Open-source Alfred alternatives

PowerToys, from Microsoft, is a set of small utilities for customizing Windows and speeding up routine tasks. The suite bundles more than 30 small tools in one download, aimed at power users and developers on Windows 10 and Windows 11. The source code is public on GitHub under the MIT license.

Utilities include FancyZones for window layouts, PowerRename for bulk renaming, Keyboard Manager for remapping keys, Color Picker, Image Resizer, Text Extractor, Screen Ruler and Always on Top. Others cover Advanced Paste, Command Palette, Hosts File Editor, Environment Variables, File Locksmith, Mouse Without Borders, ZoomIt and Workspaces. Each tool can be switched on or off separately.

PowerToys is installed by downloading the executable from the GitHub releases page, and detailed instructions and system requirements are in the documentation. It suits people who want extra window management, file handling and input tools on Windows without buying separate apps for each job.

Flow Launcher is a quick file search and application launcher for Windows. A keyboard-triggered search box lets you find apps, files, file contents, browser bookmarks and web searches, and it is extended through plugins built by the community. It is written in C# and released under the MIT license.

Built-in features include searching with the Everything tool and the Windows index, queries using environment variable paths, system commands such as shutdown, lock and settings, a calculator that copies results to the clipboard, and a shell command mode that can run batch and PowerShell commands, including as Administrator. An Explorer feature stores favorite file and folder locations.

It is installable on Windows 10 and later through an installer or a portable version, and via Winget, Scoop and Chocolatey. The project notes that Windows may warn about unsigned code on first install and advises using only official channels. Its repository topics compare it to launchers such as Alfred, Spotlight, Launchy, Wox, Listary and Raycast.

RustCast is an open-source productivity launcher for macOS written in Rust with the iced UI toolkit. It was designed as an alternative to Raycast, giving a quick popup window for launching apps, running utilities and triggering workflows from the keyboard.

The feature list in the README includes automatic loading and searching of installed apps, icons, scrollable results, customizable themes and colors, Spotify control, running custom shell scripts with variables, a Google search shortcut, a calculator, clipboard history and a configuration file in TOML. A plugin-style library helps with shell scripts, and installation was offered through Homebrew or a downloadable disk image.

The README now states that RustCast is no longer being maintained, with the author using a different launcher and mentioning another closed-source option. The code remains available under the MIT licence for reference or forking. Anyone considering it should treat it as a retired project rather than a supported application, and look at maintained launchers for day-to-day use.