PowerToys are getting the ability to convert audio and video files

Microsoft PowerToys continues to evolve as a powerful toolkit for Windows users, with upcoming updates set to significantly enhance its functionality. Its Advanced Paste feature is receiving a major upgrade. In the near future, it will get some cool media transcoding capabilities, making it much more versatile for everyday tasks.

This enhancement was announced by Clint Rutkas on X and is expected to be included in PowerToys version 0.89, scheduled for release later in February.

PowerToys Media Converter in Advanced Paste

As follows from the announcement and GitHub, the tool is getting the following capabilities.

Transcode audio or video files into MP3 format

Extract the audio track from any media file and save it as an MP3 while preserving metadata and quality settings.

Convert videos into MP4 (H.264/AAC)

Compress video files into the widely supported MP4 format using modern codecs (H.264 for video and AAC for audio). The tool ensures that bitrate, video dimensions, and metadata are retained from the original file.

This feature eliminates the need for third-party tools or online services, saving time and enhancing security by avoiding the upload of sensitive data.

The updated Advanced Paste module will boast improved usability. Specially, it will have a progress bar will display the status of ongoing tasks, allowing users to monitor how long the conversion will take.

For long-running tasks, users can now cancel operations mid-process, providing greater control over resource-intensive conversions. Obviously, these Advanced Paste enhancements make PowerToys more interesting to a wider audience.

So, PowerToys' Advanced Paste allowed users to paste content as plain text, JSON, or even convert text into code using OpenAI. Now, it’s getting a powerful new feature: media transcoding. PowerToys version 0.89 should bring these exciting changes to life. As always, you can follow the development process and contribute to the project on the official PowerToys GitHub repository.