One of the best productivity tools for macOS now comes to Windows 11
Raycast is a popular Spotlight alternative for macOS that calls itself a "shortcut to everything". Raycast goes much beyond mere application launching, with the ability to perform a host of functions without needing to open separate apps. It also comes with built-in clipboard history and window management tools.
While Raycast has garnered quite the following on macOS, and even has an iOS app, a Windows version has eluded users so far. That changes now with Raycast officially confirmed to be coming to Windows 11 users soon.
Raycast for Windows is now in public preview but is invite only for the moment. Going by the preview, the app likely uses Windows 11's WinUI 3 Fluent design for a native look.
Raycast for Windows beta offers a good number of productivity boosting features found in the macOS version. For instance, pressing Alt + Space opens the launcher from where you can search for files and folders, even filtering by file type. Once narrowed down, you can perform contextual actions on a file such as showing its location in File Explorer or copying it.
Raycast for Windows beta also comes with a built-in clipboard history manager and a natural language calculator. You can ask natural prompts such as "days until July 12", "time in Vienna", or "distance between Los Angeles and New York", for example. During the beta period, Raycast users get free access to its Quick AI feature that uses GPT-4o mini for conversational queries and follow-up questions.
One of the USPs of Raycast is its support for third-party extensions, including a good number of JavaScript-based extensions for YouTube, Slack, GIPHY, and more. While the Windows version will support most Raycast extensions, those that rely on Apple-specific features and APIs won't be available on Microsoft's platform.
Parity with macOS version planned down the line
Not all features are live in the beta yet. For instance, Cloud Sync to sync preferences and extensions across multiple devices is not available in the beta but is planned in the roadmap. Similarly, deeper context-aware search with more advanced AI models is on the anvil as well and so are Raycast Notes, snippet expansion, calendar integration, broader extension support, scripting and developer tooling, and window management tools.
There is no direct download available currently for the Raycast Windows beta. Interested users can sign up to enter a waitlist for an invite. Those already in the beta can forward the invite to three others and continue the chain.
That being said, Windows users already have several Spotlight alternatives, the most popular of them being Flow Launcher and PowerToys Run. PowerToys now comes with a new Command Palette tool, which currently lacks several features of Run but is touted to eventually supplant the latter with more functionality.
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