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Posts tagged "Windows automation"

AHK Newsletter 2025-03-20 Henry Ford Had a Row of Buttons – I Have a Streamdeck & AI (And It’s Better)

Howdy %Name%,

During World War I Henry Ford sued a Chicago newspaper for libeling him when they called him an “ignorant pacifist”

At trial Henry Fords testimony was brilliant!

“If I should really want to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer any question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts.

Now, will you kindly tell me, why I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?”

With my StreamDeck I have a list of buttons on the bottom row to press that connect me with “experts” in their area.

I remember when I was on a call with Maestrith (author of AHK Studio) and in 1 hour he could create code that would have taken me a week.

More so the code was more reliable, easier to understand, and maintainable. He almost-always used an API approach instead of imititating a human.

It’s why I decided to stop learning to code, and just hire experts to do it for me.

It’s also one of the main reasons people join our AHK hero group.

Not only does the group let you ask questions to AHK Gurus for 3 hours a week, you can also reach out anytime in our Private Telegram group.

If you look at the 2^nd row on my StreamDeck , you’ll see corresponding buttons I use frequently around the AHK Hero club.

If you’re wanting access to experts, there is no better option than joining the AHK Hero club!

Click hear and learn more about it!

Now on with the show…

Access all our Courses; Quit when you want

Creating Menus in AutoHotkey v2 is a Breeze️

During an AHK Hero call Isaias led us on a mini-tutorial of how easy it is to create Menus in AutoHotkey v2. You can an extraction of the Hero call here.

If you’d like to learn more about working with GUIs you can check out our GUIs are Easier in AHK v2 course.

Learning Menus in AutoHotkey v2 [Excerpt from AHK Hero call]

Creating Gorgeous HTML GUIS with WebViewToo and AutoHotkey

Speaking of Hero calls, last week GeekDude joined us and shared his examples using the WebviewToo library.

I extracted this video where Isaias worked through the examples.

Learn how to create Beautiful HTML GUIS with this amazing AHK V2 library WebViewToo

If you care to donate to GeekDude, you can do so here.

Subscriber Response to 5 most used AHK scripts

A while back I created this video talking about my “5 most used AHK scripts”.

Michael Hafen, a subscriber, created this video in response to mine.

He had some very interesting use cases which I highly recommend you check out! I also asked him to be a guest at the AHK Hero group to walk through some of his scripts and answer questions.

My most used/helpful Autohotkey V2 Scripts

My first YouTube video

I was looking through old videos and noticed my first video created 13 years ago.

A bit scary how similar my computer looks now compared to then (I was on XP then).

BTW With Windows 11 I use ExplorerPatch to put my taskbar on the right.

XP Start Menu – Toolbars

Fixing PhoneLink

If you’re an Android user you definitely should check out PhoneLink.

It allows you to interact with your phone from your PC.

Unfortunately it has been problematic for many users so Isaias and I created this video to show how we fixed our instance.

From Frustration to Success: Watch How we Fixed Microsoft Phone Link❗

Improving People’s Lives: Story #41

Our client is constantly setting-up Zoom meetings with her clients.

I told her about the Zoom scheduler which integrates with her zoom calendar for $4.99 a month.

This way she can tell people to check her calendar and book a time.

I know there are free tools but he Zoom calendar integrates well with Zoom and also offers some great features

What we’re reading

A 3D Printed Keyboard case turns an Old Samsung Phone Into a Mini Laptop
How Automotive Tech has Evolved Over The Last 10 Years
Windows 11 24H2 is Rolling Out to More PCs

AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage

The New Copilot Reminds Us of Cortana
Your Xbox is Getting a Copilot
The future of documentation is here with Scribe

⚡️Productivity tips: Paste Special in Office

Ctrl + Alt + V: Open the Paste Special dialog box in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, allowing you to choose specific formatting options when pasting content.

A spot of Humor

These ManScripts are painfully funny❗

How to Never Get In Trouble With Her Again

What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #79

In episode 79 week I covered 106 AHK scripts that we worked on this week at the-Automator.com.

We help people work smarter, not harder❗

You can schedule a call here to see how we can do the same for you %name%

What we Automated with AutoHotkey #79

Client’s say…

I love your scripts because I don’t have to focus on so many things. I just look at the image and rely on muscle-memory. — Michael N. (Radiologist)

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 387 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
Custom Combinations in Hotkeys
Using the Claude API library for building AI tools
Weird issue with FormatTime
ProcessSetPriority(“H“) changes the Windows process priority, which affects how the operating system schedules CPU time
Using SendMessage to automate Listviews

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

Hire people that are over-performing in crappy jobs — Dan Kennedy
Time is linear; Success doesn’t have to be — Joe Glines
Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first 4 sharpening the axe — Abraham Lincoln
Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt — Mark Twain

⏩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, Rizwan and staff

P.S. With AGI approaching faster and faster we are in a new era where it isn’t “what you know” it is being able to find a way to solve the problem.

Our team of AHK experts are the best on the planet!

We use AI to create projects for our clients that are light years ahead of others.

Give us a try; I guarantee you’ll be impressed!

Why You Should Learn AutoHotkey

You might think that AutoHotkey might only be for wizards. It can save you a lot of time, even if you don’t consider yourself a programmer. Taking a little time to learn AutoHotkey could save you lots of it in the long run by automating boring repetitive tasks.

Automating Repetitive Tasks

One reason for learning AutoHotkey is that it can save you a lot of time on repetitive tasks. While computers can save time by themselves on certain things, human operators can still get tired if they have to do the same thing over and over. This is the computer’s job, not yours.

You might have to download many files from a server or rename many images. This can be tedious, but you can put AutoHotkey to work.

A good example comes from the AutoHotkey community. An office worker created a script that automated data entry tasks across multiple applications. The script converted the monotonous task of copying and pasting between programs into a single hotkey press.

Despite not having a computer science background or programming experience, this approach saved them hours of work every week.

You Can Find Scripts Online and Adapt Them

The great thing about AutoHotkey is that since it’s so easy to learn, you can find scripts that other people have written and adapt them.

If you want to automate your mouse clicks or keyboard presses, you might try searching for something like “how to automate clicks in AutoHotkey.” You’ll often find a tutorial that shows you how to build a script using AutoHotkey’s simple syntax. You can find lots of scripts you can download from the official AutoHotkey forums and GitHub.

You can also find online documentation on the AutoHotkey website. You can even buy books full of AutoHotkey scripts, known as “cookbooks,” that solve common problems.

You won’t be going it alone, no matter what you have to do, whether you have to rename a bunch of files or extract information from a spreadsheet. Someone has likely already done something similar to what you’re trying to do. You might find yourself adapting existing scripts to your specific needs.

Lots of Help From AutoHotkey Pros Online

Not only can you often find pre-existing scripts to flatten the learning curve, but there are lots of friendly people who can help you with your AutoHotkey projects.

A good example is the AutoHotkey community forum. There are lots of online forums and chat rooms dedicated to AutoHotkey. If you’re stuck on a problem, you can visit them for advice, such as on Reddit or the official AutoHotkey forums. Some are geared toward beginners and others are intended for those who have more experience with AutoHotkey.

Because these channels often have professional developers, if you’ve come into AutoHotkey from outside of a traditional computer science background, you can get advice from people who’ve been in your shoes. You might get pointers on how to create an AutoHotkey script like many office workers have done, as well as when to use more advanced features like classes and objects.

Even though AI results can be controversial, they’re playing a larger role in advising on creating AutoHotkey scripts. AutoHotkey is a task that might be well-suited to AI models, as there seems to be less of a risk of “hallucinating” with coding, which tends to have more objective results.

Whenever I’ve been searching for AutoHotkey problems, AI assistants have been coming up prominently. You’ll probably see more suggestions in the future. You should still try to learn as much as you can if you get serious about AutoHotkey.

Save Time and Money With Your Existing Hardware

If you want to take advantage of AutoHotkey, you might wonder if you need a new machine. Fortunately, you don’t need a new computer if you want to experiment with AutoHotkey.

AutoHotkey works great on existing Windows hardware. You might not be using an old 486 PC, but that 5-year-old laptop will likely be more than enough to run AutoHotkey, and you probably aren’t going to run into any advanced problems as a beginner.

Even better, AutoHotkey is totally free and open source.

You Can Use Your Existing Windows OS

If you’re getting into AutoHotkey, you don’t need to learn a new operating system. AutoHotkey is designed specifically for Windows.

If you’re using Windows 10 or 11, you can just download and install AutoHotkey directly. It integrates seamlessly with Windows, allowing you to automate almost any task you can imagine. Installation takes just minutes, and you’ll be writing your first script in no time.

The advantage of AutoHotkey is that it’s designed specifically for Windows automation, making it much more powerful for Windows tasks than general scripting languages.

AutoHotkey Does the Hard Work for You

You might have heard that programming can be difficult, but AutoHotkey makes things easier. AutoHotkey has built-in functions for manipulating files, controlling the mouse and keyboard, working with windows, and even fetching information from the internet.

You can reduce a lot of operations to giving instructions using these built-in functions. As mentioned earlier, there are also plenty of pre-existing scripts that you can adapt to your own needs. They can serve as examples for the small scripts you create yourself.

Learning Advanced AutoHotkey Skills Lets You Automate More

Learning to write AutoHotkey scripts is like learning a musical instrument: it takes time and you’ll only improve with practice.

It can seem complicated at first. When I started, simple concepts like hotkeys and hotstrings seemed daunting. With experience under my belt, I can write complex automation scripts in my sleep.

If you’d like to start learning AutoHotkey I highly recommend our Intro to AutoHotkey course. It comes with a 200% money-back guarantee!

Alternatively, if you’ want more direction and help, our AHK Hero program is a great way to get live help!

Knowing AutoHotkey Is a Valuable Skill

If you hone your craft with AutoHotkey, you’ll find you’ve mastered an in-demand skill in Windows automation. Many companies need people who can streamline workflows and increase productivity.

This could potentially improve your career prospects. If you know how to write effective AutoHotkey scripts, you can have an edge over other potential applicants. Learning how to write scripts, even if you don’t have a CS degree, could pay off in more than one way.

AHK News 2025-02-13 Ways to Learn AutoHotkey from the-Automator

Howdy,

I saw the below comic and realized it can be changed to help reflect various ways the-Automator helps people learn AutoHotkey.

Our AHK Courses are great for people that want to work “on their own”

The AHK Hero program is great when people need a little “personalized help”. Or you might consider a tutoring session.

And of course some people just want the work “done for them”. That’s where our Consultations come in. You can check out our availability here.

Now on with the show…

Simple Webcam Reminder

Have you ever recorded your screen and then, after the fact failed to take into account your webcam is covering part of the screen❓

If you have then you’ll understand why this tool is a “must have”.

Our tool not only reminds you your webcam is on the screen but it also let’s you display notes to yourself that video viewers cannot see.

You can check it out in this video.

Simple Webcam Reminder for those that Record their Desktop and share a Webcam

Quickly Extract Audio from your Videos

I’m helping a local Mexican restaurant play Mexican music in their parking lot to attract attention.

I wanted to avoid commercials (and be able to insert my own) so I downloaded a bunch of You Tube videos.

Then I used our Crazy fast MP3 Ripper to incredibly quickly convert them to mp3 files.

You can check out this video. Please keep in mind, the download is an executable.

How to quickly Convert Videos to mp3 files in bulk

Creating Fake drives

During a consultation call with a new AHK hero member the client mentioned he’s going to be setting up multiple computers and having to keep the files synced.

He mentioned how painful working with all the different paths were (not to mention trying to keep the files synced).

I mentioned the how we solve this by using a cloud tool (in our case DropBox) to sync all the files and also use our Drive Mapper to create a “fake” drive which means all the paths, across all the computers, will be the same!

You can learn more about this tool /approach in this video.

Creating Fake Drives for easy access & Identical paths across computers

Improving People’s Lives: Story #38

We just launched 2 chatbots for our client’s 2 websites.

Most companies charge (in my opinion) large amounts for Developing, Training/Customizing, and Implementing.

Often they’re charging $500 for a discussion, then thousands to “build” the bot and monthly fees of $50 or more (often much more).

We did everything for around $200. Granted our approach does not include the AI token usage but that will depend on usage (and will probably be under $10 a month).

The best part is the Chatbots will greatly reduce the support calls they are receiving which will allow their employees to work on what matters!