> [!IMPORTANT]
> For extension developers, this release includes a new required `string
Id` property for `FallbackCommandItem`. While your existing extensions
will continue to work, without this `Id` being set, your fallbacks will
not display and will not be rankable.
> Before this is released, you will want to prepare your extension
fallbacks.
>
> As an example, we are naming our built-in extensions as:
> - Calculator extension provider Id:
`com.microsoft.cmdpal.builtin.calculator`
> - Calculator extension fallback:
`com.microsoft.cmdpal.builtin.calculator.fallback`
>
> While the content of the Id isn't important, what is important is that
it is unique to your extension and fallback to avoid conflicting with
other extensions.
Now the good stuff:
## What the heck does it do!?
### The backstory
In PowerToys 0.95, we released performance improvements to Command
Palette. One of the many ways we improved its speed is by no longer
ranking fallback commands with other "top level" commands. Instead, all
fallbacks would surface at the bottom of the results and be listed in
the order they were registered with Command Palette. But this was only a
temporary solution until the work included in this pull request was
ready.
In reality, not all fallbacks were treated equally. We marked the
calculator and run fallbacks as "special." Special fallbacks **were**
ranked like top-level commands and allowed to surface to the top of the
results.
### The new "hotness"
This PR brings the power of fallback management back to the people. In
the Command Palette settings, you, dear user, can specify what order you
want fallbacks to display in at the bottom of the results. This keeps
those fallbacks unranked by Command Palette but displays them in an
order that makes sense for you. But keep in mind, these will still live
at the bottom of search results.
But alas, we have also heard your cries that you'd like _some_ fallbacks
to be ranked by Command Palette and surface to the top of the results.
So, this PR allows you to mark any fallback as "special" by choosing to
include them in the global results. Special (Global) fallbacks are
treated like "top level" commands and appear in the search result based
on their title & description.
### Screenshots/video
<img width="1005" height="611" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8ba5d861-f887-47ed-8552-ba78937322d2"
/>
<img width="1501" height="973" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9edb7675-8084-4f14-8bdc-72d7d06d500e"
/>
<img width="706" height="744" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/81ae0252-b87d-4172-a5ea-4d3102134baf"
/>
<img width="666" height="786" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/acb76acf-531d-4e60-bb44-d1edeec77dce"
/>
### GitHub issue maintenance details
Closes#38312Closes#38288Closes#42524Closes#41024Closes#40351Closes#41696Closes#40193
---------
Co-authored-by: Niels Laute <niels.laute@live.nl>
Co-authored-by: Jiří Polášek <me@jiripolasek.com>
<!-- Enter a brief description/summary of your PR here. What does it
fix/what does it change/how was it tested (even manually, if necessary)?
-->
## Summary of the Pull Request
This PR introduces user settings for app mode themes (dark, light, or
system) and background customization options, including custom colors,
system accent colors, or custom images.
- Adds a new page to the Settings window with new appearance settings
and moves some existing settings there as well.
- Introduces a new core-level service abstraction, `IThemeService`, that
holds the state for the current theme.
- Uses the helper class `ResourceSwapper` to update application-level
XAML resources. The way WinUI / XAML handles these is painful, and XAML
Hot Reload is pain². Initialization must be lazy, as XAML resources can
only be accessed after the window is activated.
- `ThemeService` takes app and system settings and selects one of the
registered `IThemeProvider`s to calculate visuals and choose the
appropriate XAML resources.
- At the moment, there are two:
- `NormalThemeProvider`
- Provides the current uncolorized light and dark styles
- `ms-appx:///Styles/Theme.Normal.xaml`
- `ColorfulThemeProvider`
- Style that matches the Windows 11 visual style (based on the Start
menu) and colors
- `ms-appx:///Styles/Theme.Colorful.xaml`
- Applied when the background is colorized or a background image is
selected
- The app theme is applied only on the main window
(`WindowThemeSynchronizer` helper class can be used to synchronize other
windows if needed).
- Adds a new dependency on `Microsoft.Graphics.Win2D`.
- Adds a custom color picker popup; the one from the Community Toolkit
occasionally loses the selected color.
- Flyby: separates the keyword tag and localizable label for pages in
the Settings window navigation.
## Pictures? Pictures!
<img width="2027" height="1276" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e3485c71-7faa-495b-b455-b313ea6046ee"
/>
<img width="3776" height="2025" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/820fa823-34d4-426d-b066-b1049dc3266f"
/>
Matching Windows accent color and tint:
<img width="3840" height="2160" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/65f3b608-e282-4894-b7c8-e014a194f11f"
/>
<!-- Please review the items on the PR checklist before submitting-->
## PR Checklist
- [x] Closes: #38444
- [ ] **Communication:** I've discussed this with core contributors
already. If the work hasn't been agreed, this work might be rejected
- [ ] **Tests:** Added/updated and all pass
- [ ] **Localization:** All end-user-facing strings can be localized
- [ ] **Dev docs:** Added/updated
- [ ] **New binaries:** Added on the required places
- [ ] [JSON for
signing](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ESRPSigning_core.json)
for new binaries
- [ ] [WXS for
installer](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/installer/PowerToysSetup/Product.wxs)
for new binaries and localization folder
- [ ] [YML for CI
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ci/templates/build-powertoys-steps.yml)
for new test projects
- [ ] [YML for signed
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/release.yml)
- [ ] **Documentation updated:** If checked, please file a pull request
on [our docs
repo](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-uwp/tree/docs/hub/powertoys)
and link it here: #xxx
<!-- Provide a more detailed description of the PR, other things fixed,
or any additional comments/features here -->
## Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments
<!-- Describe how you validated the behavior. Add automated tests
wherever possible, but list manual validation steps taken as well -->
## Validation Steps Performed
---------
Co-authored-by: Niels Laute <niels.laute@live.nl>
## Summary of the Pull Request
This PR adds a new option to the **General** page in **Settings**:
Escape key behavior — a dropdown with the following choices:
- Clear search first, then go back
- Current behavior.
- If the search box contains text, it is cleared; otherwise goes back.
- On the home page, CmdPal is dismissed.
- Go back
- Leaves the search text intact.
- If the page is not transient, the search text reappears when
returning.
- On the home page, CmdPal is dismissed.
- Hide window and go home (Always dismiss)
- Immediately dismisses CmdPal and navigates to the home page.
- Ignores the **Go home when activated** setting.
- Search text is cleared.
- Hide window
- Just hides the window.
- Intended to be used with #43355.
This implementation preserves existing behavior, except for **Always
dismiss**, which always forces navigation to the home page.
## Pictures? Pictures!
<img width="1305" height="892" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/562e5604-1da6-4fc6-8358-5053df9c573d"
/>
<!-- Please review the items on the PR checklist before submitting-->
## PR Checklist
- [x] Closes: #38311
- [ ] **Communication:** I've discussed this with core contributors
already. If the work hasn't been agreed, this work might be rejected
- [ ] **Tests:** Added/updated and all pass
- [ ] **Localization:** All end-user-facing strings can be localized
- [ ] **Dev docs:** Added/updated
- [ ] **New binaries:** Added on the required places
- [ ] [JSON for
signing](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ESRPSigning_core.json)
for new binaries
- [ ] [WXS for
installer](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/installer/PowerToysSetup/Product.wxs)
for new binaries and localization folder
- [ ] [YML for CI
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ci/templates/build-powertoys-steps.yml)
for new test projects
- [ ] [YML for signed
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/release.yml)
- [ ] **Documentation updated:** If checked, please file a pull request
on [our docs
repo](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-uwp/tree/docs/hub/powertoys)
and link it here: #xxx
<!-- Provide a more detailed description of the PR, other things fixed,
or any additional comments/features here -->
## Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments
<!-- Describe how you validated the behavior. Add automated tests
wherever possible, but list manual validation steps taken as well -->
## Validation Steps Performed
## Summary of the Pull Request
This PR replaces the Go home when activated setting with a new
Automatically return home option. This allows users to specify how long
the Command Palette should wait after being dismissed before
automatically returning to the home page. It also introduces migration
logic to transition from the old setting to the new one.
## Pictures? Pictures!
<img width="1337" height="762" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c649ef03-b3ee-40ba-ac67-485bc40efa73"
/>
<!-- Please review the items on the PR checklist before submitting-->
## PR Checklist
- [x] Closes: #43355
<!-- - [ ] Closes: #yyy (add separate lines for additional resolved
issues) -->
- [ ] **Communication:** I've discussed this with core contributors
already. If the work hasn't been agreed, this work might be rejected
- [ ] **Tests:** Added/updated and all pass
- [ ] **Localization:** All end-user-facing strings can be localized
- [ ] **Dev docs:** Added/updated
- [ ] **New binaries:** Added on the required places
- [ ] [JSON for
signing](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ESRPSigning_core.json)
for new binaries
- [ ] [WXS for
installer](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/installer/PowerToysSetup/Product.wxs)
for new binaries and localization folder
- [ ] [YML for CI
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ci/templates/build-powertoys-steps.yml)
for new test projects
- [ ] [YML for signed
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/release.yml)
- [ ] **Documentation updated:** If checked, please file a pull request
on [our docs
repo](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-uwp/tree/docs/hub/powertoys)
and link it here: #xxx
<!-- Provide a more detailed description of the PR, other things fixed,
or any additional comments/features here -->
## Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments
<!-- Describe how you validated the behavior. Add automated tests
wherever possible, but list manual validation steps taken as well -->
## Validation Steps Performed
<!-- Enter a brief description/summary of your PR here. What does it
fix/what does it change/how was it tested (even manually, if necessary)?
-->
## Summary of the Pull Request
Added a new setting option to Command Palette that allows users to
choose whether the window should be recentered on every launch or
remember its last position. This enhancement improves user experience by
maintaining window positioning preferences across sessions.
<!-- Please review the items on the PR checklist before submitting-->
## PR Checklist
- [x] **Closes:** #38310
- [x] **Communication:** I've discussed this with core contributors
already. If work hasn't been agreed, this work might be rejected
- [ ] **Tests:** Added/updated and all pass
- [ ] **Localization:** All end user facing strings can be localized
- [ ] **Dev docs:** Added/updated
- [ ] **New binaries:** Added on the required places
- [ ] [JSON for
signing](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ESRPSigning_core.json)
for new binaries
- [ ] [WXS for
installer](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/installer/PowerToysSetup/Product.wxs)
for new binaries and localization folder
- [ ] [YML for CI
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ci/templates/build-powertoys-steps.yml)
for new test projects
- [ ] [YML for signed
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/release.yml)
- [ ] **Documentation updated:** If checked, please file a pull request
on [our docs
repo](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-uwp/tree/docs/hub/powertoys)
and link it here: #xxx
<!-- Provide a more detailed description of the PR, other things fixed
or any additional comments/features here -->
## Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments
This PR adds a "Recenter window on launch" setting to Command Palette
with the following changes:
1. Added a new `RecenterWindow` property to `SettingsModel` (default is
true for backward compatibility)
2. Added corresponding property to `SettingsViewModel` for binding
3. Created a new `WindowPosition` class to track window position and
size
4. Modified `MainWindow.xaml.cs` to:
- Track window position and size changes
- Update position memory when window is modified or dismissed
- Respect the recenter setting when showing the window
5. Added UI controls in the settings page with proper localization
strings

This feature allows users who prefer to have the Command Palette appear
in a specific screen location to maintain that preference, while others
can continue using the centered window behavior.
<!-- Describe how you validated the behavior. Add automated tests
wherever possible, but list manual validation steps taken as well -->
## Validation Steps Performed
1. Manually verified that with the setting enabled (default), the window
centers on launch
2. Verified that with the setting disabled, the window appears at its
last position
---------
Signed-off-by: Shawn Yuan <shuai.yuan.zju@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Shawn Yuan <shuaiyuan@microsoft.com>
<!-- Enter a brief description/summary of your PR here. What does it
fix/what does it change/how was it tested (even manually, if necessary)?
-->
## Summary of the Pull Request
This PR introduces a new way to reload extensions externally and makes
the feature configurable in the settings UI.
- Adds a new URI protocol command `x-cmdpal://reload` → triggers an
extension reload
- Introduces a new "For Developers" section on the General settings page
- Includes an option to enable/disable the external reload feature
- **Note:** This change depends on the fix in #41344 to work correctly.
Pictures? Pictures!
<img width="2312" height="1334" alt="image"
src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6457ef5b-e75e-4118-86b7-7e20505527a3"
/>
<!-- Please review the items on the PR checklist before submitting-->
## PR Checklist
- [x] Closes: #40542
- [ ] **Communication:** I've discussed this with core contributors
already. If the work hasn't been agreed, this work might be rejected
- [ ] **Tests:** Added/updated and all pass
- [ ] **Localization:** All end-user-facing strings can be localized
- [ ] **Dev docs:** Added/updated
- [ ] **New binaries:** Added on the required places
- [ ] [JSON for
signing](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ESRPSigning_core.json)
for new binaries
- [ ] [WXS for
installer](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/installer/PowerToysSetup/Product.wxs)
for new binaries and localization folder
- [ ] [YML for CI
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/ci/templates/build-powertoys-steps.yml)
for new test projects
- [ ] [YML for signed
pipeline](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/.pipelines/release.yml)
- [ ] **Documentation updated:** If checked, please file a pull request
on [our docs
repo](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-uwp/tree/docs/hub/powertoys)
and link it here: #xxx
<!-- Provide a more detailed description of the PR, other things fixed,
or any additional comments/features here -->
## Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments
<!-- Describe how you validated the behavior. Add automated tests
wherever possible, but list manual validation steps taken as well -->
## Validation Steps Performed
What the title says. 😄
Rather than relying on the potentially overloaded `!=` or `==` operators
when checking for null, now we'll use the `is` expression (possibly
combined with the `not` operator) to ensure correct checking. Probably
overkill for many of these classes, but decided to err on the side of
consistency. Would matter more on classes that may be inherited or
extended.
Using `is` and `is not` will provide us a guarantee that no
user-overloaded equality operators (`==`/`!=`) is invoked when a
`expression is null` is evaluated.
In code form, changed all instances of:
```c#
something != null
something == null
```
to:
```c#
something is not null
something is null
```
The one exception was checking null on a `KeyChord`. `KeyChord` is a
struct which is never null so VS will raise an error when trying this
versus just providing a warning when using `keyChord != null`. In
reality, we shouldn't do this check because it can't ever be null. In
the case of a `KeyChord` it **would** be a `KeyChord` equivalent to:
```c#
KeyChord keyChord = new ()
{
Modifiers = 0,
Vkey = 0,
ScanCode = 0
};
```
* starting AoT flag push
* Few more
* bookmarks
* Really? The VM project compiles?
* Disable publish AOT before we really testing it.
---------
Co-authored-by: Mike Griese <migrie@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Yu Leng (from Dev Box) <yuleng@microsoft.com>
<!-- Enter a brief description/summary of your PR here. What does it fix/what does it change/how was it tested (even manually, if necessary)? -->
## Summary of the Pull Request
Added a settings to enable/disable the system tray icon (enabled by default).
Adopter the term "system tray icon" for consistency with Windows 11 settings.
<!-- Please review the items on the PR checklist before submitting-->
## PR Checklist
- [x] **Closes:** #38407
Both `TopLevelCommandItemWrapper` and `TopLevelViewModel` were really the same thing. The latter was from an earlier prototype, and the former is a more correct, safer abstraction. We really should have only ever used the former, but alas, we only used it for the SUI, and it piggy-backed off the latter, and that meant the latter's bugs became the former's.
tldr: I made the icon access safe in the SUI.
And while I was doing this, because we now have a cleaner VM abstraction here in the host, we can actually cleanly disable extensions, because the `CommandProviderWrapper` knows which `ViewModel`s it made.
Closes https://github.com/zadjii-msft/PowerToys/issues/426
Closes https://github.com/zadjii-msft/PowerToys/issues/478
Closes https://github.com/zadjii-msft/PowerToys/issues/577
Windows Command Palette ("CmdPal") is the next iteration of PowerToys Run. With extensibility at its core, the Command Palette is your one-stop launcher to start _anything_.
By default, CmdPal is bound to <kbd>Win+Alt+Space</kbd>.


----
This brings the current preview version of CmdPal into the upstream PowerToys repo. There are still lots of bugs to work out, but it's reached the state we're ready to start sharing it with the world. From here, we can further collaborate with the community on the features that are important, and ensuring that we've got a most robust API to enable developers to build whatever extensions they want.
Most of the built-in PT Run modules have already been ported to CmdPal's extension API. Those include:
* Installed apps
* Shell commands
* File search (powered by the indexer)
* Windows Registry search
* Web search
* Windows Terminal Profiles
* Windows Services
* Windows settings
There are a couple new extensions built-in
* You can now search for packages on `winget` and install them right from the palette. This also powers searching for extensions for the palette
* The calculator has an entirely new implementation. This is currently less feature complete than the original PT Run one - we're looking forward to updating it to be more complete for future ingestion in Windows
* "Bookmarks" allow you to save shortcuts to files, folders, and webpages as top-level commands in the palette.
We've got a bunch of other samples too, in this repo and elsewhere
### PowerToys specific notes
CmdPal will eventually graduate out of PowerToys to live as its own application, which is why it's implemented just a little differently than most other modules. Enabling CmdPal will install its `msix` package.
The CI was minorly changed to support CmdPal version numbers independent of PowerToys itself. It doesn't make sense for us to start CmdPal at v0.90, and in the future, we want to be able to rev CmdPal independently of PT itself.
Closes#3200, closes#3600, closes#7770, closes#34273, closes#36471, closes#20976, closes#14495
-----
TODOs et al
**Blocking:**
- [ ] Images and descriptions in Settings and OOBE need to be properly defined, as mentioned before
- [ ] Niels is on it
- [x] Doesn't start properly from PowerToys unless the fix PR is merged.
- https://github.com/zadjii-msft/PowerToys/pull/556 merged
- [x] I seem to lose focus a lot when I press on some limits, like between the search bar and the results.
- This is https://github.com/zadjii-msft/PowerToys/issues/427
- [x] Turned off an extension like Calculator and it was still working.
- Need to get rid of that toggle, it doesn't do anything currently
- [x] `ListViewModel.<FetchItems>` crash
- Pretty confident that was fixed in https://github.com/zadjii-msft/PowerToys/pull/553
**Not blocking / improvements:**
- Show the shortcut through settings, as mentioned before, or create a button that would open CmdPalette settings.
- When PowerToys starts, CmdPalette is always shown if enabled. That's weird when just starting PowerToys/ logging in to the computer with PowerToys auto-start activated. I think this should at least be a setting.
- Needing to double press a result for it to do the default action seems quirky. If one is already selected, I think just pressing should be enough for it to do the action.
- This is currently a setting, though we're thinking of changing the setting even more: https://github.com/zadjii-msft/PowerToys/issues/392
- There's no URI extension. Was surprised when typing a URL that it only proposed a web search.
- [x] There's no System commands extension. Was expecting to be able to quickly restart the computer by typing restart but it wasn't there.
- This is in PR https://github.com/zadjii-msft/PowerToys/pull/452
---------
Co-authored-by: joadoumie <98557455+joadoumie@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Jordi Adoumie <jordiadoumie@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Mike Griese <zadjii@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Niels Laute <niels.laute@live.nl>
Co-authored-by: Michael Hawker <24302614+michael-hawker@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Stefan Markovic <57057282+stefansjfw@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Seraphima <zykovas91@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Jaime Bernardo <jaime@janeasystems.com>
Co-authored-by: Kristen Schau <47155823+krschau@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Eric Johnson <ericjohnson327@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Ethan Fang <ethanfang@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Yu Leng (from Dev Box) <yuleng@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Clint Rutkas <clint@rutkas.com>