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 quality‑of‑life additions for presenters, makers, and power users. (devblogs.microsoft.com)

Background / Overview​

PowerToys has long been Microsoft’s open‑source playground for small but powerful Windows utilities, and the project’s cadence of frequent, iterative releases favors incremental polish over dramatic “big bang” features. Version 0.93 follows that pattern: rather than inventing a new headline app, the team focused on two things that matter every day—discoverability (the Settings/dashboard experience) and responsiveness (Command Palette performance)—while also shipping several niche but practical improvements that broaden PowerToys’ value for creators and IT pros. (github.com)
The release is engineered around three visible pillars:

• A redesigned, Windows 11–style dashboard that surfaces quick actions, module toggles, and shortcuts in a card layout.
• A major performance overhaul of the Command Palette (CmdPal) driven by Ahead‑of‑Time (AOT) compilation and other initialization optimizations.
• Small, focused additions such as Spotlight mode in Mouse Highlighter and instant previews for Binary G‑code (.bgcode) files in Peek.

Those changes were published in the project’s release notes and the PowerToys team’s announcement, and they’ve been corroborated by independent press coverage and community reporting. (heise.de)

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What changed in 0.93 — at a glance​

• Settings: card‑style dashboard — Quick launches, shortcuts, and toggle states are visually separated for immediate scanning and direct launching from the home pane.
• Command Palette (CmdPal) — Over 99 Command Palette issues were fixed; Clipboard History was restored; apps can be pinned; command history for Run was added; context menus now display keyboard shortcuts. Performance: ~55% smaller install footprint, ~15% lower startup memory, ~40% faster load times, and ~70% faster built‑in extension loading according to the PowerToys team’s benchmarks. These gains were achieved primarily by enabling AOT via the Windows App SDK and by parallelizing/lazy‑loading initialization. (devblogs.microsoft.com)
• Mouse Highlighter — Spotlight mode — Dims the screen and leaves a bright, configurable ellipse around the cursor for demonstrations and recordings.
• Peek — Instant previews and embedded thumbnails for Binary G‑code (.bgcode) 3D printing files.
• Quick Accent — Expanded support for Vietnamese vowels and the letter “d.”
• Quality & CI — Hundreds of new unit tests (notably for CmdPal), doubled UI automation coverage, and faster CI pipelines to reduce test turnaround time.

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The dashboard redesign: clarity by design​

What changed and why it matters​

The old settings window was functional but dense: a long module list with nested pages that made it hard to tell at a glance which utilities were enabled and where to find shortcuts. PowerToys 0.93 replaces this with a card‑based homepage that mirrors the visual language of Windows 11 Settings—separating quick launch tiles, a shortcuts pane, and module toggles into distinct areas. The result is immediate discoverability and fewer clicks to enable/launch common tools.
This is not just a cosmetic update. For helpdesk technicians, trainers, and teams documenting workflows, the dashboard’s improved affordances and deep linking to individual module pages reduce friction when troubleshooting or instructing end users. The dashboard also exposes a settings export/import entry point, which simplifies migrating PowerToys configurations across machines.

UX tradeoffs and enterprise considerations​

• The dashboard improves first‑use clarity, but it does not remove any deep settings; enterprise management and imaging scripts that rely on prior UI paths should validate deep links and GPO/policy behavior after upgrading.
• Administrators should communicate the UI change to users (even a short note) so that the new layout does not cause momentary confusion during staged rollouts.

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Command Palette: the headline engineering story​

Why CmdPal matters​

The Command Palette (a successor to PowerToys Run) is PowerToys’ keyboard‑first launcher and a daily tool for many power users who rely on fast, repeatable access to apps, commands, and extensions. Because users summon the palette dozens (or hundreds) of times a day, even modest latency improvements compound into meaningful productivity gains. The 0.93 update treats CmdPal as a mission‑critical surface and invests accordingly.

What the engineering work delivered​

The PowerToys team reports the following changes comparing v0.92 and v0.93:

• Installed size reduced from ~121 MB to ~53.6 MB (~55% reduction).
• Startup memory spike reduced by ~15%.
• CmdPal window load time reduced by ~40%.
• Built‑in extension first‑load times cut by ~70%.

These numbers were published by the PowerToys team and are visible in the official announcement and release notes. They attribute the improvements primarily to Ahead‑of‑Time (AOT) compilation via the Windows App SDK, plus several runtime changes:

• Parallelized extension startup.
• Lazy loading of extension settings (avoid fetching everything on startup).
• Timeouts and isolation for misbehaving extensions.
• Removal/cleanup of files that prevented marking components as AOT‑compatible. (devblogs.microsoft.com, github.com)

Why AOT made a difference​

AOT converts managed code into native machine code ahead of runtime, which removes JIT (Just‑In‑Time) compilation work from the launch path. That reduces cold start jitter, improves memory layout predictability, and lowers the runtime cost of initializing first‑party extensions. For a frequently invoked tool like CmdPal, these effects directly translate into a snappier experience. However, AOT can produce different runtime characteristics that third‑party extensions may not expect—so compatibility testing remains important.

Practical validation steps (verify the numbers yourself)​

Organizations and power users who need to rely on the reported gains should validate locally. A short verification plan:

• Export your current PowerToys settings so you can restore layout and keymaps.
• Record the installer package size for your previous PowerToys build (x64, ARM64, user/system installers).
• On a test machine, install PowerToys 0.93 and compare installer sizes and sha256 sums.
• Use Task Manager or a resource monitor to capture resident memory of PowerToys processes before and after CmdPal activation (average over multiple cold trials).
• Time CmdPal cold starts (activation key to ready UI) over ten launches and compute mean/median values.
• Measure first‑load times for any built‑in extensions you rely on (e.g., WebSearch, Time & Date) and compare to prior data.

These steps let you confirm the effect size for your hardware mix rather than relying solely on the project’s internal benchmarks.

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New and improved features that matter in real workflows​

Spotlight mode (Mouse Highlighter)​

Spotlight mode is a simple but highly practical enhancement for anyone who records tutorials, gives live demos, or runs virtual training. Instead of merely circling clicks, Spotlight dims the entire screen and leaves an adjustable, transparent ellipse around the cursor. The dimming color and opacity are configurable so presenters can match brand or theming needs. Practical caveat: overlay-based dimming can interact unpredictably with certain full‑screen hardware‑accelerated apps (games, DRM video players, or some conferencing clients), so test this with your typical presentation stack.

Peek: .bgcode preview for makers​

Peek’s new ability to show instant previews and embedded thumbnails for Binary G‑code (.bgcode) files is a small but meaningful win for hobbyists, engineers, and makers. Inspecting 3D print files without launching a dedicated slicer or viewer saves time when cataloging designs or preparing print batches.

Quick Accent: improved localization​

Quick Accent adds better Vietnamese support (vowels and letter “d”), showing that the PowerToys team continues to refine smaller localization gaps that matter to multilingual users.

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Quality, testing, and long‑term maintainability​

A rare, high‑quality aspect of 0.93 is the release’s heavy investment in automated testing:

• The team added hundreds of unit tests (600+ mentioned for CmdPal) and doubled UI automation coverage across key modules.
• CI pipelines were optimized to reduce test durations and timeouts (shorter fuzzing and UI test timeouts).
• The release notes and PRs show targeted fixes for accessibility and screen‑reader integration inside CmdPal.

Those investments reduce regressions and accelerate future delivery—a welcome indicator that PowerToys is maturing from a hobbyist toolkit into a production‑grade productivity layer for Windows.

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Strengths — why 0.93 matters​

• Real performance engineering, not just polish. The AOT and parallel startup work deliver concrete runtime benefits for one of PowerToys’ most used surfaces.
• Improved discoverability. The dashboard redesign lowers activation costs for hidden but useful utilities—good for new users and helpdesk workflows.
• Targeted value additions. Features like Spotlight and .bgcode previews are narrow but solve persistent pain points for specific audiences (presenters and makers).
• Quality first. Expanded test coverage and CI improvements reduce the chance of regression, which matters in larger deployments.

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Risks, caveats, and things to watch​

• Benchmarks are representative, not guaranteed. The percentage improvements come from the PowerToys team’s internal comparisons and CI metrics; real‑world gains will vary with CPU generation, disk speed (NVMe vs. spinner), memory pressure, and whether you installed user vs. system builds. Validate on representative hardware before scaling.
• Extension compatibility. AOT and startup refactors can expose runtime differences. Some third‑party Command Palette extensions may need updates—test any custom or community plugins you rely on. The release adds timeouts and isolation, but edge cases can still occur.
• Overlay interactions. Spotlight and certain Peek previews are overlay/preview hosts; these can conflict with full‑screen, DRM, or legacy graphics pipelines. Verify presentation behavior in your conferencing and recording apps.
• Deployment considerations. For managed environments, treat PowerToys like any third‑party utility: stage the rollout, test group policies and deep links, and confirm telemetry settings match organizational policy. The release includes telemetry opt‑in/opt‑out behavior that admins should review.

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How and where to get it​

PowerToys 0.93 is available through the built‑in update mechanism in PowerToys, the Microsoft Store, and the official GitHub release assets (user/system/x64/ARM64 installers with SHA256 checksums). Use the Microsoft Store for the simplest per‑user update path; use the GitHub artifacts for system‑wide installs or to obtain ARM64 builds and verified checksums. As always, verify checksums if you have strict imaging or compliance requirements.

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Recommended upgrade checklist for power users and admins​

• Export current PowerToys settings (Dashboard → Settings export).
• Test PowerToys 0.93 on a single machine representative of your hardware classes.
• Verify critical CmdPal extensions and any third‑party plugins.
• Measure installer size, resident memory, and CmdPal cold start times (sample multiple runs).
• Test Spotlight mode with your conferencing and screen recording tools.
• If deploying broadly, stage the rollout and verify GPOs or automated installers behave as expected.
• Communicate the dashboard changes and CmdPal tips (e.g., Win+Alt+Space, clipboard history toggle) to end users.

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Verdict and conclusion​

PowerToys 0.93 is not a flashy consumer headline, but it is a substantive engineering and UX release that materially improves the daily experience of many PowerToys users. The combination of a clearer, card‑based dashboard and the AOT‑driven speedups in Command Palette addresses two of the suite’s most common friction points: discoverability and responsiveness. The release preserves PowerToys’ modular philosophy while signalling a maturation of engineering practices—more tests, shorter CI, and smarter initialization strategies.
For individual power users, developers, content creators, and makers, the update provides immediate, practical wins: a snappier launcher, easier settings discovery, better presentation tools, and useful file previews. For IT teams, the update is worth validating in a lab environment, especially if your workflows rely on third‑party CmdPal extensions or automation that touches the PowerToys install path.
Finally, while the reported performance figures are credible and published by the PowerToys team, they should be treated as representative engineering numbers—validate them on your hardware mix. The release notes and blog announcements provide the canonical claims and rationale, and independent reporting has broadly corroborated the story.
PowerToys 0.93 is a practical, production‑ready step forward: install it, test it, and for many workflows it will simply make Windows feel faster and easier to use.

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Source: Windows Report PowerToys 0.93 Update Brings Sleeker Dashboard and Major Speed Boost