Powertoys: Improve first time run experience

[crutkas]

We should think about the first time user out of box experience (OOBE). Right now it launches silently and for some, that makes them wonder if anything actually happened.

More so if the icon is hidden in systray.

[yuyoyuppe]

How about showing a one-time toast with something like "PowerToys is running and you can access it from using its tray icon!"? 🙂

[crutkas]

I was thinking more in terms of what ear trumpet does. I think there are shorter term items we can do like that too

[yuyoyuppe]

@crutkas do you mean a welcome dialog like this one, which shows a small clip on how to find the tray icon?

That looks nice indeed and shouldn't be very hard to implement.

[crutkas]

yes, part of it. I want to do a more complete OOBE is my thought as well. This is a future item right now.

Like, explaining OOBE for FancyZones and others ...

[niels9001]

It would be nice to have a general OOBE dialog that introduces the app / main features.

We could have specific feature introductions on the settings pages (like an animated GIF in the sidepanel)?

[crutkas]

My thoughts here was treat it like a video game. Short quick animated gifs that are loopable.

For OOBE,

• show quickly important functionality.
• for upgrade scenario, any new, major things / features would do this as well.

Possible general rules for first time run OOBE

• All OOBE features need doc links.
• Settings page should have super easy way to show / describe feature + use it

Possible general rules for Upgrade OOBE

• Any upgrade new thing we show needs doc link
• Doc main page for utility needs to be coherent with new feature too

[crutkas]

just want to be sure we show a real scenario for addressing systray icon.

[niels9001]

OOBE

This concept shows a potential first-run experience: it shows the major modules and could include some quick setup items (e.g. hotkey combo's). Would be a single window that pops up when after installation.

What's new

Whenever a new update rolls out, with a new feature, we can introduce it to the user. A short description and an image to make the user aware of something new.

WinUI 2.4/UWP source code here: https://github.com/niels9001/PowerToysOOBE/tree/master

[crutkas]

I'm in love with this. I'm thinking this could be a pivot from new install / upgrade as well for new features.

Thinking is we could on first time launch have this and just directly build this OOBE into Settings.

@enricogior, thoughts?

[enricogior]

Excellent!
Let's also add an option in the general settings to let the user choose if they want the "what's new" tour, and along with the option to start it automatically at first run after update, also a button to open it later on.