration (and proper Plex/Jellyfin naming scheme).
WSL (2) is super useful for developers and programmers who want a machine that can game but also be used for work
I mean, you can just game on Linux though?
@@FOREST10PL yeah and spend 90% of the times, looking up commands to fix problems in every few actions.
Would like to see more linux related content just like this!
There's honestly quite a lot if Linux channels already doing that. Brodie Robertson and DistroTube would be a good start.
I'd personally like to see ways to make Windows behave more like Linux since this video showed that Windows doesn't need to completely suck. Despite being largely decentralized, I feel Linux is actually better documented than Windows, which bugs me about Windows.
From the simplest of tech tip to the most advanced. Keep doing more of these please! I love it.
When a window is off the screen, I tend to just use the Win+Arrow keys. It's basically the same thing but utilising the snap feature of Windows to move the window instead.
Also, Win+Shift+Arrowkey to move a window between monitors
Same, but this doesn't work for non resizable windows
A set of shortcuts I use a lot are under the `WIN+X, U+*` this opens the power options list in the taskbar, you would replace the `*` with whatever power option hotkey you would like to run next, e.g. U would shutdown, S would sleep, R would restart. So say you want to quickly put your PC to sleep, just press `WIN+X, U+S`
That menu is super useful, until the 1 out of every 30 or so times I try to use it and the shortcuts to choose options in the menu don't work. Thanks Microsoft!
Nice
A good few years ago I used task scheduler to have my friendsl/roommates pc launch VLC every five minutes... They couldn't figure out how to turn it off and after an hour told me he was convinced he had a virus. It was not the last little joke we'd played on each other but was one of my favourites.
the move shortcut has always been a blessing as someone who sometimes uses two monitors, and sometimes doesnt.
another way to do a similar thing. while the window is "active" you can hit win+arrow key to automatically move it to one side of the screen. different directions do different things.
Win+X is great! it has sub-commands too: each option has an underlined letter which you can use to select it, recursively into the submenus. So Win+X M opens device manager, Win+X U R restarts the computer, etc. Super useful.
The best feature Windows 8.1 gave us.
I work in IT and knew a lot of these but still learned a lot, such a great Video, please more like this!
Absolutely awesome content!
I'm actually really appreciative of this video, hopefully everyone can make their lives a bit more efficient with these in some way
for those wondering, that tip at 13:11 doesn't work anymore if you have 2 monitors and you've 'lost' your windows in the 2nd monitor. It only works to move windows from the 1st monitor and that's it.
I figured out it won't work if you were watching a youtube video, while pressing arrow keys instead of "attaching" the windows to you mouse, the video goes forward/backward / volume up/down depending on the arrow you pressed. So yeah it doesn't work if you were watching vids, which is what most of us do.
One of the most helpful videos you have ever made. Thanks Linus
Very refreshing to see actual Tech Tips on Linus Tech Tips 😅💪
Been using PowerShell+WSL ever since I started working remotely, it works great honestly + for me the drop-down terminal seems to be working by default using Win+` shortcut. You can even change the settings to run Ubuntu terminal by default when openin PowerShell. Saved me from having to dual-boot my laptop/use other VMs.
I work remotely sometimes as well to overlook 100+ tools. You gotta try out ClickPaste! It lets you use copy/paste on VNC no matter what, even if it's disabled on the remote side of the tool you're logged in to!
"The Best Program You NEVER Heard Of (ClickPaste)" -Chris Titus Tech
th-cam.com/video/i7cgD_KCh10/w-d-xo.html
This is the most useful video you've ever made. I am an IT professional and have been for some time now, but I wasn't aware of quite a lot of the stuff you mentioned in this video. Especially the sysinternals were an eye opener for me - every app from the suite you mentioned solves a problem I've had so many times.
Same as you. I know about powertoys because my colleague teach me about it, but SysInternals are definitely first time I heard about it.
Another thing is the SSH feature on Windows Terminal. Now I can use SSH from Terminal using Powershell instead of using Git Bash lol.
13:20 - Just press Win + Arrows to move its position :p
I have fond memories of the shutdown command. The PCs in my middle school used to have some rather shoddy security. Basically nothing was locked down on the computers the students ran. We had freaking install privileges!
We discovered the shutdown command and slowly figured out what PC had what IP. We had a very fun time causing random shutdowns until the IT department of the school wizened up and locked basically everything down.
This was actually a really interesting video, would be interesting to also see methods to optimise windows and disable useless options
@Danny Michelle my guy if someone is unable to determine how to turn useless option in windows what makes you think they can navigate/use linux. Don't get me wrong I love linux but to have a bias view that everyone should use it because windows sucks is just wrong. For an average user which has the greater learning curve... ill give you a hint it aint windows my friend. You want to use it cool but stay in ur lane when it comes to what you tell less powerful users.
@@Doogle7821 idk man i didnt rlly know how to do that on windows and was fine, just occasionally broke things first ~3 months while i was learning. linux is rlly much more user friendly than it's made out to be so long as you know how to read a wiki and forums. plus if you use one of the more user friendly distros like mint it practically sets everything up for you and you prolly wont even have to do that that much
@Danny Michelle idk but I'm not in the mood on switching everything to manual mode. Sometime automatic is easier, I'm a manual guy on a bike but maybe less in computer. If you ride on something more than 10hour, automatic is less painful
@@Doogle7821 I've tried to use linux as my day to day OS but I was too used to windows as well being able to play games without having to worry about support and anti cheats not working. I do use linux in a vm for my uni work but thats only because theres software on there that I need to use.
You might want to add "-F" to the shutdown command
And for the move window from 2nd screen using "Win Key + Arrow Key" to move a window anywhere.
yep, I use that one
Win+Shift+Arrow to move between monitors quicker
Adding -f is equivalent to forcibly ending the process via task manager. The application will not be asked to close by itself, but will instead be MADE to close. This can lead to data corruption if the program in question is doing something at that moment.
Don't use the -f paramater unless you're dealing with programs that aren't playing nice in the first place.
-s -t 0 or -r -t 0 are perfectly fine for the vast majority of users.
You could just do this:
1. Shutdown : Win+x > u > u
2. Restart : Win+x > u > r
3. Restart into Advanced Startup : Win+x > u > shift+r
For WSL window sub system for linux. Make sure you turn on virtualization in the bios. Its called different in the bios, depending if you are using an AMD or Intel chip.
Never thought I'd see Linus talk about and showcase Sysinternals.
Such an indispensable and powerful bit of software.
One of the best in a long time. Like actual Tech tip level stuff. Quality you'd expect from LTT. Kudos. And props to Anthony for being awesome.
FINALLY. LInus TECH TIPS giving TECH TIPS. Waiting for 5 years was totally worth it.
as a security professional and reverse engineer i have been using sysinternals tools for years! glad to see it get some attention on a huge channel like LTT 6:28
I really enjoy the majority of your videos, but this was definitely the most useful video I've seen so far, I'll be using most of what's in here from now on. Thank you for the video. Would you please consider making more content like this?
These are all things i knew and felt like a "windows tech god" for knowing them, learning them in the past 20+ years, now i'm not special anymore because of Linus!!! Joke aside really cool that this kind of clips started to pop up, i'm really curious to see what else will they show, maybe i'll also get to know more :). Cheers!
I didn't know most of these things from Windows but have known them in and out on Linux for years. What am I?
I knew many, but there were a few little tricks I still learned.
I dint know about the god mode folder, others were pretty well known stuff these days, seen at least 60% of these on tiktoks
The 'shutdown -s -t' command is also brilliant for telling your computer to shutdown in a given amount of time. I use it a lot for when a programme or game is installing an update. It means that I can leave my PC on for an hour or so at night while it downloads whatever, but then shutdown so that the PC isn't running all night wasting electricity and being a (slight) fire hazard.
Just go to run and type 'shutdown -s -t 3600' where the number is the amount of delay in seconds that you want (3600 would equal an hour).
You can even create a shortcut to shutdown in a set amount of time.
It wasn't mentioned here but there's a Sysinternals tool in the PSTools suite called PSShutdown that I normally use instead. It's great for rebooting servers overnight. The syntax is similar to the shutdown command but you can give it a set time rather than trying to work out the number of seconds to your desired time.