PowerToys is a set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience for greater productivity. Inspired by the Windows 95 era PowerToys project, this reboot provides power users with utilities to squeeze more out of the Windows shell and customize it for their individual workflows.
What tools are included in PowerToys?
Microsoft keeps adding utilities to the suite, however the 21 main tools are: Always on Top, PowerToys Awake, Color Picker, FancyZones, File Explorer Add-ons, File Locksmith, Hosts File Editor, Image Resizer, Keyboard Manager, Mouse utilities, Mouse Without Borders, Peek, Paste as Plain Text, PowerRename, PowerToys Run, Quick Accent, Registry Preview, Screen Ruler, Shortcut Guide, Text Extractor, and Video Conference Mute.
What is the purpose of PowerToys?
PowerToys are smaller add-ons or utilities that can enhance and customize your Windows experience. Microsoft created PowerToys for power users looking for a bit more personalization and tweakability.
What are the two most useful tools in PowerToys?
PowerToys offers several handy tools for specific use cases, but two very popular ones are FancyZones, which lets you rearrange your window layout to run multiple apps on one screen, and PowerToys Run, which is a Spotlight-like launcher that includes quick search for apps and files in Windows.
Is Microsoft PowerToys free?
Yes, PowerToys is free and open-source.
Does PowerToys work on Windows 11?
PowerToys is compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11
Getting started
To kick the tires on the first two utilities, download the installer here. The main PowerToys service runs when Windows starts and a user logs in. When the service is running, a PowerToys icon appears in the system tray. Selecting the icon launches the PowerToys settings UI. The settings UI lets you enable and disable individual utilities and provides settings for each utility. There is also a link to the help doc for each utility. You can right click the tray icon to quit the Power Toys service.
PowerToys settings UI.Note that some PowerToys functionality requires running in an elevated process. Elevation is required to interact with and manipulate windows from processes that have a higher set of rights than the current user. This is why the PowerToys.exe requests elevation when launched.
If you find bugs or have suggestions, please open an issue in the Power Toys GitHub repo. The backlog for creating new utilities is here. You can provide feedback on the backlog to suggest new ideas or a different priority order by joining the backlog discussion in this issue.
Current PowerToy utilities
The currently available utilities include:
Crop And Lock
Crop And Lock allows you to crop a current application into a smaller window or just create a thumbnail. Focus the target window and press the shortcut to start cropping.
Mouse Without Borders
Control a set of machines using the same keyboard/mouse, share clipboard between the machines and transfer files between the machines.
Peek
A system-wide utility for Windows that allows you to preview file content without the need to open multiple applications or interrupt your workflow. It offers a seamless and quick file preview experience for various file types, including images, web pages, Markdown files, text files, and developer files.
Always on Top
Always on Top enables you to pin windows on top of all other windows with a quick key shortcut (â Win+Ctrl+T).
PowerToys Awake
PowerToys Awake is designed to keep a computer awake without having to manage its power & sleep settings. This behavior can be helpful when running time-consuming tasks, ensuring that the computer does not go to sleep or turns off its screens.
Color Picker
ColorPicker is a system-wide color picking utility activated with Win+Shift+C. Pick colors from any currently running application, the picker automatically copies the color into your clipboard in a set format. Color Picker also contains an editor that shows a history of previously picked colors, allows you to fine-tune the selected color and to copy different string representations. This code is based on Martin Chrzan’s Color Picker.
FancyZones
FancyZones is a window manager that makes it easy to create complex window layouts and quickly position windows into those layouts.
File Explorer add-ons
File Explorer add-ons enable preview pane rendering in File Explorer to display SVG icons (.svg), Markdown (.md) and PDF file previews. To enable the preview pane, select the “View” tab in File Explorer, then select “Preview Pane”.
Image Resizer
Image Resizer is a Windows Shell extension for quickly resizing images. With a simple right click from File Explorer, resize one or many images instantly. This code is based on Brice Lambson’s Image Resizer.
Keyboard Manager
Keyboard Manager allows you to customize the keyboard to be more productive by remapping keys and creating your own keyboard shortcuts. This PowerToy requires Windows 10 1903 (build 18362) or later.
Mouse utilities
Mouse utilities add functionality to enhance your mouse and cursor. With Find My Mouse, quickly locate your mouse’s position with a spotlight that focuses on your cursor. This feature is based on source code developed by Raymond Chen.
PowerRename
PowerRename enables you to perform bulk renaming, searching and replacing file names. It includes advanced features, such as using regular expressions, targeting specific file types, previewing expected results, and the ability to undo changes. This code is based on Chris Davis’s SmartRename.
PowerToys Run
PowerToys Run can help you search and launch your app instantly – just press the shortcut Alt+Space and start typing. It is open source and modular for additional plugins. Window Walker is now included as well. This PowerToy requires Windows 10 1903 (build 18362) or later.
Shortcut Guide
Windows key shortcut guide appears when a user presses â Win+Shift+/ (or as we like to think, â Win+?) and shows the available shortcuts for the current state of the desktop. You can also change this setting and press and hold â Win.
Video Conference Mute
Video Conference Mute is a quick way to globally “mute” both your microphone and camera using â Win+Shift+Q while on a conference call, regardless of the application that currently has focus. This requires Windows 10 1903 (build 18362) or later.
Languages
Currently, PowerToys is available in the following languages: Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Turkish.
Community led and developed in the open
Our goal for the PowerToys project is for it to be an extension of the Windows power user community and for it to provide the functionality these users find most valuable. Our backlog of utilities is on GitHub, and we encourage the community to provide feedback on the backlog in this issue. Each utility has its own feature backlog. You can also contribute to the Windows shortcut guide backlog and the FancyZones backlog. For new utility suggestions, please create a new issue to discuss the idea.
Creating your own PowerToys utilities
While opening bug reports, feature suggestions, and feedback on the backlog are all incredibly valuable for this project, if you’re one of the many power users that are also developers, you can contribute directly to the product.
When the PowerToys project was first announced this spring, we didn’t think the reception would be as enthusiastic as it has been. The project started with just an empty repo, with a roadmap and a place for power users to provide suggestions and ideas. However, over 4000 users starred the repo, showing a strong interest in the project. Given this enthusiasm, we’re anticipating many developers will want to contribute to PowerToys, and we’ve made sure that the documentation, project architecture, and tools are ready for the community to dive in.
Before getting started, it’s worthwhile to read the contribution guidelines for the project. After that, you should read the “Developer Guidance” section of the PowerToys readme, which has a link to the new PowerToys utility Visual Studio template. Each utility is a .dll, which is loaded by the PowerToys runtime and each utility can provide settings to the PowerToys settings framework with a JSON blob. The settings UI takes this JSON and automatically creates a settings UI for the utility. More information on the settings format can be found in the Settings spec.
What’s New
Highlights
New feature: Keyboard Manager allows mapping shortcuts to start applications or opening URIs. Thanks @jefflord!
New feature: Keyboard Manager allows shortcuts with chords. Thanks @jefflord!
Modernized Color Picker with Fluent UX. Thanks @niels9001!
Peek now is able to preview drives. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
File Locksmith has now an entry in the Windows 11 tier 1 context menu.
General
Refactored code so that English is used as a fallback language when a localized resource cannot be found.
Awake
The setting now reverts to “Keep using the current power plan” after Awake deactivates itself after any of the timed modes has expired.
Color Picker
Now uses WPFUI and the UI was updated to follow Fluent UX principles. Thanks @niels9001!
Added enable and disable telemetry to align it with the other utilities.
Command Not Found
Added telemetry for when a module instance is created in PowerShell.
FancyZones
Fixed a memory leak occurring on work area changes.
File Explorer add-ons
Added support to the .ksh, .zsh, .bsh and .env file types to Monaco previewer. Thanks @Aaron-Junker!
Re-enabled the RendererAppContainer feature in WebView2, since the associated crash has been fixed in the latest WebView2 releases.
File Locksmith
Added as an entry in the Windows 11 tier 1 context menu.
Hosts File Editor
Tweaked filter button style to indicate if filters are applied.
Added an error indicator to each input field to indicate why a new entry can’t be created.
Added an in-line delete button for each entry.
Image Resizer
Units and resize modes are now localized.
Tweaked and improved UI. Thanks @Jay-o-Way!
Keyboard Manager
Added a feature that allows remapping a shortcut to starting an application. Thanks @jefflord!
Added a feature that allows remapping a shortcut to open a URI. Thanks @jefflord!
Added chords to shortcuts. Thanks @jefflord!
Send telemetry about the key/shortcut to key/shortcut remappings that are set. This doesn’t include remap to text, application or URI since those might contain personal information.
Added telemetry to send a daily event that at least a key/shortcut to key/shortcut remapping was used.
Tweaked and fixed the chords code to better follow conventions when trying to call the same chord multiple times.
Mouse Without Borders
Fixed an issue causing the target path string to be corrupted when registering as a service.
Paste as Plain Text
Prevent the start menu from activating when the Windows key is part of the activation shortcut and is released sooner.
Peek
Fixed a title bar issue after maximizing Peek’s window. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Fixed a crash when trying to use Peek in File Explorer alternatives.
Added a previewer for drives. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
The folder previewer will now asynchronously calculate size, similar to the Properties screen in File Explorer. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Added support to the .ksh, .zsh, .bsh and .env file types to Monaco previewer. Thanks @Aaron-Junker!
PowerRename
PowerRename context menu accelerator key readded.
Tweaked PowerRename apply button style. Thanks @niels9001!
PowerToys Run
Fixed an issue causing win32 application icons to not appear correctly in the Programs plugin.
Unified phrasing in the plugin descriptions.
Fixed an issue causing the PowerToys Run plugin settings to be cleared with each upgrade.
Fixed an issue causing VSCodeWorkspaces plugin to not find WSL workspaces.
Fixed results tooltip closing fast. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Improved the Registry plugin tooltip spacing. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Allow pressing ‘=’ to replace the query with the current result when using the calculator plugin. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Optimized the code that gathers results from the plugin to reduce CPU consumption.
Optimized memory usage in the Window Walker plugin.
Fixed crashes and improved error handling when saving json configuration files.
The Program plugin will now correctly get the icon for a newly installed packaged application. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Quick Accent
Added support for the Slovenian character set. Thanks @aklemen!
Registry Preview
Fixed a crash when closing the application and the editor’s right click menu is opened.
Settings
Fixed an alignment issue in the flyout icons causing some icons to be centered when they shouldn’t. Thanks @niels9001!
Added the mention that Monaco supports .txt files. Thanks @Aaron-Junker!
Fixed an issue causing the Settings window to lose its previous maximized state. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Documentation
Fixed broken links in doc/devdocs/readme.md. Thanks @jem-experience!
Development
Updated Microsoft.MSBuildCache to 0.1.258-preview. Thanks @dfederm!
Fixed CI to point VCToolsVersion to VC.CRT instead of VC.Redist version. Thanks @snickler!
Updated MSTest adapter and framework to 3.2.
Fixed CI by pointing WiX 3.14 urls and hashes to the latest release on GitHub.
Added Pro and Enterprise editions of Visual Studio to the repository’s development configuration DSC scripts.
Updated CppWinRT to 2.0.240111.5.
Updated System.Drawing.Common to 8.0.2 to fix CI builds after the .NET 8.0.2 upgrade was released.
Updated WPFUI version to 3.0.0. Thanks @niels9001!
XAML Styler is now fully tested in the solution when CI runs. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Fixed a faulty XAML binding in the Text Extractor settings page.
Updated Microsoft.Web.WebView2 to 1.0.2365.46.
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