The One Thing That Made Our Ideas Actually Work❗

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

In last week’s episode I mentioned I was collaborating with a friend of mine named Joey.

We’ve been having weekly calls and discussing ideas on how we can improve our respective businesses by helping our clients.

I mentioned to him that, when we worked at Texas Instruments together, the vast majority of ideas that we implemented on our team came from the two of us talking.

He reminded me that, at one point, we had the maintenance people remove the divider between our cubes because we worked so well together (otherwise we’d end up yelling over the top of them.)

Bouncing ideas off other people is incredibly helpful.  

It’s one of the things I encourage in the AHK Hero club.  Of course some people bring their ideas to the Hero meetings and we get feedback from each other.

Do you have an “idea buddy” to bounce ideas off of❓   If not, I can guarantee you’ll come out ahead if you bounce your ideas off someone else before you start to implement.

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

buttonClicking

MasterClass in Classes

Irfan is going to start taking over for Isaias on a custom client project.  To help Irfan this morning Isaias gave an amazing training on advanced concepts and strategies in Classes. 

Since there was no real specific client information I’m able to share it with you! 

🏗️ Why Your AutoHotkey Code is DOOMED to Fail (Architecture Secrets)
🏗️ Why Your AutoHotkey Code is DOOMED to Fail (Architecture Secrets)

If you’re new to Classes you should check out our Intro to Objects & Classes course (also lead by Isaias).  Don’t forget our courses come with a 200% money-back guarantee!

200% Money Back Guarantee badge with a yellow and green starburst seal for AHK courses

Alternatively, if you’d rather ask questions, the AHK Hero club is a perfect place for you.


Intro to Debugging

During an AHK Hero call Irfan led a great session on debugging.

You can check it out here.  

Want to grab our AHK script Editor (featured in the video)?   You can get it here.  Note we now have an upscale version which includes a bunch of our Debugging, Inspecting and Syntax Writing tools.

💡 Stop Debugging the Hard Way – This Method is 10x Faster | AHK Hero Extract
💡 Stop Debugging the Hard Way - This Method is 10x Faster | AHK Hero Extract


One Feature You Won’t Find in other Editors

During an AHK Hero call I had an idea that I’d wished I’d thought of years ago.

We’ve already incorporated it into AHK Script Maker but you can check out the idea here.

Why Don’t Code Editors Have This OBVIOUS Feature? 🤔 | AHK Hero Extract
Why Don't Code Editors Have This OBVIOUS Feature? 🤔 | AHK Hero Extract


PassKeys, Voice Cloning, and AI Security

Are you freaked out about AI❓

It’s definitely going to get wild here in the very-near future❗  

During one of our Hero Calls we discussed several aspects of security & AI.

Discussing Passkeys, Voice Cloning, AI and Security
Discussing Passkeys, Voice Cloning, AI and Security


Improving People’s Lives: Story #77

I’m out in Las Vegas visiting my 85-year-old father.  I’m buying various “gadgets” that will let me keep an eye on him when I’m back home in Texas. 

I wish there was a way to avoid an accident entirely however at least now I’ll have a way to be aware of the problem❗


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI News that you Need to Know


⚡️Productivity tips:  

Boredom is the best productivity booster. 

Remove access to all “entertainment” (Facebook, YouTube, Tiktok, IM, etc.) and you’ll be so bored you’ll want to work❗


🤣 A spot of Humor: Priceless!

Best of Lewis & Oswald Drew Carey Show
Best of Lewis & Oswald Drew Carey Show


What we 🅰utomated this week with AutoHotkey #119

In this week’s video, I walk through where we’re at with the AHK Script Maker editor (including what the premium version will cost and all the productivity tools we’re packing into it.)

 I also showcase a bunch of utility scripts like clipboard history, window management tools, and even voice commands (though they’re still giving us false positives). Lots of practical automation stuff to check out!

119 What we Automated with AutoHotkey #119
119 What we Automated with AutoHotkey #119


Clients say…

This has the potential to save more time than anything we’ve done so far — Michael N. (Radiologist)


Cartoon superhero mascot in green costume beside the bold text AHK Hero on a yellow background 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 515 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:

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

  • The question isn’t who is going to let me it’s who is going to stop me — Ayn Rand
  • The secret to getting things done is to get started; The secret to getting started is to divide your task into small pieces with “quick wins“. — Joe Glines
  • If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins — Benjamin Franklin

AHK Newsletter⏩SHARE WITH A FRIEND⏩

Do you know someone that would benefit from learning useful automation tips like the gems in today’s issue?  Take a second and forward this newsletter and bask in the glow of their undying gratitude.  Was this email forwarded to you?

Sign up for this Newsletter here.  We never share your email with anyone.  Ever!


the-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff


P.S. I’m very serious about talking out your ideas with someone else.   Our AHK Hero club is only $1.99 for the first month.   Join and get some (nearly free) highly qualified feedback❓

 

AHK News 2026-01-22 Meet my new AI Assistant: Irfan 🤖

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

I’ve been collaborating with an old friend of mine named Joey.

I introduced him to AI about a year and a half ago and, over the past 6 months, he’s been diving deep into it.

During most of our calls, we touch on the never-ending new uses of AI.

A few weeks back he joined a call and I introduced him to Irfan.

Joey politely said “hello” but I could tell there was something in his tone that wasn’t quite right.

Since Joey and I are very close I straight out asked him what was up.

It turns out he thought Irfan was my “AI assistant”.

We all had a good laugh, but he had good reason to suspect it was an AI assistant.

I think in the next 6 months I’ll create one.

During our Hero calls we end up sharing more and more about how we’re using AI to work smarter, not harder.  If you’re wanting to dabble with AI, it’s a great place to get ideas and direction.

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

heroAttend

Updating your VS code preferences

If you’re a VS code user you should check out this video where Isaias walks through configuring it.

VS code is the “Ferrari” of editors.   It’s incredibly powerful but is also complicated.

VS code preferences for extensions with AHK v2
VS code preferences for extensions with AHK v2

If you’re wanting to learn how to use it, you should check out our Intro to VS Code course.


Want a simple, yet powerful, editor❓

If you’re wanting a solid editor that is easy to use but has powerful features you should check out our AHK Script maker.  We’re almost out of beta but it is pretty stable and packed full of great features!

You can get an idea of what it can do in this video

AHK Script Maker Updates
AHK Script Maker Updates


Why YOU Should Automate

I fed NotebookLM a story I wrote a while back to help people realize the benefits of automating.

It created this amazing video for me.   If you/ someone you know don’t see the reasons why they should automate I highly recommend you check it out / share it with them.

🚀 Reclaim Your Time with AI! How Automation Transforms Productivity 💡
🚀 Reclaim Your Time with AI! How Automation Transforms Productivity 💡


Help your Brother (printer) out

During an AHK Hero call Connie asked for some help automating the printer software.

Even if you don’t have a Brother printer, you should check this video out because we discuss various ways to automate programs with AutoHotkey

🛠️ AutoHotkey Masters Crack Brother Printer Code
🛠️ AutoHotkey Masters Crack Brother Printer Code


Improving People’s Lives: Story #76

I showed a friend of mine that is losing his vision our AI OCR tool and how, by making a minor change to the prompt, it can be used to show AI anything from your screen.

I have this video on how that works.

Adapting OCR for flexiblility
Adapting OCR for flexiblility


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI News that you Need to Know


⚡️Productivity tips:  In Outlook

  • Ctrl+Q – Mark as Read
  • Ctrl+U – Mark as Unread

🤣 A spot of Humor:  Pickup Lines doomed to fail

The Pick Up Lines of Ryan Stiles
The Pick Up Lines of Ryan Stiles


What we 🅰utomated this week with AutoHotkey #118

This week I got some serious AI help cleaning up my video extraction tool—turned a messy FFmpeg command into something way more elegant that actually notifies me when it’s done processing.

In this week’s video I walk you through the improvements to my AHK Script Maker (including a sweet jump-to-line feature), show off some utility tools like Clipster and my hotkey lookup system, and share my plans for integrating premium tools right into the editor.

If you’re into making your workflow smoother with AutoHotkey, you’ll want to check this one out!


Clients say…

I appreciate all the work you guys are doing for me! I look forward to it and it keeps me excited about my work – otherwise I would likely get bored or burned out or both. — Todd H. (Radiologist)


Cartoon superhero mascot in green costume beside the bold text AHK Hero on a yellow background 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 512 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: Adding Tools and Fixed bugs
  • Hide a Hard drive with DriveToggler
  • No Day or Nights in Canada❓
  • How I run Android apps on Windows
  • 5 Git commandsthat feel like Magic
  • Comparing strings, case sensitivity, how to handle when in map, etc.

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

  • The first minute of action is worth more than a year of perfect planning — James Cleary
  • What people think of you is irrelevant. But how you leave this world matters. Even if it’s all futile in the end, play your part as well as you can. Real courage is fear, in action. Play your hand — John Carlton
  • Being born in poverty isn’t a sin; staying in poverty might be — Dan Kennedy

AHK Newsletter⏩SHARE WITH A FRIEND⏩

Do you know someone that would benefit from learning useful automation tips like the gems in today’s issue?  Take a second and forward this newsletter and bask in the glow of their undying gratitude.  Was this email forwarded to you?

Sign up for this Newsletter here.  We never share your email with anyone.  Ever!


the-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff


P.S. The intro was a true story and I fully believe I’ll have an AI assistant to help keep track of things (and work on projects for me).   Have you tried creating a personal AI assistant yet?  If so, what were your thoughts❓

AHK News 2025-10-09- 269 Newsletters❗

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

Last week’s newsletter was about remembering what it was like starting-out with AutoHotkey.

When I was publishing the newsletter it got me wondering how many AHK Newsletters I’ve done.

Since I keep all of the past ones it was pretty easy to do a search and realize my first Newsletter was sent in July of 2020. 

I know there were two weeks that I missed which means as of today I’ve sent about 269 AHK Newsletters

Some of you might think it is hard to think of new things to write about however I find it incredibly easy.   Probably because I’m still constantly learning what to automate!

How about you❓ Do you ever think you’ll run out of “things to automate“❓

Thank you for being a subscriber/viewer❗

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

DoingItManually

Sadly the above is closer to the truth than you would think❗ I had 3 bosses at Texas Instruments that literally told me “not to automate” things.

Customizing VS Code

During a Hero call last weekend, Ray wanted to tweak his VS Code settings.  

Isaias walked through some of the (seemingly endless) settings in VS code.

I also chimed in with how I’d changed the backgrounds of my inactive tabs.  I extracted the video so you can check it out here.

Customizing your VSCode settings
Customizing your VSCode settings


️Don’t need a Ferrari❓

We often joke that VS Code is the Ferrari of editors.  If you’re a developer coding in AutoHotkey v2 VS code is definitely the right choice however many of us (myself included) don’t need a Ferrari.

Our choice used to be SciTE4AutoHotkey however it has some odd bug in it that changes your AutoHotkey install settings that we can’t track down.  

We use AHK Toolkit a lot however it’s missing some core features (Line numbers, IntelliSense, Autocomplete, Dark mode, assignable hotkeys etc.)

So we’re creating our own (basic) editor for people that don’t need all the bells-and-whistles that VS Code offers.  

We’re planning on naming it AHK Script Maker and I’m hoping to have an early version out next week.

If you’d like an early look at it  you can check it out in this video.

What are your “must have” features %Name%❓

Creating a new AHK editor
Creating a new AHK editor


Deeper Dive into Semantic Versioning

We’ve covered Semantic Versioning before however Isaias learned some new information about metadata so, during a Hero call, we walked through Semantic Versioning again.

Additional info on Semantic Versioning
Additional info on Semantic Versioning


Improving People’s Lives: Story #66

Our Video Sandwich tool was built for me to use however I have several friends that have YouTube channels and will be borrowing it as well.  

Over the years I’ve loved automating my own work but a true joy is being able to give it to others and save them time as well! 

Do you share your scripts with others❓

If so, you might check out this video where we walk through the list on this page about why scripts break when you share them with others.


What we’re reading


AI News that you Need to Know


⚡️Productivity tips: Gmail hacks

During a Hero call we discussed some fun Gmail hacks

Fun gmail hacks
Fun gmail hacks


A spot of Humor: Put to metal

Last week I shared this gem of an Insufferable brat going mental.

This guy took part of it and created a great song!

“GIVE HIM A TICKET!” GOES METAL

give him a ticket


What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #105

In this week’s video we’re diving into some really cool updates including our brand new AutoHotkey editor that actually plays nice with your scripts (unlike some other options), plus I’ll show you how AI helped us make one of our tools run ridiculously faster.

We’ve also been cranking on a bunch of media tools and our AI OCR that can do way more than just read text—you’ll want to see what’s possible with custom prompts!

105 What we Automated with AutoHotkey #105
105 What we Automated with AutoHotkey #105


Clients say…

They always deliver more value than promised—  AJ Wilcox


Cartoon superhero mascot in green costume beside the bold text AHK Hero on a yellow background 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 472 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

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

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

  • Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive; We can create it for you! — Joe Glines
  • Decisions without actions are worthless — Dan Kennedy
  • Failure is not the opposite of success; It’s a part of it!

AHK Newsletter⏩SHARE WITH A FRIEND⏩

Do you know someone that would benefit from learning useful automation tips like the gems in today’s issue?  Take a second and forward this newsletter and bask in the glow of their undying gratitude.  Was this email forwarded to you?

Sign up for this Newsletter here.  We never share your email with anyone.  Ever!


The-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff


P.S. I find it hard to believe I’ve been publishing this newsletter for over 5 years.  

What’s more amazing is, every day, I find something else to automate!  

Are you the same %Name%❓

Consider joining the AHK Hero club where you can be with others like you.