7 ways Microsoft’s PowerToys enhance your PC experience

You in all probability have a “tool drawer” in your home or condo with a wrench, a couple of screwdrivers, and different instruments for easy house initiatives. That’s what PowerToys is—only for Windows.

Microsoft’s PowerToys debuted more than two years ago, evolving from a single utility to a good dozen Windows instruments that carry out specialised duties to enhance your life. Some could be extraordinarily highly effective! I’ll present you various methods I take advantage of Microsoft’s PowerToys inside Windows 10 and 11, as examples so that you can accomplish extra, too.

For those that wish to dive into the code, you possibly can go to PowerToys’ GitHub page. But in case you merely wish to obtain and use PowerToys, there are two easy methods:

Either means, you’ll find yourself with a small utility that can reside in your Taskbar. At any time, you possibly can click on on it to open its Settings menu and mess around with the varied instruments. Each PowerToy presents a ton of configurability—that’s the entire level!—however the fundamental capabilities are easy sufficient that it is best to be capable of simply grok what every does. And every PowerToy has a grasp on-off swap, so you possibly can disable every in case you don’t have to run it. (This isn’t significantly vital, but it surely’s an choice.)

What are Microsoft’s PowerToys?

Here’s a listing of every PowerToy and what it does. We’ve linked every to Microsoft’s per-tool assist doc, which matches into extra element on how they can be utilized.

• Always on Top: While you should use no matter app you need, Always on Top prevents Windows from burying an app beneath one other window.
• Awake: Your PC will keep awake at full energy, with no need to handle the Windows Power & Sleep settings.
• Color Picker: Want to know the precise colour of a picture beneath your cursor? Color Picker will establish and even copy it.
• FancyZones: The authentic PowerToy. Arrange and snap your home windows to a wide range of preparations in your display.
• File Explorer add-ons: This beefs up File Explorer, permitting you to preview file sorts like PDF paperwork and SVG photographs with out a separate editor.
• Image Resizer: A easy strategy to resize photographs with no need a separate picture editor to take action.
• Keyboard Manager: Remap your keyboard’s keys, together with keyboard shortcuts, merely and rapidly.
• Mouse Utilities: Though known as “Mouse Utilities,” that is basically a shortcut to the “Find My Mouse” utility we’ll clarify under.
• PowerRename: If you wish to seek for/spotlight and batch rename various information, that is the utility to make use of.
• PowerToys Run: PowerToys Run is a fast launcher for apps and information. It dietary supplements the Start menu.
• Shortcut Guide: If you’ve forgotten the entire out there Windows shortcuts that use the Windows key, this utility lists them.
• Video Conference Mute: A fast shortcut to show off your mic and digicam.

How PowerToys can enhance your life

Here are a number of fast methods PowerToys enhance my productiveness:

1) Keep a calculator or different app Always on Top

Occasionally, I’ll need to run a couple of fast calculations on benchmark knowledge, a few of which I could not have programmed Excel to accommodate. If I have to enter the info some other place, the Calculator app can get buried behind the opposite window. Always on Top prevents that from occurring, which is way extra helpful than you would possibly assume.

Mark Hachman / IDG

2) Quickly label trip images with PowerRename

You in all probability don’t wish to micro-manage trip/occasion images, and I don’t both. But cloud providers aren’t nice at grouping images in addition to location and the time they have been shot. With PowerRename, you possibly can go into OneDrive, lasso a gaggle of images together with your mouse, and PowerRename them one thing easy, comparable to “EricElaineWedding.” The software will assign every picture its personal distinctive title, comparable to “EricElaineWedding4.” In this manner you possibly can keep away from having to create particular folders for every occasion, and the method takes only a few seconds—as soon as you already know what you’re doing.

PowerRename works extra like a “find/replace” for filenames than anything, although you should use a wildcard debuted more than two years ago like I did under to perform my process. (I used Surface pictures, relatively than the precise wedding ceremony, to protect the attendees’ privateness.)

Mark Hachman / IDG

3) Keep my PC Awake whereas downloading video games

California’s electrical utility expenses an arm and a leg for electrical energy, and our house doesn’t have photo voltaic, but. We additionally pay for a mid-tier broadband connection. There have been occasions that I wish to depart a pc on to obtain a sport or two, with out tweaking Windows’ energy and sleep settings. I merely test the estimated time to obtain the sport, flip Awake on for that period of time through the software’s settings, together with the choice to show off the screens. The sport downloads after which my PC goes again to sleep.

4) Image Resize images for publication

Taking, modifying, and publishing images is a part of my job, and the images I take are giant sufficient for publication. That’s not at all times the case for vendor images, which could not meet the minimal measurement our content material administration system requires. I lastly arrange a customized Image Resizer configuration so I can rapidly resize images, then add what I would like to satisfy a deadline.

The solely annoying facet of that is that “Image resize” isn’t in the primary drop-down menu that seems while you right-click a file in Windows 11. You’ll want to enter the “Show more options” menu on the backside, and from there to the submenu. It’s rather more handy on Windows 10.

Microsoft

5) Hide your self in a videoconference with Video Conference Mute

Being a part of a world media group signifies that conferences aren’t at all times scheduled on the most handy occasions for my time zone. Sometimes I’m compelled to pay attention to an early morning Zoom or Teams name, the place my presence is required, however not essentially my participation. With the Video Conference Mute shortcut, I can ensure that any mics and cameras are off.

6) Find My Mouse

I’m an enormous believer in a number of displays to maximise productiveness, and generally even doing one thing like wiggling the mouse received’t make the cursor’s location apparent. Plugging in a double-tap of the left CTRL key into your muscle reminiscence (alongside CTRL-V, say) triggers Find My Mouse. It simply takes a second and will get you again on observe.

Mark Hachman / IDG

7) FancyZones is an influence model of Windows Snap

Weirdly, I don’t use FancyZones—as soon as the reason to use PowerToys—as a lot as I used to, if solely as a result of Windows 11 principally has a simplified model of FancyZones constructed proper in. But in case you’re on Windows 10, FancyZones is unimaginable. You can manage home windows nonetheless you’d like, tweak and resize them as you’d like, and the window “zones” will stay in place. It’s a fully unbelievable means of working, and arguably one of many strongest promoting factors of Windows 11. Below is the how-to video we shot within the early days of PowerToys.

The backside line: PowerToys is free, handy, and out there to Windows customers. It’s essential, and it simply retains getting higher.