Ask HN: What is a desktop automation task you would pay for?

by iiJDSiion 1/19/2025, 9:35 PMwith 4 comments

What is something you or someone at your company has to do repetitively on a desktop?

For example, it may involve some minor variations, could be kind of 'messy' and involves clicking through various programs, checking outputs, deciding from there, etc.

Example: during an internship I remember running regression tests, which meant running some scripts, re-running them if they hanged for too long (don't ask), checking output log files for a few specific lines, and then emailing the results to my supervisor. Having to babysit the software run and do the manual stuff at the end was a pain and seemed like a waste of time but was unfortunately necessary.

Would be interested to hear other specific examples, as me and a few buddies are working on some desktop agent programs to try and tackle some tasks like this.

by onecommentmanon 1/20/2025, 4:47 AM

Suggesting the specific bookmark subfolder that a website URL should be saved to, as a default presented (that could be ignored/overridden easily). I’m in content consumption mode on my iPad, and I have 200+ subfolders that I save bookmarks to, depending on the topic, content, etc. Spinning through to the right bookmark subfolder on iOS takes time, and software (dare I say AI) to guess which subfolder to save the bookmark, even if it’s right only 50% of the time, would make my cruising the Internet much more efficient.

by anderscoon 1/19/2025, 9:48 PM

Prompt-based window snapping. For example, I would describe how windows should snap based on the type of app, the number of windows and more. Example: single terminal window should snap bottom left, second window should snap next to it. Browser window full screen unless other apps are open in which case half screen left. Etc.