If there's a sequence of steps you do on your computer more than once a week, you should have a macro for it. A macro is simply a recording of your keyboard and mouse actions — you perform the task once while PC AutoPilot records, and then it can replay those exact actions whenever you want, triggered by a hotkey, a schedule, or an event.

What Kinds of Tasks Are Good for Macros?

Almost anything repetitive works, but here are some of the most common use cases:

• Opening your morning set of apps (browser, email, Slack, spreadsheet)
• Filling in a template document with today's date and a client name
• Renaming a batch of files to a consistent format
• Running a weekly report in Excel (open file → click Refresh → save → close)
• Clearing a specific folder and moving its contents to an archive
• Logging into a web portal that doesn't support password managers well

How to Record Your First Macro

Open PC AutoPilot and click Task Automation in the left sidebar. Click ⏺ Record New Macro — the button flips to ⏹ Stop Recording so you know it's live. Now just do the thing you want to automate. Every click, keypress, and pause is captured.

When you're done, click ⏹ Stop Recording, review the captured steps, type a name — something descriptive like "Open Morning Apps" — and click Save Macro.

Setting Up Triggers

A macro without a trigger still has to be run manually. Triggers are what make them genuinely automatic. PC AutoPilot supports several — a hotkey, a daily schedule, a watched folder, or app startup. The three you'll use most:

Hotkey Trigger

Assign a keyboard shortcut — something like Ctrl+Alt+M — and pressing it will run the macro instantly. Best for things you want to trigger on demand, like opening a specific app layout.

Schedule Trigger

Set the macro to run every day at a specific time — say, 9am before you start work. Best for recurring tasks that should happen whether you remember or not.

File/Event Trigger

Run the macro when a new file appears in a folder you choose to watch. This is the most powerful option — for example, kicking off your filing routine the moment a scan lands in your scans folder.

Tips for Reliable Macros

• Add small delays between steps if an app takes a moment to open. In the macro editor, you can insert a "Wait 1 second" step between actions.
• Use keyboard shortcuts instead of clicks where possible — clicking a specific pixel breaks if you resize a window, but pressing Ctrl+S always saves.
• Test on a clean state. Run your macro with the apps closed, then with them already open, to make sure it handles both cases.
• Name files clearly in the macro editor — it's much easier to maintain a library of 20 macros when they're well-labelled.