Inventory of the boutique gadgets produced by Microsoft: little-known but very useful – Programmer Sought

We use Microsoft Windows and Office every day, but Microsoft doesn’t just produce these large software products. In fact, Microsoft has a lot of high-quality small software, its name is little-known, but it is very practical, it can be called an artifact! Today, let’s take a look at the anti-sky gadgets produced by Microsoft. Have you ever used them?

System Enhancement Tool PowerToys

download link:https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys

What is the best auxiliary tool in Windows system? PowerToys is sure to be nominated.PowerToys is a system enhancement tool from Microsoftlike a magical system plug-in, the whole software consists of several sub-components, including: “Screen Color Picker”, “Desktop Window Distribution”, “Quick Preview Plug-in”, “Batch Image Resizer”, “Keymapper” “, “Batch Rename Tool”, “Quick Launcher” (similar to MacOS Spotlight or Listary), etc.

PowerToys are great. For example, you can use FancyZones to let the software arrange windows according to certain settings, which is much more powerful than the two or four windows that come with Windows.

For another example, you can use Image Resizer to set the size of multiple pictures at the same time, which is much easier to use than a third-party software.

For another example, you can use the Shortcut Guide shortcut guide to view various shortcut keys at any time. Press and hold the Win key for 1 second to bring up the shortcut key description interface, and you don’t need to memorize shortcut keys anymore.

In addition, PowerToys can also realize many functions such as batch renaming files, quick search, mapping keyboard, etc. If you know Windows but don’t know PowerToys, which is also produced by Microsoft, it will be a big loss! After using it, many friends feel that with so many useful functions, why did Microsoft not integrate them into Windows, but put them separately on software such as PowerToys? It’s an unsolved mystery.

Enhanced Task Manager Process Explorer

download link:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

We know that the Windows system comes with a task manager, which can view system processes. However, for many things, the task manager that comes with the system is not enough. At this time, the enhanced version of the task manager Process Explorer produced by Microsoft can make a big difference.

Process Explorer Can be used to manage various processes in the systembut the displayed information toMuch more detailed than the task manager that comes with Windows. For example, Process Explorer will mark different types of processes with different colors. For example, the suspended process is displayed in gray, the service is displayed in pink, etc., which is more detailed and intuitive than the task manager that comes with Windows.

When Process Explorer is set to dual-window mode, you can also see what small actions a certain software is doing, for example, after selecting the “Chrome.exe” process, what file is read by this process, and which registry key value is accessed by this process. , What ports are used, and what events are triggered, you can monitor them one by one.

At the same time, Process Explorer also provides some other particularly useful functions, such as finding out which process the popup corresponds to.

Many friends often encounter this situation – a pop-up window suddenly appears, which is obviously a rogue act by software. But what kind of software pops up the window? Use Process Explorer to see at a glance. In the main interface of Process Explorer, there is an icon similar to a scope. Drag this icon to a window with the mouse, and Process Explorer can automatically identify which process the window belongs to. This function is very practical!

There is no doubt that Process Explorer belongs to the superior replacement of the system task manager. I hope some of its functions can also appear in the future Windows system task manager.

Process Monitor Process Monitor

download link:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

This is another process monitoring gadget produced by Microsoft. Unlike Process Explorer,This Process Monitor is more inclined to monitor system actions, it can monitor what processes are running in the system and what these processes are doing. Because of this, Process Monitor can be called an artifact of hammering rogue software!

We know that a lot of computer software has rogue behavior, and there are many products from big manufacturers. For example, a communication IM software has been exposed to secretly scan directories unrelated to software functions; a download tool will scan hard disk resources and upload them to the server without permission to speed up other users… But many of these behaviors only exist in word of mouth. , how to hammer it? That’s where Process Monitor comes in handy.

The information that Process Monitor can provide is very detailed, such as which software a process belongs to, through the image path, command line, user and session ID, you can get to the bottom of it; and if this process secretly reads a file , will also be marked in the process monitor, and it will be clear at a glance. What rogue software does to the system is invisible in the process monitor.

Process Monitor also supports monitoring a specific process. For example, if you want to monitor QQ, it is just an example, not that QQ is rogue software), then you just need to right-click on “QQ.exe” and select “Include ‘QQ.EXE’” , then the process monitor will only monitor the actions of QQ. After the automatic scrolling is turned on, it is clear at a glance what the QQ process is doing at this moment.

It can be said that if you want to understand what a piece of software is doing in your system, Process Monitor will never let you down!

Data recovery artifact Windows File Recovery

Store page:https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9N26S50LN705

We know that usually after the file is deleted, the data will remain in the hard disk for a period of time, and there is a probability that the file can be recovered by using a data recovery tool. And Microsoft has produced a data recovery related tool Windows File Recovery, quite good!

Microsoft’s Windows File Recovery has been listed on the Window Store. It supports a variety of file systems (such as NTFS, exFAT, FAT, ReFS), and can recover a variety of file formats (such as photos, videos, documents, etc.). Whether you want to recover all kinds of files from SSD, HDD, or USB drive, SD card, Windows File Recovery can help.

Windows File Recovery provides three recovery modes, namely Windows File Recovery normal, segment mode, and signature mode. The usage scenarios of each mode are as follows:

1) Normal mode: used for recently deleted file recovery, the supported file format is NTFS;

2) Segment mode: used to recover files that have been deleted for a period of time, or perform recovery operations on disks that have been formatted;

3) Signature mode: for FAT, exFAT, ReFS and other file system recovery, and if other recovery modes are not successful, you can also try this mode.

It should be noted that Windows File Recovery does not have a graphical interface and needs to be used through the command line, but it is not difficult. Its command syntax is:

winfr [被删文件所在盘符] [恢复文件对应盘符] [/开关] file path

For example, we want to retrieve the next file named “Pacific.txt” in E:test, the specific command is: winfr e: d: /n test Pacific.txt.

And through various commands, Windows File Recovery can also achieve other functions, such as supporting wildcards, recovering entire folders, and more. Regarding various commands, Microsoft has specially provided a command description webpage for the novice to be familiar with. The URL is as follows:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4538642/windows-10-restore-lost-files

Interested children’s shoes may wish to click in and have a look. It is very comprehensive and can be translated into Chinese.

In a nutshell, Windows File Recovery functions and works quite well. If you really don’t want to use the command line, you can also use software based on Windows File Recovery, such as the WinFR interface version produced by AOMEI, to recover data even easier!

Microsoft AI Image Recognition

Most of the above are geek-oriented system gadgets. Let’s introduce a more down-to-earth Microsoft product. Microsoft has always attached great importance to the domestic market, so Microsoft’s Chinese team has also developed some tools that are very suitable for Chinese people’s use scenarios, such as this Microsoft AI Map Recognition.

This is a WeChat applet. Yes, Microsoft has also made WeChat applet products, and it is not only this one. As the name suggests, the selling point of Microsoft’s AI Image Recognition lies in recognizing images. It provides practical functions such as recognizing text, recognizing tables, recognizing images and converting them into PDF. The effects are quite outstanding.

There are actually many AI recognition applications on the market, but the reason why this Microsoft AI image recognition is particularly worth mentioning is that on the one hand, Microsoft’s AI is really powerful, and on the other hand, it does not want to charge fees like many similar products. Can be used unlimited times! If you have related needs, Microsoft AI Map Recognition is definitely a gadget of conscience.

Office Plus

Many friends use templates to write Word documents and PPT, which are beautiful and convenient. In many well-known Office template resource sites in China, many template downloads are charged. But have you ever thought that Microsoft has officially launched an Office template resource station with extremely rich categories and high quality?

That’s right, Office Plus is one such site. Office Plus is an Office template resource station officially operated by Microsoft, from which you can download Word, PPT and Excel templates for various themes and uses for free. Microsoft is very attentive to the operation of Office Plus. You can see that the website will also put templates that fit current events in the recommended position. For example, many people are paying attention to the epidemic recently, and it is also the graduation season for college students recently, so Office Plus will put the epidemic situation. The templates related to the academic defense are placed in a conspicuous position, which is quite considerate.

Downloading templates in Office Plus is free. You only need to log in to your Microsoft account to enjoy various template resources. There is no need to pay for membership or download at all. If you need any template, you can directly search for it on the website. For all walks of life, Office Plus is very useful.

It is worth mentioning that many people have begun to use mobile phones for office work. For this, Office Plus has also launched a WeChat applet version, and friends in need can directly search and use it in WeChat.

Summarize

In fact, the anti-sky tools produced by Microsoft are not only mentioned above, and they will not be introduced here one by one due to space limitations. It has to be said that these gadgets from Microsoft are quite practical, but for various reasons, they are not widely known. If you are interested in them, please download and try it!