Microsoft PowerToys update: useful features to try

This article was first published on December 14, 2022 in the LIZHI.SHOP WeChat official account (shumalizhi), and has now been synced here with some adjustments.

In October 2019, Microsoft quietly launched a project called PowerToys. LIZHI.SHOP has previously introduced features such as window management, batch renaming, and Shortcut Guide.

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It's a very practical set of system enhancement utilities that fills in many features Windows should have had but never got around to adding, and it's one of Microsoft's official productivity tools that has drawn a lot of discussion in recent years.

It has also kept receiving updates in recent years, bringing more new features. Today let's try them out together!

Always On Top

Always On Top is a feature many Windows users want: when you're working with multiple windows, it keeps your main window on top, unaffected by other windows.

After enabling Always On Top in PowerToys, click once on the app window you want to pin, then hold the keyboard shortcut Win+Ctrl+T to keep that window always on top. The same steps remove it.

To make a pinned window more obvious, you can also show a border around it, add excluded apps, change the keyboard shortcut, and more.

If you want your windows to do even more, you can also try WindowTop. It can not only pin windows and shrink them into picture-in-picture, but also display windows as icons for easy previewing and switching.

It also offers transparency adjustment, a frosted glass effect, window see-through, and other customizable appearance features — a good fit for users with more demanding desktop workflows.

WindowTop

窗口置顶透明度修改工具

Windows

¥109.00

Mouse utilities

If you use a large screen such as an ultrawide monitor, the Find My Mouse and Mouse Highlighter tools come in handy.

Double-press Ctrl or shake the mouse to quickly focus on the current pointer position. With Mouse Highlighter on, a highlight appears, which is especially handy when recording tutorials or giving online presentations.

File utilities

Do you often find that a file is locked when you try to delete or move it, even after closing every app?

With the File Locksmith feature, you can quickly see the processes involved and release the file lock. This is one of PowerToys' more practical file management features.

Right-click the file and choose "What's using this file?" to scan it, and a list of processes appears. Click "End task" to terminate the process and continue with your file operations.

The batch renaming PowerToys introduced earlier has greatly improved file operation efficiency, and now you can also resize images in bulk!

Just select the images and right-click to process them. Image and file preview has also been introduced: turn on the preview pane to view large images in real time, and it also supports previewing MD, PDF, SVG, and other files.

Screen utilities

Color Picker is indispensable for designer friends and image-related work, and PowerToys has integrated this feature too.

From now on you don't need a third-party tool: use the keyboard shortcut Win+Shift+C to activate Color Picker, which offers a color editor, similar color references, and color history saving.

It supports RGB, CMYK, HSL, HEX, and other color formats, meeting the needs of most situations.

Screen Ruler, something front-end developers and designers really need, is also available in PowerToys!

After activating it with the keyboard shortcut, you can choose from four rulers — rectangle, cross, horizontal, and vertical. Hovering the pointer shows the distance between different elements, which is very convenient.

More useful tools

Besides those mentioned above, there are also the quick launcher PowerToys Run, Keyboard Manager, Awake, and many other useful tools. If you're interested, you can download them from the official website or Microsoft Store.

If you also follow genuine productivity tools with clear, verifiable sources, you might want to take a look at how LIZHI.SHOP organizes and introduces common desktop software.

Official website: learn.microsoft.com/zh-cn/windows/powertoys

MS: https://aka.ms/getPowertoys

Windows may often leave something to be desired, but PowerToys is a work made with real sincerity.

For Windows users who want to boost their daily efficiency, it's still a set of official Microsoft tools well worth getting to know. Let's look forward to more useful little features from it!