PowerToys 0.59 features a restyled Power Rename and improvements to Keyboard Manager

Microsoft has released a new stable version of its PowerToys app suite. PowerToys 0.59 is notable for using WinUI 3 in Power Rename, that makes it look modern and stylish. Among other changes, Keyboard Manager now supports up to 4 modifier keys for shortcuts.

Microsoft notes that improvements for PowerToys to make them run on ARM64 natively have been wrapped up in this release. It also included updated binaries and runtime of Windows App SDK 1.1.0. The latter is the most recent version of SDK that fixes Powertoys Settings which couldn't open when running elevated. The updated SDK should also resolve certain installation issues.

You can download PowerToys from the Store, GitHub, or install them using winget.

Note: If you have already upgraded to this version of the app suite and cannot open its settings, check out this issue. There are some apps that may interfere with it, such as RTSS RivaTuner Statistics Server and MSI AfterBurner.

Here is the full list of changes included in PowerToys 0.59.

What's new in PowerToys 0.59

ARM64

• ARM64 support now fully added!
• Fixed PowerRename to work on ARM64.
• Fixed File Explorer tools to work on ARM64.
• Made changes for the installer projects to build ARM64 installers.
• Configured the CI and Release pipelines to build for ARM64.
• Added ARM64 build status to the README.

Always on Top

• Fixed an issue where the borders where sticking around when a window was minimized with Win+D.

FancyZones

• Fixed a bug that was consuming CPU cycles when the default layout was set.
• Fixed a bug where apps were not opened in their last known zones due to Virtual Desktop ID changes.
• Fixed a bug that was snapping popup menus opened by applications.
• Fixed a bug causing windows not to be snapped under some configurations.

Image Resizer

• No longer tries to change metadata on files that were not actually resized. Thanks @adamchilders!

File explorer add-ons

• Fixed a bug where modules depending on WebView2 would be limited to opening files smaller than 2 MB. Now the resulting html is generated into a temporary file before presenting it.
• Add a viewBox attribute to svg files that don't have one so that the preview tries to show the whole image.
• Remove scrollbar that was showing when rendering svg thumbnails.

Keyboard Manager

• Now up to four modifier keys can be used in shortcuts. This will allow you to use the Office key (which sends Win+Ctrl+Shift+Alt), for example.
• Fixed a bug locking Keyboard Manager when two shortcut mapping were pressed at the same time.
• Removed event spam for certain telemetry events.

PowerRename

• Ported to use WinUI 3 instead of WinUI 2.

PowerToys Run

• The Services plugin is able to search for parts of the name, display name or the service type or state. Thanks @htcfreek!
• The Services plugin now supports the startup type 'Automatic (Delayed Autostart)'. Thanks @htcfreek!
• The Services plugin now has tooltips for large service names and other UI improvements. Thanks @htcfreek!
• The TimeDate plugin gave results for queries containing just numbers on global queries. This has been fixed. Thanks @htcfreek!
• We've introduced a throttle before a query is done to ensure typing is done to increase performance. Thanks @shandsj!
• Fixed a crash in WebSearch when there's an empty pattern setup for the system's default browser.
• Fixed a bug where VSCodeWorkspaces was not finding portable installations of VSCode. Thanks @harvastum!
• The Calculator plugin reacts better to invalid input and internal errors. Thanks @htcfreek!
• The Calculator plugin can now be configured to use the US number format instead of the system one. Thanks @htcfreek!
• The Folder plugin supports paths containing "/". Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Settings

• Now the UI for adding excluded apps for FindMyMouse is disabled when the module is disabled. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Text was improved in the Settings UI for File Explorer. Thanks @Jay-o-Way!
• Settings won't try to launch if everything runs elevated in the machine, and a warning message is shown instead.
• Some minor UI fixes. Thanks @niels9001!
• The Settings screen should now open correctly if the OOBE screen was opened first.
• The rounded corner settings for FancyZones now only show on Windows 11. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Fixed a UI freeze when entering the Keyboard Manager page with clean settings.
• Fixed a UI glitch where a message was being shown that all PowerToys Run plugins were disabled when using the search function. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Upgraded the Windows App SDK runtimes to 1.1.0, fixing an issue where Settings wouldn't start with UAC off and improving performance.

Runner

• Auto-update takes into account if it's running on x64 or arm64 to download the right installer.

Installer

• Updated the .NET dependency to 6.0.5.
• The installer is now built using a beta version of Wix 3.14 for arm64 support.
• Added the VC++ Redistributable binary as a requirement.
• The Windows App SDK runtime binaries are being shipped with PowerToys instead of running its installer. This should fix most of the install issues with 0.58.

Development

• New action added to GitHub to publish the winget package to PowerToys.
• New action added to GitHub to publish for the Microsoft Store. Thanks azchohfi!
• Documentation for installing the Windows App SDK dependencies and building the installer was updated.
• FxCop removed from the PowerToys Run TimeZone plugin and was replaced with NetAnalyzers. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

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