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Windows system utilities to maximize productivity

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Quick Overview

Microsoft PowerToys is a set of free system utilities designed to enhance productivity and customize the Windows experience. It offers a collection of tools that power users can leverage to streamline their workflow and improve efficiency on Windows 10 and 11.

Pros

  • Enhances Windows functionality with useful utilities
  • Free and open-source
  • Regular updates and active development
  • Customizable and user-friendly interface

Cons

  • May consume additional system resources
  • Some features might conflict with existing Windows settings
  • Requires Windows 10 or 11, not available for older versions
  • Learning curve for some of the more advanced tools

Getting Started

To get started with Microsoft PowerToys:

  1. Visit the PowerToys GitHub releases page
  2. Download the latest release installer (PowerToysSetup-X.XX.X-x64.exe)
  3. Run the installer and follow the prompts
  4. After installation, launch PowerToys from the Start menu
  5. Explore and configure the various utilities through the PowerToys settings interface

Note: PowerToys requires Windows 10 version 1903 (build 18362) or later.

Competitor Comparisons

srwi logo

EverythingToolbar

9,815

Everything integration for the Windows taskbar.

Pros of EverythingToolbar

  • Lightweight and focused on a single functionality (file search)
  • Seamless integration with the Windows taskbar
  • Utilizes the powerful Everything search engine for fast results

Cons of EverythingToolbar

  • Limited to file search functionality only
  • Requires the Everything search engine to be installed separately
  • Smaller community and less frequent updates

Code Comparison

EverythingToolbar:

public static class SearchManager
{
    public static void Search(string query)
    {
        Everything.Search(query);
    }
}

PowerToys:

public class PowerLauncherViewModel : ObservableObject, IDisposable
{
    public void Search(string query)
    {
        // Complex search logic across multiple plugins
    }
}

Summary

EverythingToolbar is a specialized tool focusing on fast file search integration with the Windows taskbar. It offers a lightweight solution for users primarily interested in quick file access. PowerToys, on the other hand, provides a comprehensive suite of productivity tools, including file search among many other features. While EverythingToolbar excels in its specific use case, PowerToys offers broader functionality and more frequent updates due to its larger community and Microsoft backing.

AutoHotkey logo

AutoHotkey

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AutoHotkey - macro-creation and automation-oriented scripting utility for Windows.

Pros of AutoHotkey

  • Powerful scripting language for automation and hotkey creation
  • Extensive community-driven library of scripts and functions
  • Lightweight and runs on older Windows versions

Cons of AutoHotkey

  • Steeper learning curve for non-programmers
  • Limited to Windows operating system
  • Less polished user interface compared to PowerToys

Code Comparison

AutoHotkey script example:

^!t::
Run, notepad.exe
return

PowerToys (FancyZones) configuration example:

{
  "layouts": [
    {
      "name": "Focus",
      "zones": [
        { "x": 0, "y": 0, "width": 50, "height": 100 },
        { "x": 50, "y": 0, "width": 50, "height": 100 }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Key Differences

  • AutoHotkey is primarily a scripting language, while PowerToys is a collection of system utilities
  • PowerToys offers a more user-friendly interface for customization
  • AutoHotkey provides more flexibility for advanced users and complex automation tasks
  • PowerToys is actively developed by Microsoft, ensuring better integration with Windows

Use Cases

  • AutoHotkey: Custom keyboard shortcuts, text expansion, and complex automation scripts
  • PowerToys: Window management, quick file renaming, and system-wide productivity enhancements
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  • Lightweight and focused solely on launcher functionality
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Cons of Wox

  • Less actively maintained compared to PowerToys
  • Smaller community and fewer contributors
  • Limited built-in features beyond launcher functionality

Code Comparison

Wox (C#):

public class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var wox = new Wox.App.App();
        wox.Run();
    }
}

PowerToys (C++):

int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
    winrt::init_apartment();
    launch_powertoys();
    return 0;
}

Summary

Wox is a lightweight, cross-platform launcher with a focus on extensibility through plugins. It offers a more specialized experience compared to PowerToys, which provides a broader set of utilities for Windows power users. While Wox excels in its core launcher functionality, PowerToys offers a more comprehensive suite of tools and benefits from active development by Microsoft. The code comparison highlights the different languages and approaches used in each project, with Wox utilizing C# and PowerToys employing C++.

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Pros of ModernFlyouts

  • Focused specifically on enhancing Windows flyouts, providing a more streamlined and targeted solution
  • Offers more customization options for flyout appearance and behavior
  • Lighter weight and potentially less resource-intensive than PowerToys

Cons of ModernFlyouts

  • Limited in scope compared to PowerToys' wide range of productivity tools
  • May have a smaller user base and community support
  • Potentially less frequent updates and maintenance

Code Comparison

ModernFlyouts:

public class FlyoutHandler : IFlyoutHandler
{
    public void ShowFlyout(FlyoutType type)
    {
        // Flyout-specific implementation
    }
}

PowerToys:

public class PowerToysTool : IPowerToysTool
{
    public void Run()
    {
        // Tool-specific implementation
    }
}

The code snippets illustrate the different focus areas of each project. ModernFlyouts centers on flyout handling, while PowerToys implements various productivity tools. Both use C# and follow similar object-oriented patterns, but their primary functionalities differ based on their project goals.

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Pros of Rainmeter

  • Highly customizable desktop widgets and skins
  • Large community with extensive library of user-created skins
  • Lightweight and low resource usage

Cons of Rainmeter

  • Steeper learning curve for creating custom skins
  • Limited built-in functionality compared to PowerToys
  • Less integration with Windows system features

Code Comparison

Rainmeter (Lua):

[MeasureCPU]
Measure=CPU
[MeterCPU]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureCPU
Text=CPU Usage: %1%

PowerToys (C#):

public class PowerRenameManager
{
    public void Rename(string pattern, string replacement)
    {
        // Implementation for renaming files
    }
}

Summary

Rainmeter focuses on desktop customization through user-created skins, offering extensive visual personalization options. PowerToys, on the other hand, provides a set of system utilities to enhance Windows functionality. Rainmeter excels in creating unique desktop experiences, while PowerToys offers more practical tools for productivity and system management. The code examples highlight the different approaches: Rainmeter uses Lua for skin creation, while PowerToys employs C# for its utility implementations.

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README

Microsoft PowerToys

Hero image for Microsoft PowerToys

How to use PowerToys | Downloads & Release notes | Contributing to PowerToys | What's Happening | Roadmap

About

Microsoft PowerToys is a set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience for greater productivity. For more info on PowerToys overviews and how to use the utilities, or any other tools and resources for Windows development environments, head over to learn.microsoft.com!

Current utilities:
Advanced PasteAlways on TopPowerToys Awake
Command Not FoundColor PickerCrop And Lock
Environment VariablesFancyZonesFile Explorer Add-ons
File LocksmithHosts File EditorImage Resizer
Keyboard ManagerMouse utilitiesMouse Without Borders
New+PeekPaste as Plain Text
PowerRenamePowerToys RunQuick Accent
Registry PreviewScreen RulerShortcut Guide
Text ExtractorVideo Conference MuteWorkspaces

🎁⭐ PowerToys Advent calendar ⭐🎁

We will be highlighting a cool utility each day for 24 days in December! To follow along, check out these threads:

Installing and running Microsoft PowerToys

Requirements

  • Windows 11 or Windows 10 version 2004 (code name 20H1 / build number 19041) or newer.
  • x64 or ARM64 processor
  • Our installer will install the following items:

Via GitHub with EXE [Recommended]

Go to the Microsoft PowerToys GitHub releases page and click on Assets at the bottom to show the files available in the release. Please use the appropriate PowerToys installer that matches your machine's architecture and install scope. For most, it is x64 and per-user.

DescriptionFilenamesha256 hash
Per user - x64PowerToysUserSetup-0.86.0-x64.exeCFB9608B28B8FF12C9A7C9814A6EF981636EB5AB261DC278C28EC93FD959CCE2
Per user - ARM64PowerToysUserSetup-0.86.0-arm64.exe861CEDBFDCDA993D1D1056E3280319D5EA45D142CA3C737AB1FB4FABD651A5F5
Machine wide - x64PowerToysSetup-0.86.0-x64.exe857DE9DC5938D9602F82DFD6183DB5E6823B875A412AEC59B4BE93617E27E9CD
Machine wide - ARM64PowerToysSetup-0.86.0-arm64.exe6F37192534C195A02A80AAE1E449DF61C894C50763096A06195581801943FA31

This is our preferred method.

Via Microsoft Store

Install from the Microsoft Store's PowerToys page. You must be using the new Microsoft Store which is available for both Windows 11 and Windows 10.

Via WinGet

Download PowerToys from WinGet. Updating PowerToys via winget will respect current PowerToys installation scope. To install PowerToys, run the following command from the command line / PowerShell:

User scope installer [default]

winget install Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget

Machine-wide scope installer

winget install --scope machine Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget

Other install methods

There are community driven install methods such as Chocolatey and Scoop. If these are your preferred install solutions, you can find the install instructions there.

Third-Party Run Plugins

There is a collection of third-party plugins created by the community that aren't distributed with PowerToys.

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions of all types. Besides coding features / bug fixes, other ways to assist include spec writing, design, documentation, and finding bugs. We are excited to work with the power user community to build a set of tools for helping you get the most out of Windows.

We ask that before you start work on a feature that you would like to contribute, please read our Contributor's Guide. We would be happy to work with you to figure out the best approach, provide guidance and mentorship throughout feature development, and help avoid any wasted or duplicate effort.

Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you grant us the rights to use your contribution and that you have permission to do so.

For guidance on developing for PowerToys, please read the developer docs for a detailed breakdown. This includes how to setup your computer to compile.

What's Happening

PowerToys Roadmap

Our prioritized roadmap of features and utilities that the core team is focusing on.

0.86 - October 2024 Update

In this release, we focused on new features, stability, and improvements.

Highlights

  • Advanced Paste has new abilities: Image to text, and paste to file (text / png / html).
  • In settings, we've adjusted the left navigation to group the utilities. As the number of utilities shipped with PowerToys keeps growing, we felt this was a needed adjustment. Thanks everyone for your feedback!
  • Workspaces received many bug fixes, including the proper launching of many instances of the same application in the same workspace. Note, we are still actively looking at how to properly handle PWA detection.
  • We've added a diagnostic data (telemetry) opt-in option in the Settings General tab. As it is off-by-default, we encourage users to turn it on as that helps direct our development efforts and their journeys. More information about the data we collect can be found in the PowerToys Data and Privacy documentation and what each event does.

General

  • Added a setting for diagnostic data (telemetry) opt-in (off by default, however, see above for why we encourage you to opt-in!) and user controls to view data.
  • Improved exception logging by adding the type of Exception and InnerException. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Advanced Paste

  • Added new built-in actions: Image to text, and paste txt, png or html as a file.

Mouse Jump

  • Refactored the common classes into a separate project. Thanks @mikeclayton!
  • Brought back the telemetry events that were deleted across previous refactoring efforts.

Mouse Without Borders

  • Refactored the Logger common classes. Thanks @mikeclayton!

New+

  • Fixed the telemetry event for when the modules is enabled or disabled. (This was a hotfix for 0.85)
  • Fixed bug when creating folders or files that contain Unicode characters. Thanks @cgaarden!
  • Fixed bug when the name of a new folder collided with an already existing folder. Thanks @cgaarden!
  • Updated the New+ icons to the fluent style.

Peek

  • Folder preview enumeration of size and number of files is now more responsive and faster. Thanks @daverayment!

PowerToys Run

  • Handled a culture not found error when checking for right-to-left languages.
  • Fixed the WebSearch plugin results title being trimmed in the UI. Thanks @octastylos-pseudodipteros!
  • The Unit Converter plugin will now show more significant digits. Thanks @PesBandi!
  • Improved error handling when copying to the clipboard results in an error. Thanks @PesBandi!

Quick Accent

  • Added support for the Serbian Cyrillic character set. Thanks @Sirozha1337!

Registry Preview

Settings

  • Fixed a crash when trying to access a non-existing templates folder from the New+ page. (This was a hotfix for 0.85)
  • Added a navigation tree to group utilities in the left navigation menu.
  • Sorted the list of languages in the language selection combo box in the General tab. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
  • Fixed the state of the info bar about templates not being backed up to not close and react to the module's enabled state in the New+ page. Thanks @htcfreek!
  • Fixed a crash caused by a dangling thread.
  • Clicking a notification about there being an update available should now correctly open the Settings application in the General tab.
  • Fixed a UI freeze when trying to access the Diagnostic Data Viewer files. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Workspaces

  • Fixed launching the incorrect workspace when launching many workspaces quickly through shortcuts. (This was a hotfix for 0.85)
  • Fixed launching many instances of the same application in a workspace.
  • Fixed a crash when a previously captured monitor ID no longer existed.
  • Fixed an issue causing the wrong coordinates to be saved for minimized applications.
  • Fixed an issue causing a crash when stress testing workspace launching.
  • Fixed application launching when UAC is off and every application always runs elevated.

Documentation

Development

  • Fixed the CI precheck action to take into account the recent changes in CI actions.
  • Added the new Microsoft org issue types to the issue templates. Thanks @Aaron-Junker!
  • Updated System.Text.Json to 8.0.5 and System.Runtime.Caching to 8.0.1 and related dependencies to the latest to address security reports. Thanks @snickler!
  • Updated WinAppSDK to 1.6.1 and CsWinRT to 2.1.5. Thanks @snickler!
  • Upgraded the WpfUI dependency to 3.0.5.
  • Updated MessagePack to 2.5.187 and StreamJsonRpc to 2.19.27 to address security reports.
  • Removed some of the hacks that are no longer needed that tried to force same dependency versions in .csproj files.
  • Removed the Markdown file exclusions from the conditions that trigger a full CI test.
  • CI fails again when there are XAML style errors in a PR.
  • Fixed CI actions that were not failing when one of the powershell scripts they tried to run was failing.
  • Fixed analyzer violations to allow fully building PowerToys on Visual Studio 17.12. Thanks @snickler!

What is being planned for version 0.87

For v0.87, we'll work on the items below:

  • Stability / bug fixes
  • New module: File Actions Menu
  • Integrate Sysinternals ZoomIt

PowerToys Community

The PowerToys team is extremely grateful to have the support of an amazing active community. The work you do is incredibly important. PowerToys wouldn’t be nearly what it is today without your help filing bugs, updating documentation, guiding the design, or writing features. We want to say thank you and take time to recognize your work. Month by month, you directly help make PowerToys a better piece of software.

Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct.

Privacy Statement

The application logs basic diagnostic data (telemetry). For more information on privacy and what we collect, see our PowerToys Data and Privacy documentation.