The preceding screen capture shows the general controls for PowerToys in the main pane. The General pane in PowerToys uses the cogwheel icon often associated with Settings in Windows 10. Once it’s installed, right-click PowerToys in Windows 10’s notification area (or the Start menu) and select Settings from the pop-up menu. As you can see on the General pane screenshot below, the program includes a “Check for updates” button, and it can be configured to download updates automatically using the toggle at the bottom of that pane. A look at the Releases page shows eight releases since early June, or about two per month. Speaking of updates, Rutkas and his programmers are working hard to push frequent updates to PowerToys. Now, it simply asks for permission to restart the Windows Explorer (process name: explorer.exe) as it finishes up updating or installing itself. NET DLLs into PowerToys.īut as of release v0.20.1, PowerToys handles all open applications without issue. Via Twitter, one of team leader Clint Rutkas’ associates informed me this was because of the program’s inclusion of the Core.

Versions 0.18.2 and earlier would require users to jump into Task Manager and terminate various processes and applications before its installation could complete. Over the past few months, PowerToys has really cleaned up its installation and update capabilities. (Make sure not to grab an experimental pre-release.) To get started, go to the PowerToys site on GitHub and download the latest release you’ll find it under “Releases” near the top right of the home page, or visit the Releases page directly. ĭespite its preview status, however, the new PowerToys collection is well worth a look. That’s probably because PowerToys’ full name is “PowerToys (Preview).” With a current release number of v0.23 (less than 1.0), it appears the program has some ways to go before it’s ready for the Store.

It’s not currently available through the Microsoft Store, though: interested readers will find this open-source tool at GitHub. Unlike the ‘90s tools, which had to be downloaded and installed individually, the newest Windows 10 PowerToys app gives users access to all available PowerToys in one go. Today, Microsoft offers a set of tools under the control of a single UWP app by the same name.

Collectively, these programs were called “PowerToys” (see the eponymous Wikipedia article for more history and a list of items). Back in the 1990s, Windows users had access to a number of small, free software tools from Microsoft handy for everyday tasks, such as accessing desktop items from a menu on the taskbar or quickly changing the screen resolution.

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