I’m getting High with a little help from my friends 👀 -AHK News 2026-07-16

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy,

I’ve heard how runners get an endorphin rush while running (if this was not a thing I don’t think there would be many people that actually ran…)

But I’ve come to realize that, when I’m talking with friends about how we use AI, I’m getting quite “high” with our new capabilities.

We can now create virtually anything we want in a few hours.

This has led to a drastic shift in how we use AutoHotkey.

We used to help clients automate their programs but now we have shifted to

why not just create the program they want❓

It’s amazing how often we can create a custom tool to do just what they want (which they have full control over) instead of patching the old software.

How about you❓  Are you getting your “fix” in?  

If not, the first three of you can have a free week of Claude’s Max plan by clicking here

Just be warned.  Once you get used to the bandwidth, it will be very hard to go back!

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

exhausted


Move Missing Program to Mouse

Do you ever wonder where your program went❓  

Our Bring Window to Mouse script makes it easy to figure that out.  Simply hit your hotkey, select the window you want and WHAM there it is!

This is especially helpful when you’re remoting in to computers.

Check out how simple it works in this video

How to easily Move any Window to your Mouse Location
How to easily Move any Window to your Mouse Location


Every Built-in AutoHotkey Variable

There are over 100 built-in AutoHotkey variables❗ 

In this article I broke them into the following 6 groups and walk you through each one

  1. Script & Environment (who am I, where am I running?)
  2. Date & Time (the clock, sliced every way you’d want)
  3. System & User Folders (the machine and the person using it)
  4. Input, Send & Coordinate Settings (how AHK types and clicks)
  5. Hotkeys & the Running Script (what just fired, and idle time)
  6. Loops, Windows & Text Matching (the workhorse variables)

There are so many I built a simple script to search for them and see their current values. 

Check it out in this video

How to Search and Examining Built-in Variables in AutoHotkey
How to Search and Examining Built-in Variables in AutoHotkey


Removing Dead Air

I was looking around our AI folder and saw a name I didn’t recognize; “Clear cut”.

When I opened the folder & script it came back to me.   

Around 6 months ago we realized, by using Assembly AI for transcriptions we can get the time of each spoken word.   This means we can create a tool to remove “ums”, “uhs”, swear words, etc.   (something only available in expensive editors, usually with a subscription).

And, since FFMPEG can detect “silence” we can also let people choose if they want to remove periods where there’s either no sound or just background music.

The problem was, the script was much more complicated than we anticipated.  And, while I knew I would eventually solve it, we had other work to do so I put it on the “back burner” (and eventually forgot about it.)

I love finding projects like this because now with Fable 5, I have access to (what feels like) super intelligence!

So I fed it to Fable 5 and asked it to find our problems.   6 minutes later I had a working script!

Grab the Noise Removal tool, or check it out in this video.

New AI Tool Removes Dead Air and Ums in Recordings- No Subscription!

New AI Tool Removes Dead Air and Ums in Recordings- No Subscription!


Improving People’s Lives: Story #106

Last week I sat with a client and helped him start the transition from using AI from a browser to using it in an IDE/Local app (which has access to his files.) 

He got inspired to make the switch after watching this video where I explained using AI I got two days worth of work done in 15 minutes!

How AI Built a Page Listing All My AI Tools
How AI Built a Page Listing All My AI Tools


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI News that you Need to Know


⚡️Productivity tips:  the “One Thing” Method

Every morning, identify THE ONE task that would make today successful.

Not 10 tasks. ONE.

Everything else is bonus❗


🤣 A spot of Humor: Treat yourself to a break with Man’s best friend

The Funniest Dog Moments 🐶🤣 Best Funny Animal Videos

The Funniest Dog Moments 🐶🤣 Best Funny Animal Videos


What we 🅰utomated this week with AutoHotkey #140

This week I went on a tear building custom AI and AutoHotkey tools, from a revamped Add to startup (video) that lets me enable, disable, and selectively launch scripts, to benchmarks pitting Grok, Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini against each other on real AutoHotkey V2 code (Grok 4.3 crushed it on clean code at a fraction of the cost).

I also show off cheap high-quality Noise removal, semantic file search, a smart renamer, phone integration that mirrors my apps over Cloudflare, and QR tools that spit out payment and contact codes on the fly.

In this week’s video I walk you through all of them and how I keep the AI costs surprisingly low.

140 What we Automated with AI and AHK #140
140 What we Automated with AI and AHK #140


Clients say…

THANK YOU, YOU SAVED MY LIFEEEEEEEEEEEEEE — @sillywilly-102


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

Consider joining the 🦸Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc.

Currently we have over 590 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to 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 automation issues (the Saturday calls are geared towards people new to Automation with AI)


🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes

  • In the era of automation, embracing programming isn’t just a skill; it’s a necessity for staying relevant in the workforce — Tim Cook
  • Learn a HotKey a day to keep inefficiency away! — Joe Glines
  • If you’re not troubled over some of the things you’re saying no to, you need to say no MORE often! — 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!


the-Automator  Dedicated to Multiplying your Income

Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff


P.S. the intro was a bit over the top but it is pretty accurate of how I spend my days. 

It’s so crazy how efficient AI is making us! 

Join the Hero club so you can get inspired on new ways to use AI and AutoHotkey!

 

🤖 AI Didn’t Invent Slop… Humans Did. 😬 AHK News 2026-07-09

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy,

We hear a lot (especially from programmers) about “AI slop“.

But what we don’t hear people talking about is how the amount of “Human slop” greatly outweighs the amount of AI slop.

Just because a human did something people often think it is “better” but sadly there are a LOT of people that don’t know what they’re doing❗

 

It won’t be long now before AI is better than most humans at many things.

 

But don’t fret.   Since the dawn of time, Man has been using tools to be more efficient.

It’s just now that the tools are so efficient we are having to compete with them!

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

stopdoingManually


Need a Magnifying Glass? We got you covered…

Like everyone else, as I get older I struggle with small text on the screen.

That’s why I created MagGlass which lets you quickly look closer at your screen (without changing your DPI).

Not only can you quickly zoom in you can change the size of both the inspection area as well as the render area.

Check it out in this short video.

Cant Read Your Screen Anymore 👀 Try This
Cant Read Your Screen Anymore 👀 Try This


Using Chrome’s hidden Local LLM

A while ago I made a video explaining how Chrome (secretly) installs a 4 gigabyte local LLM and walked through how you can remove it.

But then we got to thinking, what if instead of deleting it, we use it❓

While I was limited to accessing it through Chrome, I was able to create an html page to utilize it as a local LLM.   You can check it out in this video.

It’s not crazy powerful but it is local thus does not (seem) to be connected back to the cloud.

Accessing Chromes Hidden Local LLM via HTML
Accessing Chromes Hidden Local LLM via HTML


Easily Adding Watermarks to your Videos

I like the idea of adding watermarks to videos to: reinforce branding, reduce theft, and tag my videos so others know where they came from.

It used to be a painful process.  I say used to because now with Watermarker, it is super simple!

You can see just how easy it is in this video.

Easy Way to Add Transparent Watermarks 💧
Easy Way to Add Transparent Watermarks 💧


Improving People’s Lives: Story #105

I had a call with a friend from grad school yesterday.   At the end of the call he asked me for examples of how people are using AI.

After the call I had a quick thought.   Why not have Claude loop over our folders, build a list of our AI scripts, organize them into groups, write a brief explanation and Hyperlink to the ones we sell and posted it to the-Automator here.

As part of the process, I also recorded this video explaining how I used AI to do the above.

How AI Built a Page Listing All My AI Tools
How AI Built a Page Listing All My AI Tools

I then made a few quick edits to the video, uploaded it to YouTube and then had AI Transcribe it, generate 3 thumbnails, the summary, 10 possible title and tags for it.

The entire process (from when I told AI to loop over my files to finish the upload of the video) took less than 15 minutes.

I think this would have taken me at least 2 days of work!


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI News that you Need to Know


⚡️Productivity tips:

I love when I find others posting about their use of AutoHotkey


🤣 A spot of Humor:  I’m a big fan of Craig Ferguson

Lauren Cohan – gorgeous and funny – Ferguson interview – March 2014

Lauren Cohan - gorgeous and funny - Ferguson interview - March 2014


What we 🅰utomated this week with AutoHotkey #138

This week I dug into using AI to actually debug and build my AutoHotkey scripts, including a live look at fixing an Add to Startup script through a plain AI conversation.

I show off my Voice To Do web app, a local Transcriber that saves money over cloud services, my AHK file explorer (not released yet but making progress), media shrinkers, QR tools, and my strategy of pairing flagship models like Opus for planning with small local models for execution.

In this video I walk you through all of it, plus the reasoning tricks we’ve been kicking around in the Hero Club.


Clients say…

Holy shit❗ This is amazing — Dr. Kamran J. (Radiologist)


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

Consider joining the 🦸Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc.    Currently we have over 587 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to Hero members❗

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

  • Help Hero Members with their Questions & Code
  • AHK Tools
      • AHK File Explorer (Feedback and Questions about Features)
      • Taskbar
      • Help Extractor & Inspector
      • Noise removal via Replicate
      • Borrowing Firefox Cookies
      • Watermarker: add a watermark to your video
      • Noticeable Text: Vertical columns
      • URL Memory: Auto show feature
      • Ffmpeg: ImageSize Reducer
      • Start Menu (Prompt Assistant update)
      • AutoRuns / Auto Start Manager
      • WatchFolders
  • Progressive Web Apps
    • PhoneDeck: Controlling your computer from your phone (the easy way)
    • LAN Display: Display page on local network
    • VoiceToDo: Use voice to text and AI to build your to-do list
  • LLMs 
    • LLM Unlimited OCR plus Python Text extraction
    • LLM Remove Background from Picture
    • Grok 4.5: Fast, Smart and uses less tokens

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


🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes

  • It’s like deja-vu, all over again — Yogi Berra
  • Live below your means. And avoid all debt — if you can’t pay cash-in-full, don’t buy it. Let your thrill be in your accomplishments, not the toys you can suddenly afford on credit — John Carlton
  • 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

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  Dedicated to Multiplying your Income

Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff


P.S. What about you?  Do you think the average person is better or worse than AI at the moment❓  We discuss this and more during the Hero calls.