Microsoft PowerToys are a set of tools, which saw the light of day together with Windows 95, that allowed users to customize the operating system and improve productivity. Utilities that, although they should have been part of Windows itself, were actually distributed independently. These small programs were only used by the most advanced users, and with time they were forgotten. Until recently, when Microsoft revived this pack of tools as an OpenSource program, with new functions, and adapted to the needs of modern life.
Within this program we can find several utilities that have been created from scratch, or based on the code of an OpenSource program designed to carry out this purpose. For example:
- FancyZones helps us work better with windows.
- Shortcut Guide to having keyboard shortcuts always in view.
- PowerRename to rename many files at once.
- File Explorer (Preview Panes), add an explorer preview.
- Image Resizer allows us to resize many photos in seconds.
- Keyboard Manager map keys and create keyboard shortcuts.
- Run, a quick launcher for programs and files.
- Window Walker, a utility to change processes quickly.
- ColorPicker, a color picker.
Although in the past, PowerToys could be considered utilities and tools for advanced users , today Microsoft has simplified this toolkit a lot. Currently anyone could use them without problems. What’s more, we can activate or deactivate the utilities we want so that only the ones we need are available.
In addition, it is a completely free and open source program. Why not give it a try? We can download the Windows PowerToys from their GitHub page .
What’s new in version 0.23 of PowerToys
This new version 0.23 of Microsoft PowerToys is not a version that brings many changes or news. This is actually a much smaller update than expected, focused only on fixing bugs.
Microsoft has taken advantage of this release to make 0.23 a maintenance release. Each and every one of the utilities included in this tool have been reviewed and improved in order to offer the best possible performance to users.
For example, FancyZones, Run, Keyboard Manager, and Preview Pane have received fixes to address all kinds of glitches, issues, and errors that could cause problems when using these utilities. Now, these should not stop working unexpectedly, and also their operation should be much more natural.
Microsoft has also fixed some bugs in the program settings, the main window, and the developer toolkit.
The video conferencing utility will arrive with version 0.24
The PowerToys 0.22 version brought with it, in an experimental way, a new tool that will allow us to add a series of shortcuts that will allow us to control video calls , for example, by silencing the microphone or cutting the webcam.
Microsoft believes that although this feature is being highly anticipated by users, it is not ready yet. Therefore, you have decided to withdraw it from the current 0.23 version and work hard on it in order to bring the final version of the utility to the release of the next 0.24 version .
At the moment we have to wait to be able to use this new utility, but we can update to the new version 0.23 to receive all its improvements as soon as possible.
