Microsoft’s PowerToys, a popular free app for Windows 11, has received a significant update to version 0.97. This update introduces a brand new tool and makes substantial improvements to the already well-liked Command Palette.
After the latest update, you can now personalize the Command Palette. You can change its appearance by adding a background image or adjusting its colors.
PowerToys lets you customize how search results appear. You can now choose which commands are prioritized and run first if multiple options are found.
PowerToys now includes a new feature called Command Palette, which lets you easily manage PowerToys tools and settings. Instead of going to the PowerToys settings, you can use Command Palette to quickly turn features like Light Switch on or off, or change FancyZones layouts.
Command Palette also gained support for Peek, which allows you to preview files and folders.
This update personalizes and strengthens the Command Palette. Now, you can control PowerToys directly from the Command Palette, making it feel more seamlessly integrated with Windows 11.
View the full changelog ↴
PowerToys v0.97.0: Highlights
PowerToys release notes are known for being very thorough. Here’s a summary of the latest updates from the app’s GitHub page. Feel free to use the navigation menu on this page to skip ahead if you’re not interested in the details.
📋 Command Palette gets a big update
We’ve made significant improvements to the Command Palette in this release! You’ll find new features, more ways to customize it, and a whole host of general enhancements.
You can now personalize the look of the Command Palette! A new Personalization page lets you choose a background image and adjust the colors to create a Command Palette that feels unique to you. To access these settings, go to Command Palette Settings, then Personalization, and finally, Background.
Support for fallback ranking
As an analyst, I’m excited to share that we’ve added a new feature called fallback ranking to give you more control over your search results. You can now customize the order in which commands appear! To do this, go to your extension’s settings and click ‘Manage fallback order’. From there, you can simply drag and drop the commands to prioritize the ones you use most often. This should make finding what you need much faster and easier.
Control PowerToys directly from Command Palette
Many users asked for this! We’ve added a new feature to PowerToys that lets you manage PowerToys tools directly from the Command Palette. You can easily turn features on and off (like Light Switch), change FancyZones arrangements, select colors, and do much more—all without opening separate windows. Just double-check that the tools you want to use are enabled in PowerToys settings. Plus, you can now use Peek right within Command Palette to quickly preview files and folders!
More Command Palette changes!
- Support for Pinyin! To enable this, make sure your OS language is set to a supported Chinese variant.
- A new built-in Remote Desktop extension to quickly jump to your remote desktops.
- You can now select a custom search engine in the Web Search extension settings.
- Added drag and drop support. File Indexer and Clipboard History can now drag content from Command Palette into other apps, and extension developers can add this capability to their own extensions.
🖱️ Introducing CursorWrap
Do you use multiple monitors and find it annoying to move your mouse cursor across all of them? CursorWrap solves this by letting your cursor seamlessly move between screens. When you reach an edge of one monitor, it automatically reappears on the opposite side, saving you time and effort.
⚡ Quick Access flyout gets faster
We’ve made the Quick Access panel load much faster by separating it from the main Settings app. You can now also turn it off completely or create a keyboard shortcut to open it. Plus, if you prefer a cleaner look, you can change the PowerToys icon in the system tray to a simple monochrome style, so it blends in better with your other icons.
⌨️ More CLI support across PowerToys
We’ve added more command-line support! Now you can control Peek, FancyZones, Image Resizer, and File Locksmith using the command line. This lets you do things like change window layouts, quickly resize many images, or unlock files directly from the command line. See our documentation for a complete list of available commands.
🧩 Other notable changes
- Light Switch can now follow Night Light. Just switch the mode in Settings.
- The “What’s new” dialog has been refreshed to make it easier to browse, with more detailed release notes going forward.
- Advanced Paste now previews HEX color values and supports image input for AI transformations.
- More improvements and fixes across the board: see the full release notes below.
PowerToys CursorWrap: An almost perfect feature
The new CursorWrap feature in PowerToys is a great first step. It’s really useful to be able to quickly move the cursor from one side of the screen to the other with a simple flick of the wrist.
I’ve been thinking about CursorWrap, and I have a couple of suggestions. It would be really useful if I could choose to only have it work on the left and right sides of the screen, rather than applying it everywhere.
When I try to switch between tabs or move windows in Edge, I usually position my cursor at the very top of the screen and then slightly adjust it to select what I need. I use a similar motion when clicking the Start menu or items on the taskbar.
With CursorWrap turned on, moving the mouse feels different because it treats the top and bottom of the screen as connected. This makes actions like grabbing tabs in Microsoft Edge a little trickier, requiring more accurate mouse movements.
I found a bug: if I turn on CursorWrap while using an external monitor, and then close my laptop, the feature thinks both screens are still available, which isn’t right.
These comments are small things to ask for with a new feature, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how CursorWrap gets even better in the future.
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2026-01-20 16:40