PExplorer vs Pinpoint

PExplorer is the shell component of WinXShell, intended as a freely available replacement for Windows Explorer in Windows PE. The portable shell includes desktop, Start menu, taskbar and notification area components, and the project says it is based on ROS Explorer. It is available for Windows and WinPE, with the repository listing Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10, plus Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2019.

Listed capabilities include support for x64 environments, desktop wallpaper on Windows Vista and later, desktop icon drag and drop, and tray icons for x86 and x64 software. Users can bind a third-party file explorer, change Start menu actions, and adjust taskbar color and height. PExplorer also supports ClassicShell and includes a file explorer styled for the host Windows system, with automatic refresh when files change. The project is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and welcomes contributions, feedback and bug reports. The repository's master branch page lists August 4, 2019 as its update date.

Pinpoint is a free, open-source keystroke launcher for Windows. Its search features cover apps, bookmarks, and files through the Everything tool; it can also launch URLs and open a command line. The launcher indexes bookmarks in Brave, Chrome, and Firefox, and its Bangs feature uses DuckDuckGo operators to search directly on websites. Clipboard tools include a manager and uploader. Other utilities include a calculator, converters, dictionary, encoder and decoder, and password generator. Pinpoint also offers notes, shortcuts, text manipulation, emoji search, a window switcher, operating system and control panel tools, and process management. Its listed information and media features include finance equity look-ups, Hacker News, weather forecasts, translation, time zone conversion, and a Spotify controller. The controller can play, pause, skip, and search across Spotify sessions associated with the user's account on any device. Pinpoint can query ChatGPT from the desktop with an OpenAI API key. Download it from GitHub as a ZIP release or install it with Chocolatey; Alt+Space opens or closes its query box. Developers can create local plugins using the Pinpoint.Plugin NuGet package.