A set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience

Microsoft PowerToys

Microsoft PowerToys

  -  396 MB  -  Freeware
Microsoft PowerToys is a system utility that can help all users of Windows 10 and Windows 11 to unlock a wide array of additional functionalities.

The Most Useful App for Windows 11 and Windows 10.

Microsoft PowerToys Screenshot 1

Originally offered more than two decades ago to Windows 95 users, this latest version of system shell configuration abilities is especially useful for users who want to take full advantage of the Windows 10/11 OS environment and gain access to numerous tweaks, shortcuts, and abilities that are not natively supported by this versatile OS.

Even users who have never heard of the PowerToys app are often surprised about numerous tweaks, shortcuts, and advantages that are offered in the three basic sections of the app – FancyZones, PowerRename, and Shortcut Guide.

FancyZones is an advanced desktop tool that can predetermine custom zones to which active app windows can snap into. The default Windows support for this feature includes automatic full-screen resize and snapping of the app on the left or right half of the screen.

With FancyZones, users can greatly expand the grid of snappable zones and even created their own fully customized grids. This feature is especially useful for users whose daily work procedure involves working with many active windows of all sizes.

Once Grid is made, windows can be snapped to it by simply pressing Ctrl+Shift buttons while moving the app window.

Microsoft PowerToys Screenshot 2

PowerRename is a unlock for Windows Shell that provides access to the bulk rename tool. Once active, users can simply access it via the regular Search and Replace tool of File Explorer. This tool is highly useful for users who manage dozens and hundreds of files in File Explorer and are in needed to properly rename them before storing or using them.

Shortcut Guide is a simple but highly useful overlay that can show all the Windows key shortcuts that users can take advantage of. To activate it, users only need to hold the Windows button a bit (the exact duration of time can be set in the MS PowerToys tool, as well as the opacity Shortcut Guide interface).

Key Features

FancyZones
A window manager that allows users to create complex window layouts to improve multitasking. You can define custom zones on your screen where windows will snap into place when dragged.

PowerToys Run
A quick launcher utility that allows users to search for applications, files, folders, and even perform basic calculations. It acts as an alternative to the Windows Start Menu search with more customization options.

Keyboard Manager
Allows users to remap keys and create custom shortcuts. This feature is useful for creating personalized keyboard layouts or improving accessibility.

File Explorer Add-ons
Enhances the Windows File Explorer with additional functionalities, such as a preview pane for Markdown (.md) files, SVG (.svg) files, and other formats that are not natively supported by File Explorer.

Image Resizer
A context menu tool that allows users to quickly resize images directly from File Explorer. It supports batch resizing and offers customizable size options.

PowerRename
A bulk renaming tool that integrates into File Explorer. It allows users to rename multiple files at once using search and replace, regular expressions, and other advanced renaming techniques.

Color Picker
A tool that provides an easy way to pick colors from any part of the screen. It offers RGB and HEX values and allows you to store colors in a history for later use.

Shortcut Guide
Displays a visual guide of all available Windows shortcuts when the Windows key is held down. This is particularly useful for learning and remembering complex keyboard shortcuts.

Video Conference Mute
A global mute/unmute tool that allows users to mute both microphone and camera during video calls with a single keypress, regardless of the application in use.

Awake
A tool that keeps your computer awake without modifying power settings. This is useful for ensuring that your PC doesn't go to sleep during long tasks or presentations.

Microsoft PowerToys Screenshot 3

Mouse Utilities
Includes features like Find My Mouse, which highlights the location of your cursor, and Mouse Highlighter, which shows clicks visually, making it easier to track mouse activity during presentations.

Hosts File Editor
A graphical interface for editing the Windows hosts file, which controls the mapping of hostnames to IP addresses. This feature makes it easier to add, remove, or edit entries without needing to use a text editor.

Always on Top
Allows users to pin any window so that it stays on top of other windows, ensuring that the selected window remains visible while multitasking.

Once configured, Microsoft PowerToys needs to be kept active in order to take advantage of its useful background services. The app supports starting on boot and running with administrative privileges.

How to Use

Download & Install
Download Microsoft PowerToys from the official GitHub page, FileHorse.com or Microsoft Store. Install the application and launch it.

Access Settings
Open PowerToys from the system tray or start menu. The App Settings window will open, where you can enable, disable, and configure each utility.

Using FancyZones
Enable FancyZones in the app settings. To create custom zones, hold the Shift key while dragging a window. This will allow you to snap windows into the predefined zones.

Using PowerToys Run
Press Alt + Space to open PowerToys Run. Type the name of the app, file, or command you want to execute, and press Enter.

Remapping Keys with Keyboard Manager
Enable Keyboard Manager, then go to the "Remap a key" or "Remap shortcuts" section. Here, you can assign new functions to specific keys or create custom shortcuts.

Resizing Images
Right-click on any image or group of images in File Explorer and select "Resize pictures." Choose the desired size or create a custom size, then click "Resize."

Microsoft PowerToys Screenshot 4

Bulk Rename Files with PowerRename
Right-click on files in File Explorer and select "PowerRename." Enter the search criteria and replacement text, then apply the changes to rename the selected files.

Using Color Picker
Press Win + Shift + C to activate the Color Picker. Hover over any part of the screen to pick a color, and the color code will be copied to your clipboard.

Using Shortcut Guide
Hold down the Windows key for about a second to bring up the Shortcut Guide. It will display a list of available Windows shortcuts based on the current context.

Keep Computer Awake
Enable the "Awake" utility in PowerToys settings. You can keep your computer awake temporarily or indefinitely, depending on your needs.

PROS
  • Enhanced Productivity
  • Customizable Features
  • Frequent Updates
  • Open-Source Community
  • Extensive Compatibility
CONS
  • Occasional Bugs
  • Resource Intensive
  • Dependency on Windows
Microsoft PowerToys is 100% FREE and is optimized to run only on Windows 10 and Windows 11 OS.

Why is this app published on FileHorse? (More info)
  • Microsoft PowerToys 0.92.0 Screenshots

    The images below have been resized. Click on them to view the screenshots in full size.

    Microsoft PowerToys 0.92.0 Screenshot 1
  • Microsoft PowerToys 0.92.0 Screenshot 2
  • Microsoft PowerToys 0.92.0 Screenshot 3
  • Microsoft PowerToys 0.92.0 Screenshot 4
  • Microsoft PowerToys 0.92.0 Screenshot 5

What's new in this version:

Highlights:
- PowerToys settings now has a toggle for the system tray icon, giving users control over its visibility based on personal preference
- Command Palette now has Ahead-of-Time (AOT) compatibility for all first-party extensions, improved extensibility, and core UX fixes, resulting in better performance and stability across commands
- Color Picker now has customizable mouse button actions, enabling more personalized workflows by assigning functions to left, right, and middle clicks
- Bug Report Tool now has a faster and clearer reporting process, with progress indicators, improved compression, auto-cleanup of old trace logs, and inclusion of MSIX installer logs for more efficient diagnostics
- File Explorer add-ons now have improved rendering stability, resolving issues with PDF previews, blank thumbnails, and text file crashes during file browsing

Color Picker:
- Added mouse button actions so you can choose what left, right, or middle click does

Crop & Lock:
- Aligned window styling with current Windows theme for a cleaner look

Command Palette:
- Enhanced performance by resolving a regression in page loading
- Applied consistent hotkey handling across all Command Palette commands for a smoother user experience.
- Improved graceful closing of Command Palette
- Fixed consistency issue for extensions' alias with "Direct" setting and enabled localization for "Direct" and "Indirect" for better user understanding
- Improved visual clarity by styling critical context items correctly.
- Automatically focused the field when only one is present on the content page.
- Improved stability and efficiency when loading file icons in SDK ThumbnailHelper.cs by removing unnecessary operations
- Enhanced details view with commands implementation. (See Extension sample)

Command Palette extensions:
- Added "Copy Path" command to App search results for convenience
- Improved Calculator input experience by ignoring leading equal signs
- Corrected input handling in the Calculator extension to avoid showing errors for input with only leading whitespace
- Improved New Extension wizard by validating names to prevent namespace errors
- Ensured consistent context items display for the Run extension between fallback and top-level results
- Fixed missing Time & Date commands in fallback results
- Fixed outdated results in the Time & Date extension
- Fixed an issue where Web Search always opened Microsoft Edge instead of the user's default browser on Windows 11 24H2 and later
- Improved ordering of Windows Settings extension search results from alphabetical to relevance-based for quicker access.
- Added "Restart Windows Explorer" command to the Windows System Commands provider for gracefully terminate and relaunch explorer.exe

Command Palette Ahead-of-Time (AOT) readiness:
- We’ve made foundational changes to prepare the Command Palette for future Ahead-of-Time (AOT) publishing. This includes replacing the calculator library with ExprTk, improving COM object handling, refining Win32 interop, and correcting trimming behavior—all to ensure compatibility, performance, and reliability under AOT constraints. All first-party extensions are now AOT-compatible. These improvements lay the groundwork for publishing Command Palette as an AOT application in the next release.
- Special thanks to @Sergio0694 for guidance on making COM APIs AOT-compatible, @jtschuster for fixing COM object handling, @ArashPartow from ExprTk for integration suggestions, and @tian-lt from the Windows Calculator team for valuable suggestion throughout the migration journey and review.
- As part of the upcoming release, we’re also enabling AOT compatibility for key dependencies, including markdown rendering, Adaptive Cards, internal logging and telemetry library, and the core Command Palette UX

FancyZones:
- Fixed DPI-scaling issues to ensure FancyZones Editor displays crisply on high-resolution monitors

File Explorer add-ons:
- Fixed potential failures in PDF previewer and thumbnail generation, improving reliability when browsing PDF files
- Prevented Monaco Preview Handler crash when opening UTF-8-BOM text files

Hosts File Editor:
- Added an in-app “Learn more” link to warning dialogs for quick guidance

Mouse Without Borders:
- Fixed firewall rule so MWB now accepts connections from IPs outside your local subnet
- Cleaned legacy logs to reduce disk usage and noise

Peek:
- Updated QOI reader so 3-channel QOI images preview correctly in Peek and File Explorer
- Added codec detection with a clear warning when a video can’t be previewed, along with a link to the Microsoft Store to download the required codec

PowerRename:
- Added support for $YY-$MM-$DD in ModificationTime and AccessTime to enable flexible date-based renaming

PowerToys Run:
- Suppressed error UI for known WPF-related crashes to reduce user confusion, while retaining diagnostic logging for analysis. This targets COMException 0xD0000701 and 0x80263001 caused by temporary DWM unavailability.

Registry Preview:
- Added "Extended data preview" via magnifier icon and context menu in the Data Grid, enabled easier inspection of complex registry types like REG_BINARY, REG_EXPAND_SZ, and REG_MULTI_SZ, etc
- Improved file-saving experience in Registry Preview by aligning with Notepad-like behavior, enhancing user prompts, error handling, and preventing crashes during unsaved or interrupted actions

Settings:
- Added an option to hide or show the PowerToys system tray icon
- Improved settings to show progress while a bug report package is being generated

Workspaces:
- Stored Workspaces icons in user AppData to ensure profile portability and prevent loss during temporary folder cleanup
- Enabled capture and launch of PWAs on non-default Edge or Chrome profiles, ensuring consistent behavior during creation and execution

Documentation:
- Added SpeedTest and Dictionary Definition to the third-party plugins documentation for PowerToys Run
- Corrected sample links and typo in Command Palette documentation

Development:
- Updated .NET libraries to 9.0.6 for performance and security
- Updated WinAppSDK to 1.7.2 for better stability and Windows support
- Introduced a one-step local build script that generates a signed installer, enhancing developer productivity
- Generated portable PDBs so cross-platform debuggers can read symbol files, improving debugging experience in VSCode and other tools
- Simplified WinGet configuration files by using the Microsoft.Windows.Settings module to enable Developer Mode
- Adjusted build scripts for the latest Az.Accounts module to keep CI green
- Streamlined release pipeline by removing hard-coded telemetry version numbers, and unified Command Palette versioning with Windows Terminal's versioning method for consistent updates
- Enhanced the build validation step to show detailed differences between NOTICE.md and actual package dependencies and versions
- Improved spell-checking accuracy across the repo
- Upgraded CI to TouchdownBuild v5 for faster pipelines
- Added context comments to Resources.resw to help translators
- Expanded fuzz testing coverage to include FancyZones
- Integrated all unit tests into the CI pipeline, increasing from ~3,000 to ~5,000 tests
- Enabled daily UI test automation on the main branch, now covering over 370 UI tests for end-to-end validation
- Newly added unit tests for WorkspacesLib to improve reliability and maintainability

General:
- Updated bug report compression library (cziplib 0.3.3) for faster and more reliable package creation
- Included App Installer (“AppX Deployment Server”) event logs in bug reports for more thorough diagnostics