AHK News 2026-03-05 Making best use of your Scarce Resources🧠

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

I’m using AI more and more these days.

When Open AI first released ChatGPT, it was clear the potential was insane

I realized combining AutoHotkey with AI would make a powerful combination.

AI provides the brains and AutoHotkey does the actions.

And now that AI is getting brilliant at programming I feel like I’m being “freed up” to truly focus on what matters.

I’m thinking about recording a video sharing my best “vibe coding” tips.   Would you be interested in seeing that❓  Let me know by replying to this newsletter.

If enough people are interested I’ll record it this week.

Now on with the show…

Learn how to Master VSCode Make the switch to v2 Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Access all our Courses; Quit when you want

firstAHKScript

AHK v1, v2 and v2.1 Beta

I used AI to discuss the differences between the main versions of AutoHotkey.  It did a great job which you can hear about in this video.

🚨 AutoHotkey V2.1 Features Will Change How You Code Forever
🚨 AutoHotkey V2.1 Features Will Change How You Code Forever


Are all the New v2.1 new Features really an Improvement?

As a follow-up to the above video Niek, an AHK Hero member, and I discuss V1 and some of the changes coming in v2.1 beta.  It turned into a very interesting discussion which you can watch here.

🚨 Why This Developer HATES AutoHotkey’s New v2.1 Features | AHK Hero Extract
🚨 Why This Developer HATES AutoHotkey's New v2.1 Features | AHK Hero Extract


Easily Merge PDFs

I was preparing my tax documents and wanted to give my Claude project the ~55 Amazon invoices and have it create a spreadsheet listing the items and their costs.

Unfortunately Projects had a max of 20 files so I just pivoted and created PDF Merger to merge the 55 pdfs into one and I then gave that to Claude.

You can check out the tool in this short video.

🔧 I Built a PDF Merger Because Claude Has a 20-File Limit
🔧 I Built a PDF Merger Because Claude Has a 20-File Limit


VS Code Profiles Vs Workspaces

We often joke that VS code is the Ferrari of editors.

It is incredibly powerful.  However, with all that functionality, it can be difficult to keep it all straight.

Ray, a Hero member, asked for clarification on Workspaces and Profiles.  You can check out the video here

VS Code Profiles vs Workspaces: Which One Do You ACTUALLY Need? 🤔
VS Code Profiles vs Workspaces: Which One Do You ACTUALLY Need? 🤔 |AHK Hero Extract

And remember, if you’re wanting to learn how to use VS code you can check out our Intro to VS code course.  The course comes with double your money back guarantee.


Improving People’s Lives: Story #84

A friend had a bad accident a while ago and, even after a few surgeries, still has significant pain & lack of strength in his neck & back.

He’d read about NMES (which is similar to a TENS) but wasn’t sure if it was a gimmick.

I figured this was a great job for NotebookLM since it rarely hallucinates.  I created several videos, reports and a pro/con debate podcast which helped him decide it was worth a try.

I’m happy to report it has given him great relief!

Click here If you’d like to check out the research, Podcasts, Infographics or Videos.


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI News that you Need to Know


⚡️Productivity tips:   Study on Extreme Productivity

Top 3 (of 12) differentiators were:

  • Hold themselves Accountable
  • Are very Proactive
  • Have Productive Habits overall

🤣 A spot of Humor: Jimmy Carr helps someone quit (with Pizazz)

Jimmy Carr Records the Most BRUTAL Resignation Message Ever!
Jimmy Carr Records the Most BRUTAL Resignation Message Ever!



What we 🅰utomated this week with AutoHotkey #124

In this week’s video I dove into 13+ tools.  From an AI-powered OCR that blows Windows’ built-in version out of the water, to a segmenter tool, a dim screen upgrade with a color picker, and even a newsletter plugin that uses embeddings to match content intelligently.

What we Automated with AutoHotkey #124
What we Automated with AutoHotkey #124


Clients say…

My mind is blown — Kelly Coughlin


AHK Hero 🦸

Consider joining the 🦸AHK Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc.    Currently we have over 530 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

You can watch 1 hour a day for a year and not repeat content! That’s a lot of AHK Learning!

During this Friday’s call we’re planning to discuss:

  • Help AHK Hero Members with their Questions & Code
  • AHK Script Maker: Another round of updates, adding v1 to v2 converter
  • Using Try/Catch in your code
  • Creating a wrapper for YT-DLP
  • Moving Chrome and restoring it
  • Claude’s Files API lets you upload files and access them from various API calls
  • Connecting Claude to NoteBookLM
  • Deciding on Model to use in OpenRouter
  • Setting default values in an ini file

They also have access to exclusive & pre-released content and 3 hours a week where we help people with their AHK issues (the Saturday calls are geared towards people new to AutoHotkey.)


🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes

  • If you come to a fork in the road, take it — Yogi Berra
  • Underutilization ➡️ Lack of perceived value ➡️ Churn — Ryan Wells
  • Listen more than you talk. And when you talk, observe the rules of conversation. If these rules are a mystery to you, go hunt them down — John Carlton

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the-Automator  Dedicated to Multiplying your Income

Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff


P.S. If you would like help talking through what you should be working with, look at my calendar and book a call.

Double P.S. I can’t mention scarce resources and not mention Thomas Sowell’s amazing book Basic Economics.  For over 25 years I’ve been saying “If I could get everyone on the planet to read one book, this would be it❗”

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