Show HN: AlomWare Toolbox – A cool Windows productivity tool
by Paul_Coder | 2025-11-01 11:41:23+00:00
Hi, I'm Paul, the founder and lead coder at AlomWare.com.

I'd like to show off my flagship product: AlomWare Toolbox. It's a productivity app for Windows that I started many years ago to solve lots of pain points that Windows has, but made as a true no-install portable exe that is 4 MB in size and won't modify your Registry and break things. It also doesn't need the internet to run because I personally hate apps that do that and am strongly opposed to cloud and account-based apps.

One example of the app is window manipulation. You can set a window to always open how you like: its position, size, transparency, process priority, on top of all others, and so on. It's set-and-forget and it'll always open like that in future, including doing after-open activities like typing text to it or running a DOS command. You literally can't do that with any other utility (not even PowerToys).

If you're a Commodore 64 lover, then you'll remember the old days of using freezer carts to freeze and restart the C64 with a specific setup. I've tried to make AlomWare Toolbox emulate that for Windows, which I call "PC States", by noting all open apps and windows so they can be re-launched and restored that way from a hotkey or other trigger. I've also made the states save your PC environment as much as it can, so when you take a snapshot of a state, then environmental things like the desktop resolution, clipboard text, mouse position, audio volume, LED key states, and other things can also be optionally saved with the state so that they're all restored later when the state is restored. This has never been done before on Windows, and it works quite well.

Automation is a major feature of AlomWare Toolbox, that allows you to do various things without needing coding knowledge. Unlike AutoHotkey, I've made the automation in AlomWare Toolbox to be a simple English affair to do its job: first assign an object to work with (like a window), and then use commands to do things relevant to that window, such as making clicking a named button on it, dimming it, showing a smaller live thumbnail version of it, setting its volume level, and much more.

You can use AlomWare Toolbox do control your PC with keyboard and mouse macros, and do things like setting the audio device, auto-closing one app and starting another in its place, locking your PC with a glass-like overlay so you can still see what's going on but not be able to use it until unlocked, and things like that. Useful functions that haven't been seen before in a productivity app.

Basically, the app is meant to be a quality-of-life tool to make your daily PC use much easier. I've often included automation features that my users request, to solve their PC pain points for them (or I show them how to do it with the app's automation steps). I get many appreciative comments along the lines of "that is so cool" and it motivates me to keep improving the app. If you see the Change Log at my website, you can see this app is a true labor of love that gets regular attention.

The app is 100% free if you don't mind entering a daily usage code, or there's two tiers of payment: a 12-month unlock option, or a pay-once lifetime option that includes all future updates. But for Hacker News readers, here's a free unlock code for the whole month of November 2025 (just copy and paste the entire line when asked for it):

november2025@hacker.news:6067b234b480220251130

So, I'd really love for you to give it a try! It's at https://www.alomware.com and I hope to get some nice feedback about it (my email is alomware.com@gmail.com).

Paul @ AlomWare.