Microsoft to reboot PowerToys for Windows 10

[Arthur]

https://github.com/Microsoft/PowerToys

 

PowerToys is a set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience for greater productivity.

 

Inspired by the Windows 95 era PowerToys project, this reboot provides power users with ways to squeeze more efficiency out of the Windows 10 shell and customize it for individual workflows. A great overview of the Windows 95 PowerToys can be found here.

 

The first preview of these utilities and corresponding source code will be released Summer 2019.

 

What's Happening

The first two utilities we're working on are:

 

• Maximize to new desktop widget - The MTND widget shows a pop-up button when a user hovers over the maximize / restore button on any window. Clicking it creates a new desktop, sends the app to that desktop and maximizes the app on the new desktop.
   
  
   
  
• Windows key shortcut guide - The shortcut guide appears when a user holds the Windows key down for more than one second and shows the available shortcuts for the current state of the desktop.
   
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/PowerToys/master/WindowsKeyShortcutGuide.jpg
  

Backlog

Here's the current set of utilities we're considering. Please use issues and +1's to guide the project to suggest new ideas and help us prioritize the list below.

 

• Full window manager including specific layouts for docking and undocking laptops
  
• Keyboard shortcut manager
  
• Win+R replacement
  
• Better alt+tab including browser tab integration and search for running apps
  
• Battery tracker
  
• Batch file renamer
  
• Quick resolution swaps in taskbar
  
• Mouse events without focus
  
• Cmd (or PS or Bash) from here
  
• Contents menu file browsing
  

 

[Arthur]

FancyZones looks useful.

 

https://insider.windows.com/en-us/articles/announcing-the-first-preview-and-code-release-of-powertoys/

 

This first preview of PowerToys contains two utilities. The Windows key shortcut guide and a window manager called FancyZones.

[Arthur]

Download: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/latest

 

Microsoft Updates Windows 10 PowerToys with Batch Renamer Tool

 

Microsoft updated the open-source PowerToys toolset for Windows 10 with a new utility named PowerRename that will allow users to batch rename large file collections.

 

"PowerRename is a Windows Shell Context Menu Extension for advanced bulk renaming using simple search and replace or more powerful regular expression matching," Microsoft explains.

 

The newly added PowerRename PowerToy makes it possible to rename large numbers of files using search and replace, and it also provides regular expressions support to replace filename parts easier.

 

"While you type in the search and replace input fields, the preview area will show what the items will be renamed to. PowerRename then calls into the Windows Explorer file operations engine to perform the rename," Microsoft adds.

 

Microsoft provides a guide on how to use regular expressions with PowerRename to help rename files by searching for text patterns. The tool uses the ECMAScript, a highly popular grammar among modern programming languages.

 

[Arthur]

Download: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/latest

 

PowerToys v0.16 adds image resizer, window walker, and preview pane tools

 

Microsoft's revival of PowerToys has been evolving at a rapid pace since its initial release, and today, the company has released yet another new update for the tool, bringing it to version 0.16. This release actually includes a handful of new features.

 

First, there's an image resizer utility, which lets you resize multiple images at a time with a right-click in the Windows File Explorer. The tool offers a few preset resizing options, but you can also set a custom maximum size for the pictures.

 

Then there's the window walker, an alternative to the Alt-Tab shortcut for switching apps. Instead of going through all your open apps one by one, window walker lets users run a text search through all of the open apps to find what they're looking for.

 

Finally, there are a couple of extensions for the File Explorer Preview pane. These extensions let users preview files with both .md and .svg extensions in the File Explorer.

 

 

 

[Arthur]

PowerToys v0.18 has been released with a new Spotlight-like app launcher.

 

Download: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/latest

 

With Microsoft PowerToys (0.18) you can customize the Windows 10 shell for your personal workflows. Today’s updates add two new utilities: Keyboard Remapper and PowerToys Run. You can remap key to key and shortcut to shortcut using Keyboard Remapper. And, PowerToys Run, an app launcher utility gets you to your programs faster than before – hit alt-space and just start typing.

 

Source: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2020/05/19/developing-for-all-1-billion-windows-10-devices-and-beyond