powertoys

Microsoft’s recent nudge to users — asking “what do you miss most in Windows?” — is more than a PR moment; it’s a revealing sign that the company is wrestling with conflicting priorities for Windows 11: glossy AI capabilities and the long list of everyday quality‑of‑life features that power...

I stopped treating my Windows 11 PC like a personal to-do list and let five small automations do the boring, repetitive work — the result felt like a genuine speed boost in my daily flow. Overview Windows 11 is fast when it’s doing the heavy lifting, but it’s the tiny, repeated tasks — opening...

Windows 11’s built‑in Search is useful — until it isn’t: slow responses for non‑indexed folders, a cluttered home panel, and inconsistent results have driven many users to lightweight launchers and desktop search tools that return answers in milliseconds. This piece examines six of the fastest...

Windows 11’s built‑in search can be handy, but for many power users it’s long felt sluggish, cluttered with web suggestions, and inconsistent when dealing with non‑indexed folders or massive file collections — which is why dozens of lightweight, keyboard‑first launchers and indexers have sprung...

Google’s experimental Windows app aims to remove the friction of switching windows to look something up — a floating, Spotlight‑like search bar you summon with Alt + Space that can search local files, installed apps, Google Drive, and the web, and that folds in Google Lens and the company’s AI...

Windows 11’s dark mode finally has a practical, reproducible setup that makes the whole desktop — not just a handful of modern apps — feel cohesive, and the path to get there mixes built‑in settings, small automation tools, and a few targeted third‑party utilities that fill the remaining gaps...

Microsoft Copilot is now a standard part of the Windows 11 experience for many users, but getting it running — and keeping it under control — still trips up a lot of people; this guide walks through exactly how to access Copilot, install it where necessary, troubleshoot common problems, and lock...

Windows 11 hides a surprising number of high-impact productivity tools beneath its clean new interface — features that can shave minutes off repetitive tasks, reduce interruptions, and make multi-app workflows feel effortless once you know where to look. This piece walks through the most useful...

Windows 11’s keyboard shortcuts are not just a convenience—they’re the backbone of a faster, less distracted daily workflow for power users and knowledge workers alike, and a recent roundup that distilled “73+” essential combinations crystallizes why learning a compact set of keystrokes pays...

Windows 11’s keyboard shortcuts are the single easiest way to turn everyday tasks into near‑instant actions — and learning them now matters more than ever as Windows 10 approaches its end of support and organizations and consumers prepare to migrate. Background Windows 11 ships with a broad set...

PowerToys already solves dozens of small-but-annoying Windows problems for power users, and the five wishlist items proposed by the community capture practical, high-impact improvements that could make the suite even more indispensable. Background / Overview PowerToys began life as a set of...

Microsoft has added two ultra-simple keyboard shortcuts to Windows 11 that insert an en dash (–) and an em dash (—) directly into any text field, a small but meaningful productivity tweak rolling out to Insiders now and destined for a wider release later. Overview Microsoft announced that...

Microsoft has quietly begun fixing one of Windows 11’s most persistent visual annoyances: the long-neglected file operation (copy/move/delete/permission) dialogs are finally receiving proper dark‑mode styling in Insider preview builds, and the work is rolling out in stages rather than as a...

ZDNET’s compact roundup of "45+ time‑saving Windows keyboard shortcuts" is less a listicle and more a practical playbook: a curated set of high‑impact keystrokes that swap repetitive mouse motions for instant, repeatable actions and unlock features many users overlook. The author prioritizes...

Tiling window managers aren’t a Linux-only productivity secret anymore — Windows has a healthy, maturing ecosystem of tilers that can radically change how you work, and four projects stand out right now for stability, polish, or sheer ambition. Overview Tiling window managers automatically...

This week’s Windows news cycle offered a dense mix of operational updates, surprising bugs, and quietly consequential releases: Microsoft pushed Windows 11 version 25H2 into the Release Preview channel as an enablement package, then quietly edited its blog to say the promised ISOs are “delayed...

PowerToys quietly hides a few genuinely time-saving features behind its polished dashboard — tools for backing up your entire configuration, automatic diagnostic logs you can read yourself, and an easy plugin system that turns the launcher into a Swiss Army knife. These three capabilities alone...

Microsoft is finally giving Windows 11 users a way to switch between Light and Dark themes automatically—without third‑party hacks or manual trips into Settings—but there’s a twist: the feature is arriving via PowerToys, not as a native Windows Settings toggle, and important implementation...

Microsoft PowerToys is no longer a niche tweak for obsessive tinkerers — it’s a practical, polished productivity suite that many Windows users now install the moment they set up a new PC. A recent roundup that highlights “8 PowerToys you’ll use every day” captures why: the suite bundles small...

Microsoft’s PowerToys has quietly matured from a grab-bag of power‑user tricks into a polished, first‑party productivity toolkit — and the latest updates finally deliver several long‑requested conveniences that matter to everyday workflows and IT deployments alike. Background PowerToys began as...