microsoft/PowerToys

Allow X in place of * for calculator

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#38,007 opened on Mar 18, 2025

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 (6 comments) (10 reactions) (0 assignees)C# (7,978 forks)batch import
Help WantedIdea-EnhancementProduct-PowerToys RunRun-PluginStatus-In progress

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Description

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Enhancement: Please, someone should add x instead of * for multiplication features. For example, in Apple Spotlight, one could type 3*5 or 3x5 (with the actual letter x ) and still get 15 on both prompts. also, literary typing "12ft", "12 cm", 200 sec & 20days (with or without spacing between the numbers and text) will display their equivalences in each other unites, for example (“12’” will directly display 3.66m these little things will be very much appreciated.

Scenario when this would be used?

when trying to convert units into a natural language using abbreviated unit symbols or not

Supporting information

Image

link of the discussion of this picture NB: I know this feature exists because I had a MacBook too before keep on the good works and God bless yall!

Contributor guide

Research direction
Find the calculator input parsing logic in PowerToys source code and add 'x' as an alternative multiplication operator.
Tech stack
csharp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
1
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Under 1 hour
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
GitC# basicsPowerToys build setup
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
80