Before I switched to a Mac as my primary computer, I had made my Windows 11 PC a lot more useful by using Flow Launcher. And when I settled in on macOS, I found Raycast, which is a similar launch bar that takes everything to the next level. Raycast quickly became my absolute favorite launcher, and when a beta was announced for Windows, I couldn't wait.

Now, thanks to my colleague Adam, I've had the chance to spend some time with it, and suffice it to say I love Raycast for Windows already. I've switched to it as my primary launcher instead of Flow Launcher, and while it's still a beta, I couldn't be more excited to use it.

The power of launchers

Forget about the Start menu

Before I get into the specific things I love about Raycast for Windows, let me tell you about launchers as a category. Whether it's Windows or macOS, the default methods for launching apps simply aren't great. macOS does have a better launcher now that the old Launchpad is gone with macOS 26 Tahoe, but still. Meanwhile, the Windows Start menu has a search bar that tends to be slow and push you to accidental web searches if you don't take a second to process how it updates.

Launchers like Flow Launcher and Raycast make it so easy to get to anything you want. Launching apps is much faster because search results update instantly, and the search bars themselves are very responsive. Just press the access shortcuts (which you can customize) and the search bar immediately appears, ready to go.

This is made even better because these launchers can do a lot more than just launch apps. Thanks to extensions and plugins, you can search your files, search the web as whole or perform searches in very specific services, or even control your PC or smart home (yes, both have a Home Assistant integration, too). It's a huge productivity boost across the board.

Raycast wins on built-in features

I love the emoji selector and clipboard history

While the extensibility platforms for both Raycast and Flow Launcher make them both very capable solutions, Raycast is absolutely unbeaten when it comes to the features that come built-in out of the box, particularly the emoji selector and clipboard history, which I recently dedicated an entire article to. Flow Launcher has nothing of the kind unless you use plugins, but even those plugins just aren't anywhere near as good.

The implementation of the clipboard in Raycast is frankly perfect. It saves everything I copy, whether it's text, links, or images, along with bits of information about where it was copied from, when it was added to the clipboard, and even what the copied links lead to, so you get a preview of the page. Plus, your clipboard history can be kept for up to three months, it persists across reboots, and it's searchable. It's just so good.

Meanwhile, the emoji selector is just nice to have. It's similarly searchable, and its search is more reliable than the built-in emoji selector in Windows 11, and it's super easy to use with just the keyboard. It's very useful when I'm chatting with my friends.

Both Raycast and Flow Launcher also have a built-in file search, but I find that Raycast also handles this better. Flow Launcher relies on the Windows search indexer by default so it can be a bit less reliable, and if you want an upgrade, you need to install Everything to use that as the search engine. Raycast is very fast out of the box and finds almost any file quickly.

So many extensions

Even with a lot of them missing

Beyond what's built-in, Raycast also has a much larger platform of extensions. The Windows beta is much more limited than the full release on macOS, as a lot of extensions haven't been ported yet, but there's already a ton you can do with Raycast on Windows. Aside from the built-in extensions, some of my favorites are the extensions to search and download YouTube videos. Flow Launcher also offers equivalents to these, but the UI feels more user-friendly on Raycast, so I prefer using it there.

There are a ton more extensions for Raycast on Windows, even if a lot of them aren't specifically useful to me yet. There are integrations with Slack, Notion, GitHub, Obsidian, Asana, Todoist, Google Calendar, and more. From things like counting the words in a text selection to performing an internet speed test, there's a ton you can do with Raycast.

There are some niche areas where the Raycast beta does fall a bit behind Flow launcher, though. For instance, it's currently still missing one of my favorite extensions, the Pokédex, whereas Flow Launcher has one. Raycast also has one on macOS, and I like it more than the Flow Launcher version, but it's not in the Windows beta yet. Another plugin that Flow Launcher has but Raycast doesn't is a timer.

Still, it's only going to get better as more of the existing extensions are brought over to Windows, and even as it stands, it's already fantastic.

I just wish the Pro version was cheaper

No need for AI

One of the big features that Raycast touts is integration with various LLMs for all kinds of AI-related tasks. This is also the main selling point behind the Pro version of Raycast, which is available for $8 per month, though other benefits are also included.

If I haven't made it clear before, I don't have the slightest bit of interest in using LLMs or adjacent features, so I really wish there was a cheaper "Pro" version that skipped all the AI benefits. I would love the ability to sync my settings across devices, customize the appearance of Raycast, and save my clipboard for even longer. But $8 a month is a high price to ask for something that really works fine in the free version, especially when it feels like the bulk of that money is going to support AI features I don't care about.

I would be much more inclined to pay a smaller fee of $1 or $2 a month, or, even better, a one-time payment of $10 to $15 if I could get the non-AI benefits of the Pro version. That's really all the feedback I have for the developers.

While I'm at it, the Pro version also includes a translator feature and unlimited Raycast Notes.

Next-level productivity

I've been singing the praises of Raycast ever since I first tried it on macOS, and to have this Windows version now is simply fantastic news. It's not enough to get me back on Windows full time, but if you're a Windows user, you absolutely should check it out. I guarantee it will help you get things done faster once you're used to it.