powertoys

PowerToys’ keyboard launcher is getting a speed-first makeover that promises to turn an already useful productivity tool into something you’ll reflexively summon—faster, smaller, and more responsive than before. What started as PowerToys Run has been reimagined as the Command Palette, and recent...

Microsoft builds more useful, opinionated Windows tools than it ships with Windows 11 — and that disconnect matters more than you think. Background / Overview Windows has always shipped as a mix of core system components and optional conveniences. Over the last decade Microsoft shifted many...

Microsoft appears to be quietly reversing one of the most controversial user‑facing choices of the Windows 11 era: insiders and multiple Windows‑focused outlets report that the company is prototyping the ability to move and resize the taskbar — including restoring left/right (vertical)...

Microsoft’s Windows story this week is less about headline-grabbing new features and more about course corrections, security hardening, and the quiet work required to keep a decades‑old platform usable for millions of workflows — from vertical monitor power users to enterprise administrators...

PowerToys is the closest thing Microsoft will give power users: a visible, supported concession that Windows — for the sake of simplicity, security, and scale — left a lot of useful knobs, shortcuts, and shortcuts-to-shortcuts behind as it chased a mainstream-friendly interface. Background...

Microsoft appears to be preparing one of the clearest user‑facing course corrections for Windows 11 in years: internal reporting and experiments suggest the long‑requested ability to move and resize the taskbar could return to the OS, and Microsoft’s PowerToys team is prototyping a separate...

Microsoft’s Windows 11 may soon stop forcing users to keep the Taskbar glued to the bottom of the screen: recent reporting indicates Microsoft is actively prototyping native Taskbar repositioning and finer resizing controls, a long-standing request from power users, accessibility advocates, and...

Microsoft’s push to embed Copilot deeper into Windows 11 — now reaching File Explorer with right‑click AI actions, contextual summaries, and editing tools — is not just a product update; it’s a strategic bet that Microsoft is doubling down on an AI‑first vision for the operating system. That bet...

Customization is no longer a niche pastime for a handful of power users — it’s a practical way to shape Windows into a faster, clearer, and more productive workspace. The Habr piece you provided sketches a pragmatic toolbox of utilities — Microsoft PowerToys, WinAero Tweaker, ExplorerPatcher...

Windows can feel deceptively simple until the day you need to do something a little less ordinary — and that’s when a handful of built‑in and first‑party tools turn the OS from a consumer toy into a professional workstation. The five utilities highlighted in the recent How‑To Geek piece —...

Windows multitasking doesn’t feel like magic because Windows is doing the work — you’re simply not using the right tools or workflows to let it do that work for you. A short, keyboard-focused reframe — plus a handful of built-in features and PowerToys utilities — will transform a cluttered...

Microsoft has quietly shipped PowerToys v0.97.2 — a small but important stability-and-polish update that addresses a raft of regressions introduced during the broader 0.97 cycle, notably fixing Command Palette glitches, tuning CursorWrap behavior, and repairing several UI and upgrade-path edge...

Microsoft’s latest PowerToys maintenance release is a lesson in pragmatic stewardship: a small, surgical patch—v0.97.2—addresses a handful of regressions introduced in the 0.97 cycle and, critically for many Windows 10 users, restores Image Resizer after an upgrade path problem tied to legacy...

Microsoft has quietly shipped PowerToys version 0.97.2 — a targeted, stability-focused patch that fixes crashes, corrects UI and DPI glitches, and tunes several of the suite’s higher-profile utilities rather than adding new functionality. Background PowerToys began life as a Windows power-user...

Windows 11 quietly ships a surprising arsenal of productivity features, accessibility tools, and small utilities that power users lean on every day — features that most people never discover because they’re tucked behind context menus, keyboard shortcuts, or optional Store updates. Background /...

Microsoft’s PowerToys team is testing an optional, taskbar-like “Dock” for Windows 11 that can sit on the top (or any edge) of your screen and surface live widgets — think CPU, GPU, RAM and temperature readouts — alongside media playback controls, quick access tools, and pinned extensions from...

Microsoft’s PowerToys team is quietly prototyping a persistent, configurable “Command Palette Dock” for Windows 11 — an opt‑in, extension‑driven strip you can pin to any screen edge to surface live telemetry, media controls, clipboard snippets, and pinned Command Palette extensions without ever...

Microsoft hat das Start‑Menü von Windows 11 neu gestaltet — und die Reaktion der Anwender ist so deutlich, dass der Markt für Drittanbieter‑Tools sofort an Fahrt aufnahm. Viele Power‑User und IT‑Administratoren sehen die neue, dreigeteilte Start‑Ansicht als Rückschritt in puncto Dichte...

For years, my Start menu felt like a ritual I didn’t enjoy: click the Windows icon, wait for the UI to load, hunt through pinned tiles and a “Recommended” feed, and hope the search box finally returned the file or app I needed. I stopped doing that. Instead I rebuilt the way I launch things...

Microsoft’s PowerToys team is quietly prototyping an opt‑in, persistent “Command Palette Dock” for Windows 11 — a thin, positionable menu bar that can host pinned Command Palette extensions and glanceable telemetry much like the top bars in macOS and many Linux desktops. Background PowerToys...