Microsoft Releases PowerToys 0.17 with Auto-Update and Fancy Zones Improvements

Microsoft has made a newer version of PowerToys available for download. PowerToys 0.17 introduces the auto-update feature that will install upcoming releases automatically. Also, there are a number of useful changes made to Fancy Zones.

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.

PowerToys 0.17

PowerToys 0.17 comes with the following highlights in the change log.

Auto-updating

Devs just added in the code for doing updating, so the first chance to experience this will be when 0.18 is release. They are also collecting feedback on the app upgrade process, i.e. to learn if users want to install it manually or automatically.

For the entire commit history, please look at the 0.17 release. Below are just a few of the bullet items from this release.

Here are a few larger items done in 0.17:

• PowerToys can now update itself #1686
• FancyZone can now snap to two zones (still experimental since it doesn't support restoring the app to two zones)
• Per machine installation fixed, non-admin user will be able again to use PowerToys after the regression in 0.16.
• Fixed most of the FancyZones Virtual Desktop bugs.
• Fixed several FZ bugs including proper handling of taskbar position.
• PowerToys icon in the Start menu will always show

Download PowerToys

You can download the app from its Releases page on GitHub:

Download PowerToys

Available Tools

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.
• Image Resizer, a Windows Shell Extension for quickly resizing images.
• File Explorer - a set of addons for File Explorer. Currently includes two Preview Pane additions to show contents of *.MD and *.SVG files.
• Window Walker is an app that lets you search and switch between windows that you have open, all from the comfort of your keyboard.