Microsoft revives PowerToys with open-source tools
Party like it’s Windows 95. BRAD CHACOS reports
Microsoft’s new-found infatuation with opensource projects is spawning an unexpected love child that might just bring a tear to the eyes of PC veterans. PowerToys, a collection of poweruser tools for enthusiasts from the Windows 95 through XP era, will return this summer in preview form with a pair of Windows 10 utilities. Many more projects being put forward for consideration.
You’ll find the modern PowerToys suite hosted on GitHub (fave.co/2VC8SBz). The pair of projects kicking off the endeavour look very helpful.
The first, called the ‘Maximize to new desktop widget’, takes advantage of the virtual desktops that remain one of Windows 10’s most helpful tools that you might not know about. It reveals a pop-up button when you hover over the Minimize button for an application. “Clicking it creates a new desktop, sends the app to that desktop and maximizes the app on the new desktop,” the overview explains.
The second utility is a simple (yet much-needed) Windows key shortcut guide. If you hold down the Windows key for longer than a second, a pop-up shortcut guide appears that ‘shows the available
shortcuts for the current state of the desktop’, meaning the shortcuts you’ll see are contextualized for the task at hand. Frankly, I’d love for this to appear as a native Windows 10 feature if it works as well as it seems it should.
Those two utilities could just be the beginning, though. Microsoft is considering 10 other PowerToys utilities, as described in the project’s readme: 1. Full window manager including specific layouts for docking and undocking laptops
2. Keyboard shortcut manager
3. Win+R replacement
4. Better alt+tab including browser tab integration and search for running apps
5. Battery tracker
6. Batch file renamer
7. Quick resolution swaps in taskbar
8. Mouse events without focus
9. Cmd (or PS or Bash) from here
10. Contents menu file browsing
Since the revived PowerToys live as open-source projects, Microsoft is looking for help developing the tools, and feedback into which of the additional utilities under consideration should be prioritized. “Please use issues and +1’s to guide the project,” the GitHub page pleads. Head on over and start helping out if you want to do your part in bringing this legend back to life.
Between this and the vastly improved Windows Terminal, this summer’s looking to be a great one for PC enthusiasts who enjoy getting their hands dirty.