Microsoft Azure CTO ports Windows tool ZoomIt to macOS with AI in two days

Windows Latest reported on September 17 that Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure, used AI to port ZoomIt, a Windows utility he created and has maintained for more than 20 years, to macOS in about two days. He said he was "flabbergasted" by what the AI accomplished.

ZoomIt is a screen zooming, real-time annotation and recording tool. The latest Windows version is v12.22, released on September 10. Over a weekend, Russinovich used AI with about 12 prompts, and the tool's basic functionality was ported to macOS in under 30 minutes. Within less than two days, roughly 90 percent of the features were working, including a break timer, panoramic screenshots, video recording, video editing, and Demo Mirror, which can display a full-screen or local area on a second monitor. The Mac version also restores DemoType for entering preset text during presentations or teaching.

Russinovich noted that the port still involved differences in macOS UI conventions, system permissions, screenshots, and key handling, and that AI helped handle platform mechanisms he had originally planned to learn. The specific AI model was not mentioned.

ZoomIt for Mac is now free and open source, requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later, and can be installed via Homebrew or Microsoft's GitHub page.