Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Cairo Shell VS PowerToys

Compare Cairo Shell VS PowerToys and see what are their differences

Cairo Shell logo Cairo Shell

Cairo is a desktop environment for Windows.

PowerToys logo PowerToys

Windows system utilities to maximize productivity. Contribute to microsoft/PowerToys development by creating an account on GitHub.
  • Cairo Shell Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-19
  • PowerToys Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-27

Cairo Shell videos

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PowerToys videos

Hands-on with PowerToys for Windows 10 – Windows Enhanced!

More videos:

  • Review - Windows 10 PowerToys (Beginners Guide)
  • Demo - Microsoft PowerToys for Windows 10 - Overview & Demo

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Cairo Shell and PowerToys)
Image Optimisation
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
0 0%
100% 100
Note Taking
100 100%
0% 0
Mac
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Cairo Shell and PowerToys

Cairo Shell Reviews

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PowerToys Reviews

15 Best AutoHotkey Alternatives 2022
If you are looking for an AutoHotkey alternative that can help you customize Windows operating system functions and make customizations, Microsoft’s official PowerToys tool is great.
6 Best Alfred App Alternatives for Windows to Be More Productive
PowerToys has been brought back from the dead and turned into an open-source project that you can download and use for free. It comes with a growing number of utility tools like Color Picker to help find hash codes of any color in an image, Awake to keep the screen awake without having to mess with power settings, Keyboard Manager to remap keys, Run that mimics macOS’s...
Source: techwiser.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PowerToys should be more popular than Cairo Shell. It has been mentiond 6 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Cairo Shell mentions (2)

  • Microsoft is turning Windows 11's Start Menu into an advertisement delivery system
    Back when I was an edgy teenager I tried every Windows desktop shell replacement available. My favorites were LiteStep and Emerge Desktop. I was there when Cairo Shell first emerged but has never tried a working version since I moved to other OSes before any usable version was out. I am now using Windows for work and I think it’s time to revisit these options. Source: over 1 year ago
  • My first personal server
    Hyper-V Server 2019 gets my vote, with the Cairo Desktop it's a near unbeatable setup. Add the FoD pack, browser of your choice, Windows Admin Center for local management of the entire system including virtualized guests. It's a very robust enterprise grade server that requires NO LICENSE and ends up having a very nice GUI for a core server. Source: over 2 years ago

PowerToys mentions (6)

  • Keypirinha: A fast launcher for keyboard ninjas on Windows
    Powertoys Run (https://github.com/microsoft/powertoys) can do this. There are not that many plugins as Alfred but Window Switcher is built-in. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • The surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language
    But most of the people that make this error are non-tachsavy Windows users. And while there is Microsoft's PowerToys[0] with the Quick Accent tool that does the same thing, I doubt many people know about it. > on iOS I think this works for any mobile keyboard (for example, AOSP's default keyboard supports that). In my language at least, the use of a capital letter with an accent is pretty rare, especially when... - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Microsoft Powertoys - How to auto enable powertoys run (spotlight search) everytime you start your pc
    We'd love to deep dive into the issue but best spot for this would be the powertoys GitHub. https://github.com/microsoft/powertoys. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Tried to reinstall it, but the MS Store says it's installed but it's not anywhere ona computer
    Download it from the official github Https://github.com/microsoft/powertoys. Source: about 1 year ago
  • This shows how to preview SVG files directly in your Windows files explorer (link in the comment)
    Not sure if it's the same codebase, but SVG preview is included in Microsoft's PowerToys (open source), along with a ton of other quality-of-life improvements for Windows. Source: over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Cairo Shell and PowerToys, you can also consider the following products

VirtuaWin - VirtuaWin is a virtual desktop manager for the Windows operating system (Win9x/ME/NT/Win2K/XP/Win2003/Vista/Win7/Win10). A virtual desktop manager lets you organize applications over several virtual desktops (also called 'workspaces').

DisplayFusion - DisplayFusion will make your multi-monitor life much easier.

bug.n - Provide views (i. e. virtual desktops) for showing only those windows, which you need to do your work..

AquaSnap - Too many windows on your screen? Stop wasting your productivity.

WindowBlinds - WindowBlinds is a computer program that allows users to skin the Windows graphical user interface.

Listary - Listary is a revolutionary search utility for Windows