Irrespective of what number of options Microsoft crams into its working system, customers will all the time be in search of a sooner, higher, or completely different method of doing issues. One instance of Microsoft’s acknowledgment of this conduct is Microsoft PowerToys. This free obtain can handle utility home windows, rename recordsdata in bulk, preview file contents, and extra.
This TechRepublic cheat sheet describes every out there device or characteristic supplied by Microsoft PowerToys and describes what every system utility can do.
When was Microsoft PowerToys first made out there?
This set of barely uncommon free Home windows instruments has been part of the Home windows working system panorama since Home windows 95. That first set of 15 free utilities was revealed and endorsed by Microsoft and made out there totally free obtain. Their availability was noticeably absent for Windows 10 and Windows 11 — at the least till September 2019.
With the final launch of Microsoft Home windows 11, builders now confer with this venture as Microsoft PowerToys relatively than Home windows 10 PowerToys.
From the start, PowerToys have been designed for “energy customers” who have been in search of methods to tweak how the working system capabilities. In some instances, inexperienced customers have been capable of make a careless change whereas utilizing a PowerToys utility, which may wreak havoc throughout the Home windows working system; as such, novice customers have usually been inspired to make use of warning.
For probably the most half, although, PowerToys has allowed customers — whether or not they thought-about themselves energy customers or not — to extra simply tweak the appear and feel of Home windows with no deep dive into configuration screens or the dreaded and harmful edit of the Home windows Registry file.
Even within the earliest iterations of PowerToys, Microsoft supplied customers many helpful functionalities. Home windows 95 PowerToys included:
- TweakUI was used to tweak obscure Home windows settings.
- CD Autoplay allowed all CDs to autoplay, not simply audio CDs.
- Command Immediate Right here opened a command immediate within the present listing.
- Discover from Right here opened File Explorer within the present listing.
- FlexiCD allowed customers to regulate audio CDs from the Taskbar.
- Xmouse 1.2 allowed customers to vary window focus by shifting the mouse cursor, so no clicks have been wanted.
By way of the years and numerous Home windows variations, particular person PowerToys have come and gone. Every Home windows model impressed a brand new set of instruments based mostly on what builders perceived was wanted to enhance and improve that model.
Why are Microsoft PowerToys necessary?
Microsoft PowerToys gives instruments and options that may make Home windows working system customers extra productive and, by extension, happier. Over time, many customers have come to depend upon a number of of those PowerToys for his or her each day pc productiveness. For a lot of energy customers, PowerToys enhance their high quality of labor and life.
SEE: Safe Home windows 11 programs with this guidelines from TechRepublic Premium.
Past making customers extra productive, PowerToys have additionally supplied a glimpse into what options and instruments may and will change into an integral a part of the Home windows working system sooner or later. Many of those once-separate instruments have change into simply one other a part of the working system throughout its subsequent iteration.
How can I get Microsoft PowerToys?
Historically, every of the Microsoft PowerToys has been supplied as a separate executable file, out there as a free obtain from a particular Microsoft web site.
For Home windows 10 and Home windows 11, Microsoft has taken a barely completely different method. All Home windows 10 and Home windows 11 PowerToys are actually included as a part of a free downloadable system that customers can configure.
The most recent model of Microsoft PowerToys is v0.86.0, out there on GitHub now. Launch 0.86.0 added new talents to Superior Paste. The PowerToys group mounted some points and added options for model 0.86.0, together with:
- The left navigation bar will now show the record of utilities in teams, because the variety of utilities grew lengthy.
- Sharing telemetry with the PowerToys workforce is now disabled by default, with an opt-in choice within the Settings beneath the Normal tab. Customers are inspired to show telemetry on to offer helpful information to PowerToys improvement efforts.
- Numerous bug fixes for Workspaces, notably round launching many situations of 1 utility in the identical workspace.
See the release page for the whole record of adjustments.
These PowerToys are at present out there:
- All the time On Prime.
- Awake.
- Colour Picker.
- Command Not Discovered.
- Crop and Lock.
- Surroundings Variables.
- FancyZones.
- Preview pane and thumbnail rendering for File Explorer.
- File Locksmith.
- Hosts File Editor.
- Picture Resizer.
- Keyboard Supervisor.
- Mouse utilities.
- Mouse With out Borders.
- New+.
- Superior Paste.
- Peek.
- PowerRename.
- PowerToys Run.
- PowerToys Workspaces.
- Fast Accent.
- Registry Preview.
- Display screen Ruler.
- Shortcut Information.
- Textual content Extractor.
- Video Convention Mute.
SEE: All of TechRepublic’s cheat sheets and sensible individual’s guides
What can Microsoft PowerToys do?
Here’s a record of accessible Microsoft PowerToys with a short description of what every toy does.
FancyZones
FancyZones permits customers to handle the place and the way every open utility window on a Home windows desktop will show.
SEE: Home windows 11 brings the Copilot AI assistant together with it. (TechRepublic)
For instance, you would use FancyZones to arrange a Home windows 10 desktop the place Outlook all the time shows on the right-hand aspect of the desktop, Twitter or different social media all the time shows on the left-hand aspect of the desktop, and Phrase or Excel all the time shows on the center between the opposite two. There can be three distinct and perpetual zones displayed always.
Home windows key Shortcut Information
The Windows key Shortcut Guide shows all the out there keyboard shortcuts for the present Home windows desktop. This PowerToy is activated by holding the Home windows key down for the size of time specified within the device’s configuration settings. The default is 900ms.
With this characteristic, customers don’t have to recollect so many Home windows key-related shortcut mixtures.
PowerRename
The PowerRename Windows PowerToy gives customers with superior instruments for bulk renaming of recordsdata. The toy extends the Home windows Shell Context Menu so as to add an entry for PowerRename to File Explorer.
With PowerRename enabled, easy search and change or extra highly effective common expression matching are added to your toolset for the majority renaming course of. A preview space is displayed as you carry out search and change procedures, so you may see how file names will change earlier than initiating the motion.
SEE: Find out how to batch rename recordsdata in Home windows 10 with the PowerToys PowerRename device
Preview Pane add-ons for File Explorer
This Home windows PowerToy expands on the Preview Pane characteristic already out there in the usual File Explorer utility by including further file varieties. Preview Pane add-ons for File Explorer enable customers to preview the contents of a file after clicking it in File Explorer with out really opening the file.
Model 0.16.0 provides preview assist for Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg) and Markdown (.md) recordsdata. Subsequent PowerToys releases have added extra file varieties, together with supply code recordsdata and geometric code.
Picture Resizer
The Image Resizer Windows PowerToy provides extra performance to File Explorer by permitting customers to use bulk picture resizing. Customers can choose photographs in File Explorer after which choose the brand new Resize Footage merchandise on the context menu, revealed with a right-click on any picture.
Window Walker
The Window Walker Windows PowerToy is designed to be an alternative choice to the usual Alt-Tab characteristic in Home windows 10 and Home windows 11. Customers press the CTRL-Home windows key mixture as an alternative of Alt-Tab to drag up a search field. Customers then enter key phrases into the search field to slender down the at present open apps and screens on their desktops.
SEE: Find out how to discover open apps with the Window Walker device in Home windows 10 PowerToys
PowerToys Run
PowerToys Run acts as a fast launcher on Home windows. It’s one other extension of the ALT-Tab idea and faucets into the Home windows file indexing system. To activate the device, use the keyboard mixture ALT-Area and begin typing the title of your required utility.
PowerToys Run will search the system and record doable functions based mostly in your search phrase. When the applying you need seems, click on or faucet to run.
SEE: Find out how to use Home windows 10 PowerToys Run to open functions, folders, and recordsdata
PowerToys Workspaces
PowerToys Workspaces permits customers to launch a number of functions into preset window configurations on the identical time. For instance, it will possibly mechanically place Visible Studio Code subsequent to a browser to avoid wasting time when organising each functions. Workspaces configurations will be arrange in a number of methods: from Workspaces Editor or from a desktop shortcut. Doing so within the Workspaces Editor permits for some further customizations, akin to mechanically making use of “launch as admin” modifiers.
Keyboard Supervisor
The Keyboard Manager application in Microsoft PowerToys is a straightforward keyboard remapper. Run the applying from the PowerToys menu and both remap a single key in your keyboard or remap a shortcut keyboard mixture. No matter you remap will stay energetic if Keyboard Supervisor is enabled and PowerToys runs within the background.
Colour Picker
Color Picker was contributed to the Microsoft PowerToys venture by Martin Chrzan. The utility means that you can determine any colour in your display by both its HEX or RGB code after which save that data to the Home windows clipboard for later use. It’s a easy device that may save time and stop frustration for builders and content material creators engaged on colour design.
Video Convention Mute
As a number of organizations shifted to distant work constructions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many people now depend on video teleconferencing for work and faculty interactions and collaboration. The Video Conference Mute tool in Microsoft PowerToys means that you can mute the audio and video in your PC with a single key mixture.
Chances are you’ll mute each audio and video on the identical time or independently. The identical key mixture will toggle the audio and video again to the on place. The Video Convention Mute device works no matter what app you’re utilizing or what app is at present within the foreground.
Awake
The community contributed the Microsoft PowerToys tool Awake to the PowerToys venture, with attribution given to Den Delimarsky. Awake permits customers to maintain their pc awake on-demand with out managing its energy settings.
Mouse utilities
Mouse utilities have been contributed to the Microsoft PowerToys venture by Raymond Chen. Mouse utilities embrace a set of options that improve the mouse and cursor performance on Home windows programs.
With two consecutive presses of the Left CTRL key, Discover My Mouse will find your mouse cursor and spotlight its present place with a halo. Urgent the Esc key will dismiss the spotlight. The Discover My Mouse characteristic is beneficial for displays on giant shows whenever you need to draw the viewers’s consideration to a particular display space.
All the time on Prime
Always on Top permits customers to designate the applying window at present in focus as “all the time on prime” with a keyboard shortcut toggle.
No matter what instructions, mouse clicks or different inputs are made out of that time on, the designated window will stay on the forefront, superseding another open home windows till All the time on Prime is toggled off. The default keyboard shortcut for the All the time on Prime toggle is Home windows Key + CTRL + T.
Display screen Ruler
The Microsoft PowerToys utility Screen Ruler is a fast and straightforward solution to measure the pixels represented in your show display. The device is ideal for figuring out the pixel dimension of a possible display seize or for lining up objects in a doc.
Fast Accent
Quick Accent is another solution to sort accented characters, which is beneficial for when a keyboard doesn’t assist that particular accent with a fast key combo. Use this utility to create accented characters, particularly for writing in languages aside from English.
Textual content Extractor
The Microsoft PowerToys utility Text Extractor is a handy solution to copy textual content from wherever in your display. This code is predicated on Joe Finney’s Text Grab. Textual content Extractor makes use of optical character recognition to learn the textual content on the display, which can require enhancing or proofreading.
File Locksmith
The Microsoft PowerToys utility File Locksmith is a Home windows shell extension that checks what recordsdata are in use and by which processes. After putting in, right-click on a number of chosen recordsdata in File Explorer, after which choose “What’s utilizing this file?” from the context menu.
Hosts File Editor
The Window PowerToys utility Hosts File Editor is a fast and easy utility for enhancing an area host file. Notice that the applying will solely work if a bunch file exists.
Mouse Leap
The Microsoft PowerToys utility Mouse Jump is a brand new characteristic for the present set of mouse utilities. Mouse Leap means that you can transfer the mouse pointer nice distances on the identical display immediately and even soar from one display to a different, if you want.
Superior Paste
The Microsoft Home windows PowerToys utility Advanced Paste is a keyboard mixture shortcut that enables customers to stick formatted clipboard contents as plain, unformatted textual content utilizing both the brand new UX or a direct keystroke invoke. Utilizing this device may even change the formatted textual content with plain textual content within the clipboard, so customers can all the time paste it as textual content.
A earlier model of Superior Paste was referred to as Paste as Textual content.
In Launch 0.81.0, Superior Paste acquired an opt-in AI assistant to investigate and format the textual content in your clipboard. For instance, it may generate code, translate textual content into one other language, rewrite it in a special fashion, or summarize it earlier than pasting. This characteristic requires an OpenAI API key with a credit score stability.
Registry Preview
PowerToys Registry Preview, launched in Model 0.69.0, is designed to simplify the method of visualizing and enhancing Home windows Registry recordsdata. The utility app additionally means that you can write registry adjustments on to the Home windows Registry file with out utilizing the usual Regedit app that comes constructed into the Home windows working system.
Mouse With out Borders
PowerToys Mouse Without Borders, launched in Model 0.70.0, permits customers to work together with different computer systems utilizing the identical keyboard and mouse they use for his or her present PC. Customers may share clipboards and recordsdata between the machines with Mouse With out Borders. Management of the opposite computer systems is granted utilizing an encryption key.
New+
New+, launched in model 0.85.0, lets customers create templates that may be deployed to create new recordsdata and folders in most popular configurations rapidly. It resides inside a File Explorer context menu. Templates comply with from one system to a different if the template location is ready to a folder synced with a cloud drive. Customers can choose whether or not or not they need filename extensions to be proven within the template.
Peek
Peek, launched in Model 0.70.0, permits customers to see a fast preview of recordsdata they choose in File Explorer once they press a specified keyboard shortcut. The keyboard shortcut will be modified to a person’s desire.
Crop And Lock
PowerToys Crop And Lock, launched in Model 0.73.0, permits customers to crop a present utility right into a smaller window or create a thumbnail. The utility helps you to concentrate on a particular part of an utility window with out shutting down the applying’s working capabilities. Basically, from the applying’s perspective, the window is regular, however from the person’s perspective, the window is smaller or thumbnail dimension.
Surroundings Variables
PowerToys Environment Variables, launched in Model 0.75.0, permits customers so as to add, change, and apply profiles, person data, and Home windows system setting variables. The device is helpful for software program engineers, programmers, and different IT professionals when testing and iterating functions, platforms, and programs throughout improvement.
Are extra Microsoft PowerToys coming quickly?
New Microsoft PowerToys are periodically added to the Home windows library to handle new person expectations and necessities. As new PowerToys are launched, this record of accessible instruments will probably be up to date to replicate that growth.
Does Microsoft PowerToys influence efficiency?
PowerToys can influence efficiency. Generally, the quantity of RAM required by PowerToys apps is critical sufficient that you must activate solely the instruments you’re really utilizing. In case you decide an app just isn’t one thing you utilize often, it could be advantageous to set it to the “off” place; you may all the time flip it on once more whenever you want it.
The quantity of RAM Microsoft PowerToys makes use of depends upon what number of instruments and apps you might have determined to run within the background. The PowerToys Settings app, which runs within the background and will be accessed from the Home windows 11 system tray, requires about 104 MB of RAM. Every further working app requires extra RAM to assist it, which you’ll gauge for your self in Home windows Activity Supervisor.
Editor’s word: This text was up to date by Megan Crouse to replicate the most recent model of Microsoft PowerToys.