powertoys

Microsoft's PowerToys has finally delivered the one small but persistent convenience Windows users have long asked for: an official, first‑party tool that can automatically switch between Light and Dark modes on a schedule. The Light Switch module landed as part of PowerToys v0.95.0 and brings...

Windows 11 just got a meaningful productivity bump: PowerToys 0.95 introduces a native option to trigger Peek — PowerToys’ Quick‑Look style file previewer — with a single press of the Spacebar, bringing the File Explorer experience closer to macOS Finder’s Quick Look and removing a long-standing...

Microsoft has quietly closed a long-standing Windows convenience gap by adding Light Switch to PowerToys — a new, first‑party utility that can automatically switch Windows 11 between light and dark modes on a schedule or at local sunrise and sunset, with per‑surface controls, configurable...

Windows 11 can now flip itself between light and dark themes on a schedule — a small but long‑requested convenience that arrives as Light Switch, a new module bundled in PowerToys 0.95 that can switch system and app themes at custom times or automatically at local sunrise and sunset. Background...

PowerToys' new 0.95 release finally delivers one of Windows 11’s most-requested conveniences: an automated light/dark theme scheduler called Light Switch, along with a slate of performance and usability fixes that make PowerToys feel more like a polished power-user toolkit than a collection of...

PowerToys’ new Command Palette arrives as a compact, extensible Spotlight-style launcher that promises to make the legacy Windows Search front end obsolete for most everyday users — but the reality is more nuanced: it’s a major step forward, highly useful for power users, and technically...

Windows has a reputation for backward compatibility and an enormous third‑party ecosystem, but when a single Microsoft‑maintained GitHub project — PowerToys — houses a set of small, polished utilities that tens of millions of users rely on daily, it’s fair to ask: why aren’t these eight features...

Microsoft is finally closing a small but persistent Windows 11 usability gap by delivering an automatic theme scheduler — via PowerToys — that will switch between light and dark modes on a clock, or at local sunrise and sunset, with per-surface control and offset tuning. Background / Overview...

Microsoft is adding a long-requested quality-of-life feature to Windows 11 via PowerToys: an automatic, schedule-driven switch between Light and Dark themes — a small addition on the surface that closes a glaring usability gap and gives advanced users precise control over how and when the OS and...

I began using Windows 11 in beta in 2021 and, over several major releases, learned a handful of practical, time‑saving adjustments that turned the upgrade from “annoying compatibility shuffle” into a smoother daily driver — and those same five fixes are the heart of Tom’s Guide’s quick primer...

Microsoft’s PowerToys is about to fill a longstanding personalization gap in Windows 11 by adding an official, first‑party module to automatically switch between Light and Dark themes on a schedule — a small feature with outsized user demand and a few important caveats to understand. Background...

Clipboard History is the kind of quietly powerful Windows convenience that rewards discovery: it turns one-shot copy‑and‑paste into a small, persistent workspace you can use for snippets, images, and recurring text — and yet Microsoft rarely sings its praises as loudly as it does for splashier...

I fell out of love with Windows a few years ago—not because it stopped working, but because the small, repeated frictions of everyday use began to add up: sluggish Start searches, a stubbornly limited taskbar, a File Explorer that felt like it was designed for file storage rather than quick...

Microsoft has quietly pushed out PowerToys v0.94.2 to stamp out a stubborn installer regression that left some users unable to upgrade or install the utility suite from GitHub, winget, or the Microsoft Store, restoring a critical path for distribution and deployment. Background PowerToys has...

Microsoft pushed a small but crucial PowerToys patch this week — version 0.94.2 — to unblock installs that had been failing with a bootstrapper error, restoring successful installs from GitHub, winget, and the Microsoft Store and stopping a rollout-wide headache for power users and IT teams...

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 has quietly dropped an experimental desktop app for Windows that behaves like a modern, Spotlight‑style launcher — summonable with Alt + Space — and bundles unified local + cloud + web search with Google Lens and the company’s AI Mode, promising to fix many of the long-standing pain...