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

Microsoft PowerToys

Microsoft PowerToys

  -  381 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 0.97.0 Screenshots

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

    Microsoft PowerToys 0.97.0 Screenshot 1
  • Microsoft PowerToys 0.97.0 Screenshot 2
  • Microsoft PowerToys 0.97.0 Screenshot 3
  • Microsoft PowerToys 0.97.0 Screenshot 4
  • Microsoft PowerToys 0.97.0 Screenshot 5

What's new in this version:

Advanced Paste:
- Added hex color previews in clipboard history
- Added automatic placeholder endpoints when required fields are left empty
- Fixed a grammar issue in the AI settings description
- Fixed loading order so custom action hotkeys are read correctly
- Updated Advanced Paste descriptions to reflect support for online and local models
- Fixed clipboard history item selection so it doesn’t duplicate entries
- Prevented placeholder endpoints from being saved for providers that don’t need them
- Added image input support for AI transforms and improved clipboard change tracking

Awake:
- Fixed Awake CLI so help, errors, and logs appear correctly in the console

Command Palette:
- Fixed background image loading in BlurImageControl
- Fixed SDK packaging paths and added a CI SDK build stage.
- Aligned naming and spell-checking with .NET conventions
- Added drag-and-drop support for Command Palette items
- Added a PowerToys Command Palette extension to discover and launch PowerToys utilities.
- Fixed grid view bindings and layout issues
- Fixed a line-break issue in RDC extension toast messages
- Made the Settings button text localizable
- Hid the RDC fallback on the home page and fixed MSTSC working directory handling
- Optimized result list merging for better performance
- Added Small/Medium/Large detail sizes in the extensions API
- Hid fallback commands on the home page when no query is entered
- Added back navigation support in the Settings window
- Added a Command Palette solution filter
- Updated Extension SDK documentation links to Microsoft Learn
- Added a custom search engine URL setting for Web Search
- Added pinyin matching for Chinese input
- Bumped Command Palette version to 0.8.
- Removed subtitles from built-in top-level commands
- Refined separator styling in the details pane
- Added a built-in Remote Desktop extension.
- Added a Peek command to the Indexer extension.
- Improved default browser detection using the Windows Shell API
- Added Escape key behavior options
- Added theme and background customization options
- Improved WinGet package app matching
- Added an auto-return-home delay setting
- Added fallback ranking and global results settings.
- Removed the selection indicator in the context menu list
- Added a developer ribbon with build and log info
- Updated the “Learn more” string for Command Palette
- Added arrow-key navigation for grid views
- Fixed version display when running unpackaged
- Added a native debugging launch profile
- Reduced redundant property change notifications in the SDK
- Improved section readability and accessibility
- Made gallery spacing uniform
- Added sections and separators for list and grid pages

Crop & Lock:
- Added a screenshot mode that freezes a cropped region into its own window

Cursor Wrap:
- Improved Cursor Wrap behavior on multi-monitor setups by wrapping only at outer edges

FancyZones:
- Fixed editor overlay positioning on mixed-DPI multi-monitor setups
- Added a FancyZones CLI for command-line layout management

File Locksmith:
- Added a File Locksmith CLI for querying, waiting on, or killing file locks

Find My Mouse:
- Improved spotlight edge rendering for clearer Find My Mouse visuals
- Added telemetry to track how Find My Mouse is triggered

Image Resizer:
- Fixed Fill mode cropping when Shrink Only is enabled
- Added a dedicated Image Resizer CLI for scripted resizing

Light Switch:
- Added telemetry events for Light Switch usage and settings changes
- Added a Follow Night Light mode to sync theme changes with Night Light
- Clarified LightSwitchService and LightSwitchStateManager roles in docs
- Added a Quick Access dashboard button to toggle Light Switch quickly
- Ensured Light Switch honors GPO policy states with clear status messaging

Mouse Without Borders:
- Continued refactoring Mouse Without Borders by splitting the large Common class into focused components
- Completed the Common class refactor with Core and IPC helper extraction

Peek:
- Hardened Peek previews with strict resource filtering and safer external link warnings.
- Improved SVG preview compatibility by rendering via WebView2.

PowerRename:
- Added HEIF/AVIF EXIF metadata extraction and extension status guidance for related previews.
- Fixed undefined behavior in file time handling
- Optimized memory allocation for depth-based rename processing
- Fixed Unicode normalization and non‑breaking space matching
- Fixed date token replacements followed by capital letters

PowerToys Run Plugins:
- Fixed a plugin name typo and added Project Launcher to the third‑party list
- Added the Open With Antigravity plugin to the third‑party list

PowerToys Run:
- Avoided unnecessary hotkey conflict checks when settings change.
- Added QuickAI to the third-party PowerToys Run plugin list

Quick Accent:
- Added localized quotation marks to Quick Accent
- Fixed duplicate and redundant characters in Quick Accent sets
- Fixed DPI positioning issues for Quick Accent on mixed-DPI setups

Settings:
- Added a new tray icon that adapts to theme changes
- Centralized module enable/disable logic for cleaner Settings UI updates
- Simplified Settings utilities by removing ISettingsUtils/ISettingsPath interfaces
- Improved Settings UI consistency and disabled-state visuals
- Added semantic headings to the Dashboard for better accessibility
- Introduced Quick Access as a standalone host with updated Settings integration
- Fixed Dashboard toggle flicker and sort menu checkmarks
- Added Native AOT-compatible settings serialization
- Standardized mouse tool description text
- Added a global SettingsUtils singleton to reduce repeated initialization

Development:
- Fixed broken devdocs links to the coding style guide
- Migrated main and installer solutions to .slnx for improved build tooling
- Restored local installer builds after the WiX v5 upgrade with signing and versioning fixes
- Added incremental review tooling and structured AI prompts for PR/issue reviews
- Documented bot commands and cleaned up devdocs structure
- Updated WinAppSDK pipeline defaults to 1.8 and fixed restore handling
- Updated the COMMUNITY list to reflect current roles
- Maintained community member ordering and added a new entry
- Re-enabled centralized PackageReference for native projects with VS auto-restore
- Disabled MSBuild caching by default in CI to avoid build instability
- Updated the latest WinAppSDK daily pipeline for split-dependency restores
- Suppressed experimental build warnings and aligned WrapPanel stretch handling
- Reordered the spell-check expect list for consistent automation
- Migrated native projects to centralized PackageReference management
- Cleaned spell-check dictionary entries and capitalization
- Synced commit/PR prompts and wired VS Code to repo prompt files
- Added VS Code build tasks and improved build script path handling
- Updated Windows App SDK package versions in central package management
- Migrated cmdpal extension native project to PackageReference and fixed outputs
- Reverted PackageReference changes back to packages.config where needed
- Bypassed a release version check for a failing DLL to keep pipelines green
- Consolidated Copilot instructions and fixed prompt frontmatter
- Added signing entries for new Quick Access binaries and CLI version metadata
- Fixed install scope detection to avoid mixed per-user/per-machine installs
- Added a Module Loader tool to quickly test PowerToys modules without full builds
- Added update telemetry to understand auto-update checks and downloads
- Updated the telemetry package for new compliance requirements
- Documented missing telemetry events in DATA_AND_PRIVACY
- Fixed UI test pipeline restores for .slnx solutions
- Added UI automation coverage for Advanced Paste clipboard history flows
- Stabilized FancyZones UI tests with more reliable selectors and screen recordings