What you need to know
- PowerToys version 0.75 rolled out this week.
- The update adds a new utility designed for configuring profiles and brings a new Dashboard home page.
- The Peek feature is now much more powerful as well following the update.
Microsoft PowerToys has a new update, and it adds some handy functionality to the app. A utility has been added that focuses on configuring profiles, and a new Dashboard has been added to the home page as well. The previewer within Peek is now much more powerful, as it can show any supported file type that a specific machine can preview. For example, PCs with Office installed can now use Peek to preview Office files.
The team behind PowerToys is excellent at tracking changes. That’s wonderful for developers, but it makes browsing through change logs take a bit more time. Luckily, the list of changes for PowerToys version 0.75 starts with the highlights.
What is Microsoft PowerToys?
PowerToys is a collection of tools that are built into a single application. While some of the features in PowerToys go on to shape Windows 11, the app is developed separately and is geared to users who want to get the most out of their PC.
The list of PowerToys utilities grows at a steady pace. You can enable or disable each feature independently. For example, I use PowerRename and ImageResizer every week, but I have FancyZones turned off. Our Managing Editor Richard Devine is a big fan of PowerToys Run, likely because he secretly wishes his PC was a Linux machine.
PowerToys 0.75: What’s new
Highlights
- New utility: An environment variables editor with the functionality to configure profiles that can be enabled/disabled. Thanks @niels9001 for the design and UI work that made this possible!
- Settings has a new Dashboard home page, with quick access for enabling modules, short descriptions and activation methods. Thanks @niels9001 for the design and UI work that made this possible!
- Added a previewer to Peek that hosts File Explorer previewers to support every file type that a machine is currently able to preview. For example, this means that if Microsoft Office handlers are installed, Peek can preview Office files. Thanks @dillydylann!
General
- Many typo fixes through the projects and documentation. Thanks @brianteeman!
- Refactored and improved the logic across utilities for bringing a window to the foreground after activation.
Color Picker
- After activating Color Picker, it’s now possible to cancel the session by clicking the right mouse button. Thanks @fredso90!
Environment Variables
- Added a new utility: An environment variables editor that has the functionality to configure profiles that can be enabled/disabled. Thanks @niels9001 for the design and UI work that made this possible!
- Shows in the title bar if it’s running as an administrator. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
FancyZones
- Fixed an issue causing context menu pop-ups from some apps to automatically snap to a zone. (This was a hotfix for 0.74)
- Applied the fix for the context menu pop-ups to the logic that decides which windows can be snapped.
- Reworked the “Keep windows in their zones” option to include the work area and turn it on by default, fixing an incompatibility with the Copilot flyout.
- Fixed an issue causing windows to be snapped while moving to a different virtual desktop.
File Explorer add-ons
- Fixed an issue blocking some SVG files from being previewed correctly. (This was a hotfix for 0.74)
- Fixed crashes on invalid files in the STL Thumbnail generator.
GPO
- Added a global GPO rule that applies for all utilities unless it’s overridden. Thanks @htcfreek!
- Added GPO rules to control which PowerToys Run plugins should be enabled/disabled by policy. Thanks @htcfreek!
- All plugins have to provide its plugin ID as static property in its Main method.
Image Resizer
- Fixed wrong .bmp file association in the registry. Thanks @meitinger!
Keyboard Manager
- Visually distinguish between the Numpad and regular period characters in the UI.
- This utility is now disabled by default on new installations, since it requires user configuration to affect keyboard behavior.
- Fixed a typo in the Numpad Subtract key in the editor.
Mouse Jump
- The process now runs in the background, for a faster activation time. Thanks @mikeclayton!
Peek
- Reported file sizes will now more closely match what’s reported by File Explorer. Thanks @Deepak-Sangle!
- Added a previewer that hosts File Explorer previewers to support every file type that a machine is currently able to preview. Thanks @dillydylann!
- Fixed an issue causing the preview of the first file to be stuck loading. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
- Fixed showing the previously previewed video file when invoking Peek with a new file. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
- Added the wrap and file formatting options to the Monaco previewer. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
PowerRename
- Save data from the last run in a different file to avoid conflicting with changing settings in the Settings application.
PowerToys Run
- Fixed a case where the query wasn’t being cleared after invoking a result action through the keyboard. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
- Improved the shell selection option for Windows Terminal in the Shell plugin and improved the backend code for adding combo box options to plugins. Thanks @htcfreek!
- The implementation of the combo box items has changed amd isn’t backward compatible. (Old plugins won’t crash, but the combo box setting isn’t shown in settings ui anymore.)
- Added Unix time in milliseconds, fixed negative unix time input and improved error messages in the TimeDate plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!
- The PowerToys plugin allows calling the new Environment Variables utility. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
- Refactored and added support to VSCodium Stable, VSCodium Insider and Remote Tunnels workspaces. Thanks @eternalphane!
Quick Accent
- Fixed characters that were removed from “All languages” because they were not in any single language. (This was a hotfix for 0.74)
- Added Asturian characters to the Spanish character set. Thanks @blakestack!
- Added Greek characters with tonos. Thanks @PesBandi!
Registry Preview
- Fixed a parsing error that crashed the Application. (This was a hotfix for 0.74)
- Fixed opening file names with non-ASCII characters. Thanks @randyrants!
- Fixed wrong parsing when the file contained an assignment with spaces around the equals sign. Thanks @randyrants!
- Fixed key transversal issues when a key was a substring of a parent key. Thanks @randyrants!
Runner
- Fixed the update notification toast to show an Unicode arrow. Thanks @TheJoeFin!
Settings
- Added a new Dashboard home page, with quick access for enabling modules, short descriptions and activation methods. Thanks @niels9001 for the design and UI work that made this possible!
- Fixed a typo in the Hosts File Editor page. Thanks @Deepak-Sangle!
- Added a lock icon to the flyout listing of all modules when its enabled state is controlled by policy.
- The “All apps” list in the flyout will now list all apps even if their enabled state is controlled by policy.
