Technology marches on — and so does the need to manage it! Even with all the cool stuff on my computer, I still find myself frustrated with repeating the same tasks over and over. Enter AutoIt to save the day (and my blood pressure).

This Microsoft Windows automation tool can speed you through repetitive tasks, giving you more time for what’s really important. While it could be considered a tool for the geek crowd, you really don’t have to learn how to write code because it has a macro recorder.

Turn on the recorder, then do the task once manually. Turn off the recorder and — voila — you have a script for doing that task. Save it to a file and all you have to do is double-click the file to run it.

Here’s a sample of what the tool produces:

Send("{LWINDOWN}e{LWINUP}")
WinWait("My Computer","")
If Not WinActive("My Computer","") Then WinActivate("My Computer","")
WinWaitActive("My Computer","")
Send("{ALTDOWN}d{ALTUP}c{SHIFTDOWN};{SHIFTUP}\clients{ENTER}")


This script opens the Windows Explorer application and then directs it to my Clients directory. How many times a week do you think I might do that? Right. Now you get the time-saving value of this little gem.