powertoys

  1. PowerToys for Windows: Boost Productivity with a Modular Toolkit

    Windows PowerToys is one of those quietly powerful Windows add‑ons: a free, modular toolkit that can shave minutes off everyday tasks for heavy desktop users, but it’s deliberately optional — and for many casual users it’s a luxury rather than a necessity. Background / Overview Windows PowerToys...
  2. PowerToys 0.93 Update: Faster Command Palette and Upcoming Settings Search

    Microsoft’s PowerToys 0.93 delivered a much-needed Settings dashboard overhaul and major Command Palette performance wins, but the suite still lacks a unified Settings search—and community work tracked on GitHub plus Microsoft’s own roadmap notes indicate a settings search bar is targeted for...
  3. PowerToys Command Palette 0.93: Fast, Sleek Windows Launcher vs Flow & Raycast

    Microsoft's gradual reinvention of the PowerToys launcher is becoming a serious contender — the Command Palette in PowerToys 0.93 brings measurable performance wins, a cleaner settings dashboard, and a handful of useful built‑in modules — but in practical, day‑to‑day responsiveness and the...
  4. Windows Language Shortcuts: Disable Win+Space, Rebind Alt+Shift with PowerToys

    Windows still defaults to the universal language switcher on Win + Space, and while you can change the legacy Left Alt + Shift combination from Settings, disabling or reassigning the Win + Space behavior requires a remapping tool such as Microsoft PowerToys or a third‑party script; this feature...
  5. PowerToys for Windows 10/11: Boost Productivity with Tiny Utilities

    Windows PowerToys has quietly become one of the most useful free downloads for serious Windows 10 and Windows 11 users, bundling dozens of small, well-crafted utilities that smooth the rough edges of everyday computing and unlock customization that Microsoft doesn’t expose by default. If you’ve...
  6. PowerToys for Windows: Free, Modular Tools to Boost Productivity

    Windows PowerToys has quietly become one of the smartest productivity bets a Windows power user can make: a free, modular toolkit that plugs measurable short-cuts into everyday workflows while also serving as an incubator for features Microsoft may one day bake into Windows itself. The suite’s...
  7. PowerToys v0.94: Settings search and Quit confirmation refine UX

    Microsoft's PowerToys team is preparing a set of small but meaningful usability fixes that aim to remove two of the most common annoyances power users report: hunting for the right toggle inside a growing Settings app, and accidentally quitting the suite when they only meant to hide it. The next...
  8. PowerToys 0.93 boosts performance; Store policy tightens; Patch Tuesday security

    Microsoft’s week in software was quieter on the surface but consequential under the hood: PowerToys received another maturation-focused release that tightens performance and discoverability, the Microsoft Store tightened rules that affect how developers list and bundle titles, and August’s Patch...
  9. Stop Snipping Tool Pop-Ups on Windows 11: Easy PrtScn Fixes

    If your Snipping Tool keeps popping up unexpectedly on Windows 11, that small interruption can quickly become a productivity drain — especially when you’re typing, gaming, or presenting. This is a surprisingly common complaint and, in most cases, the cause is a conflict between screenshot...
  10. Windows 2025: Productivity-First Upgrades to Reclaim Enterprise Leadership

    Microsoft’s Windows could reclaim its place as the undisputed productivity platform in 2025 — but only if Microsoft stops prioritizing marketing nudges and gimmicks and instead delivers focused, enterprise-grade features that solve real workplace pain points now, not sometime next quarter...
  11. Windows productivity reboot: 10 features Microsoft should ship to speed work

    Microsoft’s Windows has become maddeningly loud about what it thinks you should do — sign in with a Microsoft account, buy Game Pass, use Copilot+, install OneDrive — yet when it comes to the small, gritty features that actually speed work, the OS still feels stingy and distracted. The...
  12. Speed Up Windows with Lightweight Replacements for Core Tasks

    Windows ships with a respectable set of built‑in utilities, but for many users those apps feel like checkbox features: serviceable, occasionally sluggish, and often lacking the power or polish needed for real work. A compact set of community‑driven, lightweight replacements can dramatically...
  13. PowerToys 0.93: Fast Command Palette, Windows 11 Settings, Spotlight Highlighter

    PowerToys 0.93 nudges an already indispensable toolkit toward something more professional: a Windows 11–style settings dashboard, a major engineering overhaul of Command Palette that leans on Ahead‑of‑Time (AOT) compilation for tangible speed and footprint gains, a presentation‑ready Spotlight...
  14. Unlock Windows 11 Power: PowerToys, Task Scheduler, and Process Explorer

    Windows 11 still hides a surprising amount of power under its polished surface — and for power users the obvious answer isn't hoping Microsoft brings back every legacy tool, it’s learning where those capabilities already exist and how to extend them cleanly. What began as a short list of...
  15. PowerToys 0.93: Card Dashboard and Faster Command Palette for Windows

    Microsoft’s PowerToys 0.93 is a surprisingly consequential release: a modernized, card‑style settings dashboard paired with a deep engineering push to speed up the new Command Palette—delivering measurable reductions in install size, memory usage, and launch times—plus several targeted...
  16. Master Windows 11 Shortcuts for Laptop Reviewers

    I spend more hours than I care to count testing Windows laptops, and the single most underrated productivity habit I’ve picked up from that work is learning what the keyboard can do for you — not just the obvious Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V tricks, but the deeper, lesser-known shortcuts that shave minutes off...
  17. PowerToys 0.93: Faster Command Palette, Card Settings, Spotlight & 3D BGCode Preview

    PowerToys’ latest release, version 0.93, reshapes the experience for power users with a cleaner settings dashboard, a markedly faster and more capable Command Palette, and small but high-value additions such as a spotlight mouse-highlighter mode and new preview support for 3D-printing...
  18. PowerToys 0.93 Boosts Command Palette Performance and Windows 11 Dashboard

    Microsoft’s PowerToys has quietly hit another productivity milestone with version 0.93 — a release that pairs a visual, Windows 11–style dashboard overhaul with focused performance work on the Command Palette, new presentation-friendly mouse highlighting, and a long list of bug fixes and quality...
  19. Windows Goes AI-First: Copilot, LLMs, and Privacy in the Upgrade Era

    Across two years of reporting for the Windows Intelligence column I followed a single, sometimes messy, but always consequential story: Windows ceases to be just an operating system and becomes an AI‑first platform—and that shift matters for every user, buyer, and IT pro who touches a PC...
  20. ClipPing: Visual Clipboard Confirmation for Windows PowerToys

    A tiny green halo that flashes when you copy from a terminal may sound like a cute UI trick, but it addresses a surprisingly common pain point: not knowing whether what you selected actually made it to the clipboard. Microsoft PowerToys may soon offer exactly that — a proposed module called...