Microsoft releases PowerToys v0.61.0 with numerous 'quality of life improvements'

It is time for a new build of everyone's favorite Windows utility collection, PowerToys. Microsoft has just released version 0.61.0 of the tools, with the company saying that the v0.61 release cycle is focused on stability and improvements.

But don't let this somewhat self-deprecating description put you off -- there's actually quite a lot to this update. Key changes include updates to the ever-popular FancyZones, as well as Always on Top and PowerToys Run, and updates to the Windows 11 context menu.

See also:

• Microsoft confirms that KB5014666 update is causing printing problems in Windows
• Microsoft releases KB5015878 update preview to bring notification improvements and more to Windows 10
• You can now buy a Windows 11 license direct from Microsoft -- but we know a cheaper option

There are quite a lot of bug fixes in this release, as well as a move to using Windows App SDK 1.1.2 runtimes. It is fair to say that the vast majority of changes are under the hood, and this is precisely why Microsoft describes it as having "quality of life improvements" rather than having a laundry list of new features to shout about.

 Although Microsoft describes this as a "lighter release", the list of changes is impressively lengthy:

General

• Upgraded the Windows App SDK runtimes to 1.1.2.
• The new Windows 11 context menu entries are now correctly added to Windows 11 dev channel insider builds. (This was a hotfix for 0.60)
• The old context menu entries are shown alongside the new Windows 11 context menu entries to be compatible with software that overrides the Windows 11 context menu behavior. (This was a hotfix for 0.60)
• Consolidated C# language version across the solution. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Removed deprecated Segoe icon glyph codes and replaced them with the correct ones. Thanks @niels9001 and @Jay-o-Way!
• Fixed an issue that caused a random accent key to be pressed on certain keyboard layouts when enabling some modules.

Always on Top

• Fixed border flickering when activating. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Fixed a bug causing Always on Top to activate and hang when exiting PowerToys. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Fixed black edges appearing on rounded corners.
• Fixed a bug that was causing 100% CPU consumption.

FancyZones

• Fixed a bug that caused layouts to not be applied correctly when many monitors reported having the same serial number. (This was a hotfix for 0.60)
• Fixed a bug that caused layouts to not be applied correctly on some virtual monitor setups (This was a hotfix for 0.60)
• A "Rows" default layout is now applied to vertical monitors, instead of a "Columns" layout. Thanks @augustkarlstedt!

Image Resizer

• Screen reader now announces the size name instead of the class name.

File explorer add-ons

• Fixed an issue when creating thumbnails for SVG files created using Inkscape.

Keyboard Manager

• Adjusted wording on the editor when keys are orphaned.

Mouse utility

• Fixed a bug that caused the current Find My Mouse spotlight to hang when activated in the top left corner of the screen. (This was a hotfix for 0.60)

PowerRename

• The PowerRename window reacts to current dpi when created.

PowerToys Run

• Fixed a typo in the WindowWalker plugin UI. Thanks @rohanrdy!
• Improved performance by saving the search history files only on exit. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• PowerToys Run no longer shows results for some plugins when querying for empty spaces in a global query. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Added support for showing localized names for some win32 programs in the programs plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!
• The program plugin will now consider settings changed directly in ProgramPluginSettings.json. Thanks @bezgumption!

Settings

• PowerToys Run settings page properly greys out the score adjustment setting when a plugin is not global. Thanks @jefflord!
• PowerToys Run plugins score adjustment field accepts only numeric characters. Thanks @jefflord!
• Will not run if started directly from its executable, as it was before the WinUI 3 upgrade.
• Fixed a typo in a PowerToys Run settings page description. Thanks @eltociear!

Installer

• Removed the dead code to make a msix installer.
• Updated the .NET dependency to 6.0.7.
• Won't create a new PowerToys shortcut on update if it's been removed manually by the user.

Development

• Updated the Windows Store Package submission script to show less UI while installing PowerToys. (This was a hotfix for 0.60)
• Added more functionality to the Monitor Report Tool.
• The release CI now includes the version number in the symbols artifacts.
• GitHub should now show .vsconfig as a JSON file. Thanks @osfanbuff63!
• Centralized the configurations for NetAnalyzers and StyleCop. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Check-spelling has been upgraded to version 0.0.20. Thanks @jsoref!

There are a couple of known issues with this release. Microsoft says:

After installing PowerToys, the new Windows 11 context menu entries for PowerRename and Image Resizer might not appear before a system restart.

The company also point outs:

There are reports of users who are unable to open the Settings window. This is being caused by incompatibilities with some applications (RTSS RivaTuner Statistics Server and MSI AfterBurner are known examples of this). If you're affected by this, please check the linked issue to verify if any of the presented solutions works for you.

You can download PowerToys v0.61.0 here, or use the in-app upgrade feature.