AHK News 2025-08-07 MASSIVE AI News This Week! Claude 4.1, GPT-OSS, Grok & More!

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

What an amazing week for AI❗

Over the past couple of months I’ve been spending more time using AI tools (mostly Claude and Grok) to create AutoHotkey tools.

I can confidentially say that AI has finally gotten good enough at AutoHotkey v2 to be used for solving most things.

Is it perfect?  No.

But it is very rare that I run into a problem that it cannot solve.

How about you❓   Are you using AI to develop your scripts❓

Over the weekend I (okay Claude) created an AutoHotkey v2 class that connects to OpenRouter.ai

What’s interesting about OpenRouter is that I can, currently, choose between 400+ models from 60+ providers.

All I have to do is pass the model name as a parameter and, BANG, I’m working with a different model.

Check out this short video showing me call different models back to back.

We discuss AI a lot in our AHK Hero group.   Click here to learn more.

Use Hundreds of Models with OpenRouter.ai
Use Hundreds of Models with OpenRouter.ai


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

itsNuts


Creating videos with NotebookLM

Earlier this week I saw Notebook LM added the ability to generate videos.  

Patiently, I’d visit everyday to see if it had rolled out to my account yet.  

Finally, this morning, I had access❗

Here’s a link to the video.  What do you think?   I miss the “podcast” approach where two people are discussing a topic.  But I do think the video helps it keep attention.

No, The newest AI model won’t save you
No, the new AI model will not save you


Is the User an Admin ?

Some things we do with AutoHotkey are only possible if the script is run at an “admin” level.

Unfortunately most users don’t know what “being an admin” actually means.

So, instead of asking users, we created this script which let’s us pragmatically detect if the user is an admin or not.  You can see how we use it in this video.

Please keep in mind, whiel there is the built-in AHK variable A_IsAdmin, this is not the same as checking if the USER is admin.

Determining if the User is an Admin
Determining if the User is an Admin


Easily Renaming your Files

I was trying to use our AHK v1 Easy File renamer and it had a slight bug.  I gave it to Claude AI and asked if it could fix the issue. 

Claude’s first response was something like:  “I can fix it however, I see this is AHK v1 code and I know you prefer v2 code; let me convert it to v2 for you…”

Now everyone on the-Automator team had looked at the v1 code and decided it was just too complicated to be worth making the change.  Claude, on the other hand, wasn’t as lazy.

The code it gave me didn’t run on the first try

But it did on the 2nd❗

Not only that but, it implemented the “undo” feature which we had not done!

During a Hero call I was showing it off and someone asked if it handled recursive files/folders. 

During the AHK Hero call Isaias implemented that which you can see in this video.

Adding Folder Recursion to Simple File Renamer in AutoHotkey v2
Adding Folder Recursion to Simple File Renamer in AutoHotkey v2

If you want to see a full demo of the AHK V2 Simple File Renamer script you can see it in this video.

You can learn about file looping in our Intermediate AutoHotkey course

Great tool for Easily Renaming your Files with SimpleFileRenamer
Great tool for Easily Renaming your Files with SimpleFileRenamer


Improving People’s Lives: Story #57  Scaling with AI

I met with an old colleague of mine for lunch.   About a year ago I introduced him to Chat GPT.

Yesterday we touched base and I introduced him to many more AI tools that can help his business scale.    

Would you like to discuss what AI can do for you❓   Book a free meeting with me here.


What we’re reading


AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips:  Zoom Hotkeys

  • Alt+H – Show/hide chat panel
  • Alt+U – Show/hide participants panel

A spot of Humor: This would freak me out!

Our Most Chaotic Prank Of ALL TIME | Just For Laughs Gags

Our Most Chaotic Prank Of ALL TIME | Just For Laughs Gags


What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #96

In this week’s video I demonstrate how I use AutoHotkey to automate tasks, solve client problems, and build tools that boost productivity and minimize errors.

This past week, I reviewed 123 AutoHotkey scripts we worked on, sharing insights into the various projects and tools we’ve developed to show just how versatile and effective AutoHotkey can be.

What we Automated with AutoHotkey #96
What we Automated with AutoHotkey #96


Client’s say…

I had no idea you could do this with AutoHotkey — Jim F.


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 445 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
  • Creating videos with NotebookLM
  • Waiting for an element to exist Instead of using a long sleep
  • Update to Clipster– wait for clipboard format
    • Need to fix the file copy and RTF
  • Broadcasting messages to all Windows (hidden and visible)
  • Waiting for user to select Menu / if click off menu
  • OpenRouter, Claude 4.1, OpenAI GPT-OSS, Genie 3
  • Breaking Logs into Incremental Files
  • Debug configuration – Switching between scripts in VS Code

They also have access to exclusive & pre-released content and a 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 thing most people like least is a mirror — Dan Kennedy
  • Excuses are simple lies we first tell ourselves then others — Joe Glines
  • Time spent alone in silence can yield breakthrough insights — Dave Dee
  • The strength of your business is based more on your customers , than your products — Joe Glines

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!


Ready to level up with AutoHotkey? Explore all courses now 

The-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfanand staff


P.S. We are creating more and more custom tools that incorporate AI in them.

If you’d like us to build a custom AI tool for you, let me know by replying to this email.

Yeah, this is a different tool I’m trying here, I’m holding this down.

AutoHotkey News 2025-06-26: To make more Money, Implement More and Innovate Less

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy,

Seeing that you’ve found your way to AutoHotkey, at one point or another, you’ve probably considered selling your scripts.

A lot of people come to me saying they have an “amazing idea” for a script and are willing to share the idea for a “cut of the profits”.

The thing is: the vast majority of ideas are “cheap”❗

Many of us “grew-up” thinking the world would beat a path to our door if we could just “invent a better mouse trap”

In order to actually end up making money you need to be able to let the world know that you’ve created.

Some of our clients keep trying to tweak/perfect their “mouse trap” before launching.   This, more often than not, is a mistake.

I encourage our clients to get a 1st version of their tool created and get it in front of prospects as soon as possible.

Understanding just “how hungry” the audiences is for your product will help justify how much more work you should do on it.

I can also tell you with 100% confidence that, as a developer, you should:

Implement More and Innovate Less❗

Create something that is reliable enough to get the concept across and get it in the hands of your target market.

If they “go on and on” about how it changes their life then dive-deep into the product but don’t worry about making it “perfect“.   Remember

Version one is infinitely better than version none❗

Of course, if you’d like us to help you create that first version, check out my calendar and schedule a call!

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

sprinkling


Fat Arrows => so much better than Skinny Arrows❗

During an AHK hero call a few weeks back Isaias gave us a great overview of learning how, and when, to use Fat Arrows.

⚡ AutoHotkey v2 =ᐳ Fat Arrows That Supercharge Your Scripts❗
⚡ AutoHotkey v2 =ᐳ Fat Arrows That Supercharge Your Scripts❗


Wrangling in your VS code Extensions

During this last weekend a Hero member was having issues with his AutoHotkey Extensions in VS code.

Isaias gave some great insights how to deal with them in this video.

If this interested you, check out our Intro to VS code course! It’s a game changer❗

VSCode extensions for AutoHotkey v1 and v2
VSCode extensions for AutoHotkey v1 and v2


Flipping Text for your Teleprompter

Several years ago Maestrith wrote a very cool v1 script that would “invert” text on the screen.  A client mentioned something the other day so I had Irfan convert it to v2.

The code itself is super-cool so, even if you don’t have a Teleprompter, it is worth getting just to see the approach.   You can see a demo of the script here.

Flip Text for Teleprompter
Flip Text for Teleprompter


Improving People’s Lives: Story #53

We used our AI Translator during a call with clients that only speak French.  I wasn’t perfect but definitely helped the communications!


What we’re reading


AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips:

In PowerPoint you can hit Shift+F5 to Start the slideshow from current slide


A spot of Humor: Elaine getting down Everywhere!

The Bizarro Elaine Dance
The Bizarro Elaine Dance


What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #90

Here I walk through 96 AutoHotkey scripts we worked on over the past week.

At the beginning I mention an amazing ffmpeg tool I built that records both my desktop and my webcam!

What we automated with AutoHotkey #90
What we automated with AutoHotkey #90


Client’s say…

The Automator is an amazing resource I use it weekly. — David Burk


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 426 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 a 3 hours a week where we help people with their AHK issues (the Saturday calls are geared towards people new to AutoHotkey.)


️ Quotable quotes

  • Learn how to calculate the future cost of your bad decisions — Joe Glines
  • If every request is a five alarm fire, it’s your house that’s gonna go up in flames — Amy Landino
  • Decisions without actions are worthless — 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, Denilson and staff


P.S. If you’d like to talk about how and where to market your product, check my calendar and schedule a call.

AHK News 2025-05-22: The Best AI for writing AHK v2 Code

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %name%,

AI has come a long way since Jackie and I reviewed it 5 years ago!

It’s gone from being a novelty to something I use multiple times a day!

There are now too many AI tools out there to keep track of but the question specific for us (and you) is:

Which AI tool provides the best AutoHotkey v2 code “out of the box”❓

While not scientific I put them in the following rank order:

Up until a month ago I would have had Claude at the top however, recently, Grok has been able to deliver more often than Claude and it’s creating very advanced scripts with little nudging needed!

I should also mention that I’m a paying member of both Claude and ChatGPT.

I have created the following two custom projects in Claude which I find very helpful

The first one helps AI convert older scripts to v2.

The second one greatly reduces the amount of code that I both put it, and get out, of Claude.

I instruct Claude to use my libraries to help with my code and (most importantly) when it uses them, to refer to them with #Includes (as I’ve given it the local path to libs on my computer)

How about you❓

What’s your favorite AI tool for writing AHK V2 code❓

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

notCrossPlatform


Sending Code in Telegram

In this short video we show 3 ways you can easily send your code in Telegram.   

AHK hero members love this because it let’s us review their issues very easily in our Private Telegram group AHK Membership has it’s privileges❗

Three Easy Ways to Paste Code in Telegram
Three Easy Ways to Paste Code in Telegram


Copy On Click❗

In our AI Transcribe and Summarize tool I wanted to, easily, copy the tags in an edit field to the clipboard.

This was trickier than I expected but Isaias got us there and walks us through in this video.

How to Easily Copy Edit field to the Clipboard

How to Easily Copy Edit field to the Clipboard


Fat Arrows are Easier than you think❗

A few weeks back, during a Hero call, Isaias showed us how, and more importantly when, to use Fat Arrows.

It was a great clip so I extracted it and share it in this video

⚡ AutoHotkey v2 =ᐳ Fat Arrows That Supercharge Your Scripts❗
⚡ AutoHotkey v2 =ᐳ Fat Arrows That Supercharge Your Scripts❗


Improving People’s Lives: Story #50

Our client had ~65 medical terms that were lacking what they were associated with.

So I created a project in claude all of which used the same prompt and asked for a bulleted list of output.

In about 10 minutes I had it all done with great reports that will take very little editing.


What we’re reading


AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips:

In Microsoft Outlook you can mark an email as being “unread” by hitting   Ctrl+U


A spot of Humor:

I remember seeing this Brady Bunch clip when I was a kid.

Yes; you can be “too efficient”

Being too Efficient

Being too Efficient


What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #87

This week I walk through 91 AutoHotkey scripts we worked on last week with AutoHotkey.

87 What we Automated with AutoHotkey #87
87 What we Automated with AutoHotkey #87


Client’s say…

The Automator is an amazing resource I use it weekly. — David Burk


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 417 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
  • Sharing one patch to multiple / different repositories in GIT
    • Getting a list of Files but not folders Recursively
    • Performance difference Pushing items into a list (as object verse String)
  • Using your own compiled script to launch AHK file; the order of parameters matters!
  • Debugging an executable
  • Binding a Parameter to a function
  • Notifyv2 / Get Active Path and DPI
  • FileLock Variable for keeping track of the status of your scripts

They also have access to exclusive & pre-released content and a 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 and Believe, It Can Achieve — Napoleon Hill
  • Create exceptional Opportunities for Exceptional People — Dan Kennedy
  • If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense — Grandma

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, Denilson and staff


P.S. Are you struggling with AI❓  We regularly discuss best practices during our AHK hero calls.  You should check out the program! It’s an amazing deal!