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Desktop & Productivity Toolkit — October 16, 2026

Launchers & Automation

Raycast for Windows

Raycast left beta on Windows this past August 25, after years as the macOS Spotlight replacement of choice. The Windows build runs its own file-search engine rather than porting the Mac indexer, launches apps, and handles clipboard history and snippets from one keyboard shortcut, and already runs hundreds of the extensions built for the Mac version. **Pricing:** free core app, Raycast Pro subscription (AI chat, dictation, extra models) with a 7-day trial.

GlazeWM

On Windows, and on macOS as of v3.10.0 this past March, GlazeWM tiles windows i3-style: new windows auto-split whatever container currently has focus, and workspaces run per monitor. Every keybinding, workspace rule, and gap setting lives in one hot-reloading YAML config file, and it installs through winget, Chocolatey, or Scoop. **Pricing:** open source (GPL-3.0).

Espanso

Instead of pasting from the clipboard, Espanso rewrites text live as you type the trigger, on Windows, macOS, or Linux, including Wayland compositors like Sway and Hyprland. Triggers can run shell commands or render dynamic forms rather than just swapping in static snippets, and Alt+Space opens a built-in picker when you forget what you named something. **Pricing:** open source (GPL-3.0).

Browser Extensions

uBlock Origin Lite

Chrome pulled the last Manifest V2 flags on August 31, which killed full uBlock Origin on Chrome and left uBlock Origin Lite as the default blocker for Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium browsers. Built by the same author, Raymond Hill, it uses Chrome's native declarativeNetRequest instead of a persistent background process to block ads, trackers, and cryptominers from custom and subscribed filter lists. **Pricing:** free, open source.

uBlock Origin

Firefox still gets the unrestricted version Chrome no longer allows. uBlock Origin blocks ads, trackers, cryptominers, and known malicious URLs by default, and its element zapper and filter logger let you hand-tune rules on sites that slip through, with over 8 million installs and continuous maintenance since 2015. **Pricing:** open source (GPL-3.0).

Session Buddy

Session Buddy saves every open tab and window in Chrome into a session you can restore after a crash or reboot, then files those sessions into named collections searchable from one dashboard. Export goes out as JSON, CSV, or Markdown, and storage stays local: no account, no cloud sync. **Pricing:** free, no account required.

Wappalyzer

Click the Wappalyzer icon on any page in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox and it reads back the site's stack (CMS, JavaScript framework, analytics, payment processor, CDN) from a database of over a thousand technologies, exportable to CSV. **Pricing:** free browser extension; the company sells separate paid API/lookup plans for bulk technology profiling.

Terminal & Shell

fzf

Pipe anything into fzf (a file list, shell history, git branches, running processes) and it fuzzy-filters the results interactively inside the terminal, on macOS, Linux, Windows, or FreeBSD. Its Ctrl-R history search and Ctrl-T file search bind straight into Bash, Zsh, Fish, or Nushell, and a tmux popup mode keeps the picker from taking over the whole pane; the October 11 release also patched a shell-injection bug in the tmux and zsh completion scripts. **Pricing:** open source (MIT).

Starship

A single static Rust binary replaces your shell prompt with one showing git branch and status, language versions, cloud context, and command timing: that's Starship, configured through one TOML file shared across Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell, or any of the half-dozen other shells it supports, on Linux, macOS, Windows, or BSD. **Pricing:** open source (ISC license).

Zellij

Like tmux, Zellij multiplexes terminal panes and tabs, but with floating and stacked panes and a WebAssembly plugin system for extending it. Native Windows support landed in March, and the August 28 release added proper nested sessions, so SSHing into a box already running Zellij no longer means your keybindings clash with the outer session; it also ships a built-in web client so a local terminal isn't even required to connect. **Pricing:** open source (MIT).

Atuin

Instead of a plain shell history file, Atuin keeps a searchable SQLite database tracking timestamps, exit codes, duration, and working directory across Bash, Zsh, Fish, Nushell, Xonsh, or PowerShell, with optional end-to-end-encrypted sync across machines. The September 22 release added full-text search over captured command output, not just the command line, plus an MCP tool for hooking an agent into your terminal history. **Pricing:** free and open source (MIT), no paid tier.

Notes & Knowledge

Obsidian

Every Obsidian note is a plain Markdown file sitting in a vault folder you control, on Windows, macOS, or Linux, with no server and no proprietary format locking you in. The October 5 update let you open individual Markdown files from outside the vault and added a kanban view to the database-like Bases feature, on top of an already large community plugin and theme ecosystem. **Pricing:** free core app with no limits; optional paid add-ons for cloud sync (~$4-5/mo) and publishing a vault as a website (~$8-10/mo).

Logseq

Notes in Logseq link to each other at the block level, not just the page level, and its journals-first workflow sets it apart from flat note editors. Version 2.0, which shipped July 13, replaces the old flat-file storage with a local database backend, a rewrite the project calls its biggest architectural change yet, aimed at faster startup and more reliable editing on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. **Pricing:** open source (AGPL-3.0).

SiYuan

SiYuan stores every note as a JSON block file on disk in a workspace folder, with bidirectional links and database-style automation blocks, and exports straight to Markdown, PDF, Word, or HTML without a conversion plugin. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and even HarmonyOS, with the October 14 release continuing a steady weekly-ish cadence. **Pricing:** open source (AGPL-3.0); cross-device sync is an optional paid add-on, not required to use the app.

Files, Sync & Backup

Syncthing

Syncthing keeps files in sync across two or more of your own machines in real time, peer to peer, with no cloud server in the middle, just TLS with perfect forward secrecy and certificate-based device pairing. The May release added folder and device grouping to the GUI and HTTP/HTTPS proxy support, and April's 2.0 moved the storage backend from LevelDB to SQLite; runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, and Solaris. **Pricing:** free, open source (Mozilla Public License 2.0).

Kopia

Kopia backs up files with content-defined deduplication, encryption, and compression, then pushes the result to whatever storage you choose: S3, B2, local disk, or a NAS over SFTP. Snapshots follow a retention policy you set, both the GUI and CLI run on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and June's 0.23.1 fixed a rare data-loss race condition from the prior point release. **Pricing:** free, open source (Apache 2.0).

Everything

Everything indexes the NTFS or ReFS master file table directly, so searching for a filename across a whole Windows volume returns results before you finish typing: no content crawling, no background scan. Version 1.5, in beta since May 14, is a ground-up rewrite adding property-based sorting, dark mode, background indexing, built-in duplicate detection, and plugin support, though the stable line is still 1.4 if you'd rather wait. **Pricing:** free for personal and commercial desktop use; a separate paid license applies only to the enterprise network-search Server product.

Advanced Renamer

Thirteen chainable rename methods in Advanced Renamer cover case changes, regex, find-and-replace, and EXIF/XMP/ID3 metadata (even GPS tags pulled from photos), on Windows or macOS, and it can batch copy or move files during the same pass; JavaScript-scriptable rules cover anything the built-in methods don't. **Pricing:** free for occasional use, one-time $25 for frequent personal use, one-time $45 for commercial use.

Windows Utilities

PowerToys

Microsoft's own grab-bag of Windows power-user tools includes Command Palette, the Alt+Space launcher that replaced PowerToys Run and recently added a dockable UI and a TypeScript extension system, alongside FancyZones for custom window-tiling layouts and Keyboard Manager for remapping keys and shortcuts. Install the whole set with `winget install Microsoft.PowerToys`; the stable channel's latest build shipped August 25. **Pricing:** free, open source (MIT).

EarTrumpet

EarTrumpet replaces the stock Windows volume mixer with a per-app mixer and one-click output-device switching, straight from the system tray. Recent updates added a toggle for scroll-wheel volume control, a logarithmic volume scale option, and forced software-only rendering so the mixer doesn't wake the GPU just to show a slider. **Pricing:** free, from the Microsoft Store.

Twinkle Tray

Twinkle Tray puts per-monitor brightness sliders in the system tray and drives them through DDC/CI and WMI, actually dimming the panel rather than drawing a dark overlay on top. The August 13 beta added software gamma-ramp control for displays that don't support DDC/CI or WMI, following July's ambient-light-sensor-driven auto brightness. **Pricing:** free, open source, pay-what-you-want on the Microsoft Store listing.

Windhawk

Windhawk installs small, readable mods that patch Explorer, the taskbar, and the Start menu's behavior at runtime, without touching any system files: resize and group taskbar icons, tweak Start menu transparency, add custom context-menu entries. The 2.0 alpha, with a build out October 10, adds per-user mod configuration and ongoing work toward direct Windows 11 24H2/25H2 compatibility. **Pricing:** free, open source (GPL-3.0), donations accepted.

macOS & Linux Utilities

Ice 2

The original Ice menu bar manager stalled after 2024. This fork rebuilt it to survive macOS 27's redesigned menu bar: version 2.16, out September 18, restores the ability to split icons into visible, hidden, and always-hidden sections, revealed by hover, click, scroll, or hotkey, and adds a drag-and-drop layout editor for the restructured bar. It needs Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions, and runs on Apple Silicon only. **Pricing:** free, open source (GPL-3.0).

AlDente

AlDente caps how high a MacBook's battery charges and manages safe discharge from the menu bar, for free. Pro adds heat protection, a calibration mode, a "sailing mode" that parks the battery mid-range, and detailed stats in the dropdown, with one key covering up to three Macs. (Its old aldente.app domain has lapsed; apphousekitchen.com is now the canonical home.) **Pricing:** free tier; Pro €11.49/year or €23.99 lifetime.

Mission Center

Mission Center is a Rust and GTK4 system monitor built in the shape of Windows' Task Manager, with hardware-accelerated graphs for CPU, RAM, disk, network, and GPU, plus a per-process breakdown, for any Linux distro that supports Flatpak. Version 1.2 added a battery page, per-partition disk usage, and a CPU graph you can toggle between temperature, power draw, or frequency. **Pricing:** free, open source.

Astra Monitor

Astra Monitor pins live CPU, GPU, RAM, disk, network, and sensor readings into the GNOME top bar (GNOME Shell 45 through 51), with dropdown menus that expand each one into a fuller breakdown and let you choose which resources show up at all. The October 11 beta added Intel GPU monitoring through the i915 driver. **Pricing:** free, open source (GPL-3.0), donations optional.

Focus & Time

Cold Turkey Blocker

Cold Turkey blocks specific websites and whole desktop applications at the OS level, on Windows or macOS, so the block holds across every browser instead of needing a separate extension per browser. The free Basic tier covers blocking, exceptions, timed sessions, and stats; Pro adds scheduling, app blocking, password-locked sessions, and a "Frozen Turkey" mode that can't be broken once it starts, with a 30-day refund window. **Pricing:** free tier; Pro one-time purchase covering every machine you personally use.

ActivityWatch

ActivityWatch logs which app and window you're actually using, plus browser tab titles and AFK idle time, entirely in the background and stored locally first rather than on someone else's server, on Windows, macOS, Linux, or Android. October 6's v0.14.0 is, by the project's own description, its biggest release in a long time: roughly a thousand changes across its repos, a new Tauri-based desktop app, and the first stable Android build since 2023. **Pricing:** free, open source (MPL-2.0), no features gated behind a paywall.

FocusWriter

FocusWriter hides its toolbar and menus until the mouse touches a screen edge, leaving a blank page and nothing else while you write, with live word-count stats and a daily goal tracker underneath, and themes that can mimic paper or a typewriter. It runs on Windows and Linux (via a PPA); there's currently no macOS build. **Pricing:** free, open source (GPLv3), optional donations.

Session

Session runs Pomodoro-style work and break timers tied into macOS Focus modes and Calendar, so a session shows up as a calendar event, and it can block specific apps and sites on the Mac for the timer's duration. An "Overflow" mode lets a finished timer keep running instead of cutting you off mid-thought, and it updates your Slack status automatically when a session starts or ends. **Pricing:** free tier (unlimited sessions, 2-day analytics history); Pro $4.99/month or $39.99/year. --- *30 tools this month. Every entry names its platform and its pricing model. Found a dead link or have something to add? Reply to the email.*