powertoys

PowerToys, Microsoft’s free Windows utility suite for power users, now includes roughly thirty tools, and a new TweakTown audit argues that Windows 11 users should enable only the modules that solve daily problems instead of treating the whole package as a default install. That is the right...

Microsoft is exploring an animated desktop footer for PowerToys, shown by PowerToys lead Clint Rutkas at a Windows Insiders meetup ahead of Build 2026, that could place pixel-art grass, bunnies, or other ambient scenes along the bottom of a Windows desktop. The feature is still a concept, not a...

WTOP’s Data Doctors column on June 1, 2026, tells Windows 11 users in the United States that Copilot can be unpinned, uninstalled, remapped on newer keyboards, and more aggressively controlled by business administrators through policy, even if Microsoft keeps rebuilding AI into the desktop. The...

MakeUseOf’s latest Windows productivity guide argues that five low-friction automations—Storage Sense cleanup, PowerToys text shortcuts, batch-file app launching, scheduled Night light, and lock-triggered clipboard clearing—can run quietly on Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs after a few minutes of...

Windows 11 contains dozens of underused tools for customization, multitasking, security, backup, accessibility, gaming, phone integration, file management, and AI-assisted work, and a recent PCMag Australia roundup highlights 32 features that many everyday users and IT pros still overlook. The...

Windows 11 includes dozens of underused features, from Snap Layouts and virtual desktops to passkeys, PowerToys, Phone Link, File Explorer tabs, Windows Backup, Copilot, and Copilot+ PC tools, that can make Microsoft’s current desktop operating system faster, safer, and less irritating to use...

PCMag’s “32 Hidden Windows 11 Features” guide, updated around Windows 11’s 24H2-era feature set, argues that Microsoft’s desktop OS now hides many of its most useful productivity, security, AI, and customization tools in Settings menus, optional apps, and quietly evolving inbox utilities. The...

Windows 11 includes dozens of easy-to-miss features for changing the Start menu, managing windows, tightening sign-in security, connecting phones, using AI tools, compressing archives, restoring PCs, and improving accessibility, many of them already built into Settings, File Explorer, or...

Windows 11 users frustrated by Microsoft’s limited customization options are increasingly turning to PowerToys, Windhawk, Rainmeter, Winhance, and similar utilities to restore missing workflow controls, reshape the Start menu and taskbar, and make the operating system feel less rigid in 2026...

Microsoft PowerToys may soon add an optional low memory mode for Windows 11 utilities, based on a new GitHub pull request that lets supported modules shut down idle background processes and relaunch only when users invoke their shortcuts or interfaces. The proposal is not a magic “make Windows...

Microsoft is preparing a new PowerToys utility called Show Desktop for Windows 10 and Windows 11 that will let users minimize or restore open windows by clicking empty desktop or taskbar space, borrowing a workflow Apple added to macOS Sonoma. The feature is small enough to sound trivial and...

Microsoft released PowerToys 0.99.0 on April 28, 2026, followed by 0.99.1 on April 29, adding Grab And Move, Power Display, and Command Palette Dock refinements to Windows 10 and Windows 11, with the most conspicuous change bringing Linux-style Alt-drag window movement to Microsoft's desktop...

Microsoft released PowerToys 0.99.1 for Windows 10 and Windows 11 on April 29, 2026, as a quick follow-up to PowerToys 0.99, fixing early bugs in the new Grab and Move and Power Display utilities while tightening Command Palette dock behavior. It is not the kind of update that wins a keynote...

Microsoft’s PowerToys v0.99.0 lands as a deceptively important Windows update: not because it rewrites Windows 11, but because it removes several everyday points of friction that have annoyed power users for years. The headline feature is Grab And Move, a Linux-like window control tool that lets...

PowerToys v0.99.0 is not just another maintenance release for Microsoft’s favorite Windows utility suite; it is a statement about where advanced Windows productivity is heading. The update adds Grab And Move, a new window-management tool that lets users drag or resize windows without targeting...

Microsoft’s PowerToys 0.99.0 lands as one of the most consequential updates to the Windows power-user toolkit in years, adding Grab And Move, a Linux-inspired window control feature that lets users drag or resize windows without hunting for title bars and borders. The release also introduces...

Microsoft’s steady borrowing from macOS has become one of the most reliable ways to improve Windows 11, and the latest move is a good example of why. A feature once associated with Apple’s desktop workflow is now surfacing in the Windows ecosystem through the work of Scott Hanselman and other...

Windows 11’s context menu story has become a perfect example of Microsoft solving one problem by creating another. The simplified right-click menu introduced in 2021 was supposed to reduce clutter and make common actions easier to find, but over time it has accumulated enough third-party...

PowerToys is edging toward another small but genuinely practical upgrade, and this one could matter more than it first appears. A proposed WinPos module would let Windows users move or resize windows by holding Alt and clicking anywhere on the window with the left or right mouse button, instead...

These three free apps do not turn Windows into macOS or Linux, but they do change the way the operating system feels in daily use. Microsoft’s own PowerToys gives power users a set of system-level fixes, including Keyboard Manager for remapping keys and shortcuts and PowerToys Run for faster...