Windows 10: Power users can now squeeze out even more efficiency
PowerToys update delivers a few performance upgrades
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Microsofthas pushed out a new version of its PowerToys utilities suite forWindows 10that delivers a number of small but important improvements.
The new version does not come bundled with any new features or tools, instead packaging up a range of “stability updates and optimizations, installer updates, general bug fixes and accessibility improvements,” theGitHub change logsuggests.
Perhaps the most eye-catching change is an update to the PowerToys Run utility that remedies a crashing issue and improves the performance of the tool at launch.
Smaller upgrades include an expansion to the bug reporting tool, new UI elements, and bug fixes across a number of different PowerToys utilities.
PowerToys update
PowerToys is an open source suite of tools for the most advancedWindows 10users, offering the ability to bypass certain settings and perform actions unavailable to regular users. It also gives people a wider range of customization options.
The utility library includes tools such as Color Picker, which can copy color data from any running application to the clipboard, and Fancy Zones, which lets users create complex window layouts specifically suited to their applications (although the arrival ofWindows 11may diminish the usefulness of this particular tool).
Others, like Image Resizer and PowerRename, are designed to help Windows 10 users perform common actions with greater ease and speed, maximizing productivity.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
The PowerToys Run utility, meanwhile, is a lightweight Start Menu alternative that helps users launch into files and applications more quickly (and even more so with the latest update). It can also be used to navigate to active applications and perform system-level actions, such as shutdown or restart.
Although the latest PowerToys update is unlikely to make waves, it demonstrates the community remains committed to maintaining and improving the utility suite. In fact, according to theGitHub commits log, PowerToys has never enjoyed greater support.
Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He’s responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.
Mount-It Electric Standing Desk review
One more AMD eGPU docking station goes on sale — but it doesn’t have USB 4.0, can’t accommodate an M.2 SSD and requires an OCuLink connector to feed the RX 7600M XT chip
7 myths about email security everyone should stop believing
