Articles about PowerToys for Windows 11

For Windows users of a certain age, the name PowerToys summons to mind utilities such as TweakUI. In the age of Windows 11, Microsoft saw fit to resurrect and update the much-loved utility collection, and the suite of tools goes from strength to strength as it is developed and updated.

The have been a number of incredible utilities added to PowerToys in recent months, as well as some handy new settings, and you may well have spent some considerable time setting things up to your liking. To save having to do all of that hard work again, here's how to backup and restore your PowerToys settings, and how to transfer settings to another PC.

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In the latest version of PowerToys released by Microsoft earlier in the month -- version v0.63 -- perhaps the most notable change was the fact that the size of the installer had been dramatically reduced. While this was a welcome step, what most people are looking for is new features and options!

We already know that the PowerToys development team is working away on a new utility called File LockSmith that will reveal which processes are locking a files, but there is much more in the pipeline. What is there to look forward to? In addition to a tool for editing the HOSTS file, Microsoft is also planning to introduce the ability to backup PowerToys settings.

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It is only a few days since we learned that Microsoft is working on a great new PowerToys utility called File LockSmith. This particular tool is not quite ready yet but in the meantime we have PowerToys v0.63 to enjoy.

For the v0.63 release cycle, the PowerToys development team says that it is "focused on stability and improvement". While this may not sound overly enticing, the release of PowerToys v0.63 is an important one. In addition to introducing a large number of fixes, this latest update not only makes steps towards eliminating the UAC prompt during installation, but also greatly reduces the size of the installer.

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Brace yourself for a new PowerToys utility. Microsoft's developers are busy working away on a new tool called File Locksmith which will be welcomed by anyone who has ever been greeted by a message informing them that a file cannot be deleted because it is being used.

File Locksmith will add a new entry to the context menu in Windows 11 -- "What's using this file?". The tool will then reveal which processes are using the file in question.

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The last update to Microsoft's PowerToys utility collection was a big one, adding no fewer than three new tools. Now there is a smaller, but still significant, update available in the form of PowerToys v0.62.1.

Although this particular release may not be quite as exciting as its predecessor, the fact that it addresses various issues with the software means that it is still well worth downloading.

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Recent updates to PowerToys have focused on fixing bugs and improving stability, but now it is finally time for some new features. With the release of PowerToys v0.62.0, Microsoft has added not one, not two, but three new utilities.

If you have been following PowerToys news, you will probably be aware of the Text Extractor tool which can be used to grab text from images, and has been in development for a little while. Likewise, the self-explanatory Screen Ruler utility is one you may have heard of. Completely new, however, is Quick Accent which makes it quick and easy to type accented characters.

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It is something pretty much all of us have needed to do at one time or another -- copy text from an image so it can be used in another document. Search online for how to extract text from an image, and you will be pointed in the direction of various OCR tools, but Microsoft is working on a solution of its own.

The ability to copy text from an image is coming to PowerToys. The developers are working on a new utility that will make the process very simple. Called PowerOCR, the unreleased PowerToys utility is undergoing testing right now.

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The last few PowerToys updates have been slightly disappointing (but only slightly) in as much as they have been largely bug-fixing releases, and have not included any new toys to play with. This is about to change.

Microsoft has a new utility in the pipeline, and its name gives you a very good idea of what it does: Screen Ruler. Perfect for all sorts of design work, the tool will let you measure the distance between two points on your screen in a number of ways.

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It is only a few days since Microsoft unleashed PowerToys v0.61.0 , bringing a slew of "quality of life improvements" to the much-loved collection of utilities. Now the company has released version 0.61.1 which will be of particular interest to Windows 11 users.

Despite lacking new features per se, PowerToys v0.61.1 remains an important release because of the issues that it addresses. Users might be longing for new features, but this development cycle is about improving what's already in place before more is added.

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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.

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It is only a week since Microsoft released PowerToys v0.60.0, complete with various changes, fixes and additions -- many of which were focused on Windows 11. Now the company has pushed out the PowerToys v0.60.1 update with a handful of important fixes.

Microsoft describes this as a patch release, but this almost makes it seem unimportant when that is very much not the case. It addresses compatibility issues that existed with PowerRename and ImageResizer in Windows 11, as well as fixing context menu problems and crashes.

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Microsoft has released PowerToys v0.60.0, and while the company says that this is a release cycle that focuses on stability and improvements, this does not really convey how significant an update it is -- particularly for Windows 11 users.

Among some of the biggest changes and additions are a new zone identification technique for FancyZones, and rounded corner support for AlwaysOnTop. There are also new entries in the Windows 11 context menu for PowerRename and Image Resizer, making these utilities even easier to access. But things do not end there.

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After something of a quiet period, Microsoft released the first update in a while for PowerToys last week. Now the company has issued what it describes as a "patch release", taking the popular utility collection up to PowerToys v0.59.1.

As this is a patch release, there are no new tools to explore, and no major new additions. But the release remains significant thanks to the bugs it addresses -- including fixes for problems with FancyZones and PowerToys Run.

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If you were thinking that it has been a while since Microsoft updated PowerToys, you'd be right -- it's over a month since the last update was released. But now the company has pushed out PowerToys v0.59.0, and it's a significant release.

There are many things worthy of mention in this latest version of the utility collection, not least of which is the completion of adding ARM64 support. This is far from being all that PowerToys v0.59.0 has to offer though, there are also important changes and improvements to many individual components including Keyboard Manager, Power Rename and the much-loved FancyZones.

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After what seems like an age -- in reality just shy of four weeks -- it is time for a new version of PowerToys! Microsoft has released PowerToys v0.58.0, complete with a lengthy list of fixes and improvements to numerous utilities. Many of the changes will be of particular interest to Windows 11 users.

Under the hood, native ARM64 support is progressing, and NET Core 3.1 has been ditched in favor of .NET 6. More interestingly, there are also important change to FancyZones, File Explorer, PowerToys Runs, Mouse Utility and more.

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