PowerToys’ latest update is small but it’s the latest chapter in an excellent year for the app

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What you need to know

  • Microsoft shipped an update to PowerToys that brings the app to version 0.83.0.
  • The update has several fixes and improvements but no single feature that many will consider groundbreaking.
  • PowerToys has received several updates this year, however, so there are many new tools and options to try.

I’m thrilled to see such a comprehensive update for PowerToys! As someone who spends hours in front of my computer, these updates bring significant improvements to my productivity and user experience. The ability to configure the “First week of year” and “First day of week” calculations in the DateTime plugin is particularly useful for me as I juggle multiple projects across different time zones.

Microsoft’s PowerToys for Windows is a marvelous assemblage of useful tools. This application gathers various utilities that handle minor tasks such as file renaming, smart copy-pasting options, and everything in between. The app frequently gets updated, although not every update introduces significant new features. This description applies to PowerToys version 0.83.0, which offers only a few novel features compared to its predecessors.

As a seasoned user of PowerToys, I must say that the recent update offers a perfect opportunity to reminisce about some of the most significant enhancements this tool has brought to my workflow this year. For those who are eager to discover what’s new in version 0.83.0, simply scroll down to the change log below, which is also available on GitHub for your convenience.

Best new PowerToys features of 2024

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PowerToys receives a lot of updates, and each of those updates has an extensive change log. As such, it can be difficult to keep up to date on the meatier improvements to the app. Here’s a quick rundown of the biggest improvements that have rolled out in 2024:

  • Advanced Paste rolled out with version 0.81.0 of PowerToys. The feature builds on Paste As Plain Text but has several more capabilities, such as being able to paste as markdown or JSON. Advanced Paste can also use AI (requires an OpenAI key), though that feature is optional.
  • Audio file support within Peek was added to PowerToys in version 0.80.0.
  • Keyboard Manager gained the ability to map shortcuts to start applications or open URIs in PowerToys 0.79.
  • PowerToys Run added support for loading third-party plugins with additional dependencies in PowerToys 0.77.0, which was the app’s first update of the year.

PowerToys v0.83.0

Highlights

  • Awake Quality of Life changes, including changing the tray icon to reflect the current mode. Thanks @dend!
  • Changes to general GPO policies and new policies for Mouse Without Borders. The names for some intune policy configuration sets might need to be updated as seen in https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-dev-docs/pull/5045/files . Thanks @htcfreek!

General

  • Reordered GPO policies, making it easier to find some policies. Thanks @htcfreek!

Advanced Paste

  • Fixed CSV parser to support double quotes and escape delimiters when pasting as JSON. Thanks @GhostVaibhav!
  • Improved double quote handling in the CSV parser when pasting as JSON. Thanks @htcfreek!

Awake

  • Different modes will now show different icons in the system tray. Thanks @dend, and @niels9001 for the icon design!
  • Removed the dependency on Windows Forms and used native Win32 APIs instead for the tray icon. Thanks @dend and @BrianPeek!
  • Fixed an issue where the UI would become non-responsive after selecting no time for the timed mode. Thanks @dend!
  • Refactored code for easier maintenance. Thanks @dend!
  • The tray icon will now be shown when running Awake standalone to signal mode. Thanks @dend!
  • The tray icon tooltip shows how much time is left on the timer. Thanks @dend!
  • Added DPI awareness to the tray icon context menu. Thanks @dend!

Color Picker

  • Added support to using the mouse wheel to scroll through the color history. Thanks @Fefedu973!

File Explorer add-ons

  • Allow copying from the right-click menu in Monaco and Markdown previewers.

File Locksmith

  • Fixed a crash when there were a big number of entries being shown by moving the opened files of a process to another dialog.

Installer

  • Fixed the path where DSC module files were installed for the user-scope installer. (This was a hotfix for 0.82)

Peek

  • Allow copying from the right-click menu in Dev files and Markdown previews.

PowerToys Run

  • Fixed a crash on Windows 11 build 22000. (This was a hotfix for 0.82)
  • Blocked a transparency fix code from running on Windows 10, since it was causing graphical glitches. (This was a hotfix for 0.82)
  • Accept speed abbreviations like kilometers per hour (kmph) in the Unit Converter plugin. Thanks @GhostVaibhav!
  • Added settings to configure behavior of the “First week of year” and “First day of week” calculations in the DateTime plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!
  • Fixed wrong initial position of the PowerToys Run when switching between monitors with different dpi values.
  • Started allowing interchangeable use of / and \ in the registry plugin paths.
  • Added support to automatic sign-in after rebooting with the System plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!
  • Added suggested use example results to the Value Generator plugin. Thanks @azlkiniue!

Quick Accent

  • Added support for the Bulgarian character set. Thanks @octastylos-pseudodipteros!

Runner

  • Add code to handle release tags with an upper V when trying to detect new updates. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Settings

  • Fixed the UI spacing in the “update available” card. Thanks @Agnibaan!
  • Fixed the information bars in the Mouse Without Borders settings page to hide when the module is disabled. Thanks @htcfreek!
  • Improved consistency of the icons used in the Mouse Without Borders settings page. Thanks @htcfreek!
  • Improved action keyword information bar padding in the PowerToys Run plugins section. Thanks @htcfreek!
  • Fixed a crash in the dashboard when Keyboard Manager Editor settings file became locked.

Documentation

  • Added the RDP plugin to PowerToys Run thirdPartyRunPlugins.md docs. Thanks @anthony81799!
  • Added the GitHubRepo and ProcessKiller plugins to PowerToys Run thirdPartyRunPlugins.md docs. Thanks @8LWXpg!
  • Fixed a typo in the 0.82.0 release notes in README. Thanks @walex999!

Development

  • Disabled FancyZone UI tests, to unblock PRs. We plan to bring them back in the future. (This was a hotfix for 0.82)
  • Fixed an issue where flakiness in CI was causing the installer custom actions DLL from being signed. (This was a hotfix for 0.82)
  • Upgraded the Microsoft.Windows.Compatibility dependency to 8.0.7.
  • Upgraded the System.Text.Json dependency to 8.0.4.
  • Upgraded the Microsoft.Data.Sqlite dependency to 8.0.7.
  • Upgraded the MSBuildCache dependency to 0.1.283-preview. Thanks @dfederm!
  • Removed an unneeded /Zm compiler flag from Keyboard Manager Editor common build flags.
  • Fixed the winget publish action to handle upper case V in the tag name. Thanks @mdanish-kh!
  • Removed wildcard items from vcxproj files. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
  • Removed the similar issues bot GitHub actions. Thanks @craigloewen-msft!
  • Fixed CODEOWNERS to better protect changes in some files.
  • Switched machines being used in CI and pointed status badges in README to the new machines.
  • Fixed NU1503 build warnings when building PowerToys. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
  • Use the MSTest meta dependency for running the tests instead of the individual testing packages. Thanks @stan-sz!
  • Added missing CppWinRT references.

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2024-07-31 18:09