Software Alternatives & Reviews

Synapse VS PowerToys

Compare Synapse VS PowerToys and see what are their differences

Synapse logo Synapse

Synapse is a semantic launcher written in Vala that you can use to start applications as well as find and access relevant documents and files by making use of the Zeitgeist engine.

PowerToys logo PowerToys

Windows system utilities to maximize productivity. Contribute to microsoft/PowerToys development by creating an account on GitHub.
  • Synapse Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-17
  • PowerToys Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-27

Synapse videos

Cannondale Synapse Hi-Mod Disc Red eTap | Review | Cycling Weekly

More videos:

  • Review - Cannondale Synapse Review - Endurance Road Bike
  • Review - CANNONDALE SYNAPSE REVIEW (AFTER 9 MONTHS!)

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 Synapse and PowerToys)
App Launcher
82 82%
18% 18
Productivity
65 65%
35% 35
Windows Tools
81 81%
19% 19
Mac
68 68%
32% 32

User comments

Share your experience with using Synapse and PowerToys. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

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

Synapse Reviews

Top Big Data Tools For 2021
Azure is a cloud computing platform that serves as a basis for many data solutions. As explained previously in another post on this blog, Synapse Analytics is a rebranded version of the Azure SQL Data Warehouse. Among the improvements included in the new version, it is worth noting that now it integrates with Apache Spark and makes it possible to combine data warehousing and...

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 Synapse. 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.

Synapse mentions (1)

  • Opportunistic, pragmatic Pop!
    Ditch Cosmic's launcher. It is underpowered. The best launcher to this day is still Synapse, even though it is not in active development anymore. It still has great potential and could easily be extended to really fit into Pop while providing some new functions nothing else has. 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 / 4 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 / 6 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 Synapse and PowerToys, you can also consider the following products

Gnome Do - Simple, sleek, swift, smart. Do. GNOME Do allows you to quickly search for many items present on your desktop or the web, and perform useful actions on those items. GNOME Do is inspired by Quicksilver & GNOME Launch Box.

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

DockbarX - DockbarX is a standalone dock that groups and launches applications.

Listary - Listary is a revolutionary search utility for Windows

Gnome-Pie - Gnome-Pie is a circular application launcher for Linux.

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