Articles about Windows 11 PowerToys

There is always a slight sense of disappointment when Microsoft says that the current release cycle for PowerToys is focused on stability and improvements, as it means there are not going to be any new utilities. This is where we find ourselves at the moment, but the pessimism may be misplaced as PowerToys v0.74.0 is packed with important changes and updates.

Key among them is a major update to the recently added OCR component Text Extractor. In the boost up to Text Extractor 2.0, there are important additions including a new overlay, table mode and more. But this is far from being the end of the story; PowerToys v0.74.0 includes improvements to just about every module.

Continue reading →

It's not long since Microsoft unleashed PowerToys v0.70.0 to an excited userbase, complete with two exciting new utilities. Just a week later, it's time for yet another release.

This time around there are, sadly, no new toys to play with, but that does not mean PowerToys v0.70.1 is not significant. Described as a patch release, it addresses a large number of problems that have been found in the software as well as making various improvements.

Continue reading →

It is a month since Microsoft added Mouse Jump and Paste As Plain Text utilities to PowerToys, and now there is yet another new toy to play with -- Registry Preview.

We first heard about this new registry editing and visualization module last week, and now it has been officially released as part of PowerToys v0.69.0. Microsoft says that the v0.69 release cycle focuses on new features, stability and improvements, and the company gives early notice for v0.70 which is due for release next month.

Continue reading →

Just last week, Microsoft released PowerToys v0.68.0 complete with not one but two new utilities --  Mouse Jump and Paste As Plain Text.

Now a few days have passed, the company has released a small but important update, taking the collection of utilities up to version v0.68.1. Among the changes are a new default shortcut for Paste As Plain Text to avoid a conflict with Windows 11's new volume mixer.

Continue reading →

Anyone with a very large or ultra-wide display, or even a multi-monitor configuration, will be aware of the problem of moving the mouser cursor across what can feel like miles of screen space. For fans of the PowerToys collection of utilities there is a solution on the horizon in the form of Mouse Jump.

Mouse Jump is a tool that's based on an existing (non-PowerToys) utility called FancyMouse, and it speeds up the process of getting your cursor across a large area by "teleporting" it with the help of a keyboard shortcut to quickly move it long distances. Sounds good? Well, work is well underway to integrate the utility into PowerToys, but you can even try out the incredible capabilities right now.

Continue reading →

PowerToys gets quite a lot of coverage here on BetaNews, and that's because it's one of the most useful and exciting pieces of software out there. We already know that there are plans for a great new quick launcher utility, and while we wait for development to finish, we have the newly released PowerToys v0.65 update to explore.

Although this update does not include any new utilities, it is still an important upgrade because of the number of tweaks and new features that have been added to individual modules. On top of this,  the entire codebase has been upgraded to work with .NET 7.

Continue reading →

The last update to PowerToys was a hugely significant one, adding two great new utilities in the form of a HOSTS file editor and the File Locksmith tool. Just a week on, it is time for another update.

The newly launched PowerToys v0.64.1 is described as a patch release and it includes a number of updates for several utilities. Among the tools receiving attention are FancyZones, Color Picker and File Locksmith.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →