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 breadth of community plugins, it still trails veterans like Flow Launcher and the soon‑to‑arrive Raycast for Windows.
PowerToys’ Command Palette is the successor to the long‑running PowerToys Run — Microsoft’s officially supported, open‑source quick launcher that aims to give Windows a Spotlight‑like experience. It’s invoked by default with Win+Alt+Space, supports app/file search, shell commands (prefix >), window switching, bookmarks and — importantly — an extensible module system that allows third‑party commands and integrations. The intent is straightforward: provide a fast, keyboard‑centric entry point for apps, quick commands, and developer tools that’s both extensible and safe for managed environments. (learn.microsoft.com, theverge.com)
PowerToys itself is a curated suite of utilities — FancyZones, Keyboard Manager, Advanced Paste, among others — and the Command Palette sits inside that ecosystem. That bundling matters: for many users, installing PowerToys brings many productivity wins at once, which changes the calculus versus installing a single standalone launcher.
Why it matters: AOT yields faster cold startup and smaller memory spikes by precompiling code paths that would otherwise be JIT’d in real time. That’s a meaningful win for a launcher you expect to summon instantly dozens of times per day.
These observations should be read as experiential reports rather than universal truths. Launchers run on a huge variety of hardware, system configurations, accessibility settings, and remapped keys; some artifacts (like delayed indexing on first use) are commonly transient. Still, they’re worth flagging because the feeling of immediacy is the main reason users choose keyboard launchers.
A cautionary note: clipboard behavior can be affected by remapped modifier keys or Keyboard Manager remaps; pasting actions executed by clipboard managers have hit bugs in PowerToys before, so any unusual behavior should be reproduced in your own environment and reported to the PowerToys GitHub if it recurs.
Raycast’s core strengths — a curated store, visual extension previews, deep system integrations (clipboard manager, actions that return rich inline content) — are the same elements Flow Launcher offers in community form but implemented with a commercial‑grade polish. If Raycast’s Windows version captures that experience fully, expect many users to re‑evaluate both Flow Launcher and Command Palette as Raycast arrives from beta into general availability. Until then, Flow Launcher remains the community champion while Command Palette builds momentum inside PowerToys. (raycast.com, wired.com)
That said, any extensible launcher creates an attack surface: poorly written or malicious extensions could be abused. Microsoft’s model of centralized distribution and store vetting reduces that risk compared to unmanaged plugin repositories, but site‑wide vigilance and a clear channel for reporting malicious modules remain necessary. Administrators should treat extensions like any third‑party software and review, whitelist or sandbox them appropriately.
Yet the human measure of a launcher is the feeling of instant responsiveness and the availability of the right plugin at the right moment. On that front, Flow Launcher still leads: faster reactive results, a deeper plugin ecosystem, and effortless discovery keep it the everyday choice for power users. Raycast’s arrival on Windows has the potential to reset expectations again, and its curated store model is likely to accelerate improvements across the ecosystem. Until Raycast proves its Windows incarnation, the best practical approach for many users is hybrid: keep PowerToys for FancyZones, Advanced Paste and other system utilities, and run Flow Launcher as the day‑to‑day launcher. (flowlauncher.com, raycast.com)
Command Palette’s future looks bright, but there’s still work to do on responsiveness, extension discoverability, and edge‑case stability. For now, PowerToys’ Command Palette is a compelling, officially backed tool worth installing — just don’t uninstall Flow Launcher yet.
Source: xda-developers.com Microsoft's Command Palette is getting better, but it's still a ways off from Flow Launcher
Background: where Command Palette came from and what it aims to do
PowerToys’ Command Palette is the successor to the long‑running PowerToys Run — Microsoft’s officially supported, open‑source quick launcher that aims to give Windows a Spotlight‑like experience. It’s invoked by default with Win+Alt+Space, supports app/file search, shell commands (prefix >), window switching, bookmarks and — importantly — an extensible module system that allows third‑party commands and integrations. The intent is straightforward: provide a fast, keyboard‑centric entry point for apps, quick commands, and developer tools that’s both extensible and safe for managed environments. (learn.microsoft.com, theverge.com)PowerToys itself is a curated suite of utilities — FancyZones, Keyboard Manager, Advanced Paste, among others — and the Command Palette sits inside that ecosystem. That bundling matters: for many users, installing PowerToys brings many productivity wins at once, which changes the calculus versus installing a single standalone launcher.
What changed in PowerToys 0.93: real engineering gains, measurable improvements
The headline technical changes in PowerToys 0.93 are not marketing fluff. Microsoft enabled Ahead‑Of‑Time (AOT) compilation in the Windows App SDK build, which directly reduced resource usage and load times across the Command Palette experience. The published numbers are concrete and sizeable:- ~15% reduction in startup memory spike.
- ~40% reduction in the Command Palette window load time.
- ~70% faster loading of built‑in extensions.
- Roughly 55% reduction in installed size for the PowerToys package as reported for 0.92 → 0.93 comparisons. (devblogs.microsoft.com, github.com)
Why it matters: AOT yields faster cold startup and smaller memory spikes by precompiling code paths that would otherwise be JIT’d in real time. That’s a meaningful win for a launcher you expect to summon instantly dozens of times per day.
Hands‑on reality: faster, but not perfectly snappy (user report and caveats)
Measured improvements are real, and the UI opens noticeably faster after the 0.93 update — the hotkey brings up the search box immediately, and the launcher’s baseline responsiveness is much improved. However, practical, perceptible latency still exists when the query text changes and new results must be computed and shown, especially when using some extensions or when the launcher is resolving new queries for the first time. In one hands‑on review, the Command Palette opened instantly but showed a perceptible delay between typing and results appearing; the reviewer also reported that if the exact same query is typed a second time, results would appear faster, suggesting caching or indexing behavior. That reviewer ran into a separate problem where the “Extensions” search (which should surface Winget‑distributed extensions) hung in an infinite loading loop and required invoking Winget directly as a workaround. Those are important, real‑world frictions that matter if you rely on instant, muscle‑memory workflows.These observations should be read as experiential reports rather than universal truths. Launchers run on a huge variety of hardware, system configurations, accessibility settings, and remapped keys; some artifacts (like delayed indexing on first use) are commonly transient. Still, they’re worth flagging because the feeling of immediacy is the main reason users choose keyboard launchers.
Extensions, plugins, and the ecosystem battle
A launcher’s raw performance is only half the story; the other half is the ecosystem. Two contrasting approaches are visible:- Flow Launcher: an independent, community‑driven project with a mature plugin store and hundreds of community extensions covering everything from system utilities to fun add‑ons (Pokédex, Stardew Valley wiki lookup, Home Assistant, Spotify control). The plugin ecosystem is large, diverse and easy to browse from inside the app. Flow Launcher users benefit from decades of community‑made integrations.
- Command Palette: an official Microsoft offering that supports extensions distributed via Winget and the Microsoft Store and can host modules for things like Errors & Codes or Everything search integration. Because it’s part of PowerToys, security and update cadence are centralized and maintained by Microsoft, which is attractive for enterprise deployments. However, the ecosystem is nascent and — while it already contains useful extensions — it’s not yet as broad or playful as Flow Launcher’s plugin catalog. (learn.microsoft.com, github.com)
Distribution and discoverability: Winget vs native plugin stores
Command Palette’s reliance on Winget and the Microsoft Store for extension distribution has pros and cons. Winget standardizes installation and versioning and fits with Microsoft’s platform, but a centralized distribution model can slow discoverability and community experimentation compared with a baked‑in plugin browser full of community thumbnails and screenshots. Flow Launcher’s in‑app plugin store remains a strong advantage for discovery — you can search, preview and install without leaving the launcher UI. (github.com, flowlauncher.com)Clipboard history: a critical edge for Command Palette
One area where Command Palette currently shines is the built‑in Clipboard History support. While Flow Launcher offers community plugins to manage the clipboard, their UX often differs: some Flow Launcher plugins copy an item back to the clipboard and require an additional Ctrl+V to paste, rather than pasting immediately when selected. The Command Palette clipboard history implementation restores the expected two‑tier behavior: pressing Enter copies the selected entry to the clipboard (so you can paste normally), and pressing Ctrl+Enter pastes the content immediately into the focused window. That dual behavior matches what many users coming from Windows’ native clipboard (Win+V) or macOS expect and removes an extra keystroke in a common workflow. This feature is back in Command Palette by design in 0.93 and represents a practical advantage for many power users.A cautionary note: clipboard behavior can be affected by remapped modifier keys or Keyboard Manager remaps; pasting actions executed by clipboard managers have hit bugs in PowerToys before, so any unusual behavior should be reproduced in your own environment and reported to the PowerToys GitHub if it recurs.
Flow Launcher: why it still wins the launcher crown (for many users)
Flow Launcher’s strengths are straightforward and user‑facing:- Responsiveness: Flow Launcher’s query ranking and live results update quickly, often faster than Command Palette in subjective tests, making it ideal for muscle‑memory launching.
- Plugin depth: Hundreds of plugins, many curated and community maintained, enable everything from performing calculations to calling home automation routines or querying fandom databases. That breadth is what turns a launcher into a workflow hub. (flowlauncher.com, xda-developers.com)
- Discoverability: A first‑class plugin store built into the app makes discovery and installation immediate.
Raycast on Windows: a looming disruptor
Raycast is the other major variable. Raycast has dominated the third‑party launcher scene on macOS thanks to its polished UI, rich extension store with images and previews, and a developer‑friendly extension system. After a $30M Series B, the Raycast team confirmed plans to bring Raycast to Windows and iOS; a Windows rollout and waitlist was announced with initial invites planned for 2025. Raycast’s arrival on Windows could significantly shift the landscape, because its extension store model and polished integrations set a higher bar for discoverability and richness than what most Windows launchers currently offer. (raycast.com, wired.com)Raycast’s core strengths — a curated store, visual extension previews, deep system integrations (clipboard manager, actions that return rich inline content) — are the same elements Flow Launcher offers in community form but implemented with a commercial‑grade polish. If Raycast’s Windows version captures that experience fully, expect many users to re‑evaluate both Flow Launcher and Command Palette as Raycast arrives from beta into general availability. Until then, Flow Launcher remains the community champion while Command Palette builds momentum inside PowerToys. (raycast.com, wired.com)
Security, manageability and enterprise considerations
There’s a non‑trivial enterprise argument for Command Palette: it ships inside an officially supported Microsoft package (PowerToys), gets regular updates and security review, and uses established distribution channels (Microsoft Store, GitHub, Winget). For organizations that restrict third‑party installs, PowerToys can be packaged and managed centrally, and extensions distributed via Winget or approved store processes fit IT workflows more easily than a decentralized plugin ecosystem. That gives Command Palette a practical advantage in managed environments. (github.com, learn.microsoft.com)That said, any extensible launcher creates an attack surface: poorly written or malicious extensions could be abused. Microsoft’s model of centralized distribution and store vetting reduces that risk compared to unmanaged plugin repositories, but site‑wide vigilance and a clear channel for reporting malicious modules remain necessary. Administrators should treat extensions like any third‑party software and review, whitelist or sandbox them appropriately.
Practical recommendations for users today
- If you want the fastest, most feature‑rich community plugin ecosystem right now, install Flow Launcher and browse its plugin store. It’s the best single‑app launcher experience for heavy customization.
- If you prefer an official, well‑maintained, centrally distributed launcher that’s part of a broader toolkit (FancyZones, Advanced Paste, etc.), upgrade PowerToys to 0.93 and enable Command Palette. You’ll get significant performance improvements and a more cohesive PowerToys workflow. (devblogs.microsoft.com, github.com)
- For clipboard power users, try Command Palette’s built‑in clipboard history — its Enter vs Ctrl+Enter behavior matches expected Windows-style workflows and removes an extra keypress in many scenarios. Test it with your remapped keys if you use Keyboard Manager.
- If you rely on niche integrations (Home Assistant, Pokédex, Stardew wiki, etc.), stick with Flow Launcher until Command Palette’s plugin catalog matures or Raycast for Windows becomes available and proves comparable. (flowlauncher.com, xda-developers.com)
What I’d like to see next from Command Palette
- Continued improvements to query latency when the typed query changes — lower perceptible latency will close the remaining gap with Flow Launcher’s instant feel. The AOT work is excellent, but interactive result ranking and incremental indexing matter just as much as cold start times.
- A richer, discoverable in‑app extension store with screenshots and descriptions — discoverability makes or breaks third‑party ecosystems. Winget is a solid backend, but an integrated gallery like Flow Launcher’s or Raycast’s store would accelerate adoption. (flowlauncher.com, github.com)
- Robust handling of Winget extension discovery (fix the infinite loading reported by early reviewers) and clearer UX around extension updates and permissions. Early field reports indicate the extension search experience still needs polish.
Final assessment: promising official challenger, not yet dethroning Flow Launcher
PowerToys 0.93 is a meaningful technical milestone for Command Palette. The engineering improvements — AOT compilation, large reductions in load and extension startup time, and a cleaned‑up dashboard — moved the product from a beta curiosity to a practical everyday tool for many users. For enterprises and users who prefer a supported, Microsoft‑maintained toolbox, Command Palette now belongs in the shortlist. (devblogs.microsoft.com, github.com)Yet the human measure of a launcher is the feeling of instant responsiveness and the availability of the right plugin at the right moment. On that front, Flow Launcher still leads: faster reactive results, a deeper plugin ecosystem, and effortless discovery keep it the everyday choice for power users. Raycast’s arrival on Windows has the potential to reset expectations again, and its curated store model is likely to accelerate improvements across the ecosystem. Until Raycast proves its Windows incarnation, the best practical approach for many users is hybrid: keep PowerToys for FancyZones, Advanced Paste and other system utilities, and run Flow Launcher as the day‑to‑day launcher. (flowlauncher.com, raycast.com)
Command Palette’s future looks bright, but there’s still work to do on responsiveness, extension discoverability, and edge‑case stability. For now, PowerToys’ Command Palette is a compelling, officially backed tool worth installing — just don’t uninstall Flow Launcher yet.
Source: xda-developers.com Microsoft's Command Palette is getting better, but it's still a ways off from Flow Launcher
