Microsoft PowerToys 0.15 Released with General Improvements

Microsoft releases a new version of their newest Windows 10 PowerToys app suite. While this release doesn't include new features, it comes with a number of improvements made to existing features.

You may remember PowerToys, a set of tiny handy utilities which were first introduced in Windows 95. Probably, most users will recollect TweakUI and QuickRes, which were really useful. The last version of the classic PowerToys suite was released for Windows XP. In 2019, Microsoft announced that they are reviving PowerToys for Windows and making them open source. Windows 10 powertoys obviously are completely new and different, tailored for the new operating system.

As of now, Windows 10 PowerToys include the following apps.

• PowerRename -  a tool that is intended to help you rename a large number of files using various naming conditions like search and replace a portion of the file name, define regular expressions, change letter case, and more. PowerRename is implemented as a shell extension for File Explorer (read plugin). It opens a dialog box with a bunch of options.
• FancyZones - FancyZones is a window manager that is designed to make it easy to arrange and snap windows into efficient layouts for your workflow, and also to restore these layouts quickly. FancyZones allows the user to define a set of window locations for a desktop that are drag targets for windows. When the user drags a window into a zone, the window is resized and repositioned to fill that zone. 
• Windows key shortcut guide - The Windows key shortcut guide is a full screen overlay utility that provides a dynamic set of Windows key shortcuts that are applicable for the given desktop and currently active window. When the Windows key is held down for one second, (this time can be tuned in settings), an overlay appears on the desktop showing all available Windows key shortcuts and what action those shortcuts will take given the current state of the desktop and active window. If the Windows key continues to be held down after a shortcut is issued, the overlay will remain up and show the new state of the active window.

Today's release increases the app version to 0.15. The key changes are as follows.

PowerToys 0.15 Key Changes

• Make you aware there is a new version from within PowerToys
• Removed requirement to always 'run as admin'
• Added almost 300 unit tests to increase stability and prevent regressions.
• Resolved almost 100 issues
• Made .NET Framework parts of the source run faster with NGEN
• Improved for how we store data locally
• Increased FancyZones compatibility with applications
• Created the v1.0 strategy, the launcher, the keyboard manager specs
• Work on cleaning up our issue backlog and labels

Note for upgrading: You need to reapply your zone layout for FancyZones. Your custom zone sets are preserved.

Head over the GitHub releases page to learn more about the update.