PowerToys/README.md

Microsoft PowerToys

Installation . Documentation . Blog . Release notes

Microsoft PowerToys is a collection of utilities that help you customize Windows and streamline everyday tasks.

Advanced Paste	Always on Top	Awake
Color Picker	Command Not Found	Command Palette
Crop And Lock	Environment Variables	FancyZones
File Explorer Add-ons	File Locksmith	Hosts File Editor
Image Resizer	Keyboard Manager	Light Switch
Mouse Utilities	Mouse Without Borders	New+
Peek	PowerRename	PowerToys Run
Quick Accent	Registry Preview	Screen Ruler
Shortcut Guide	Text Extractor	Workspaces
ZoomIt

📋 Installation

For detailed installation instructions, visit the installation docs.

Before you begin, make sure your device meets the system requirements:

Note

• Windows 11 or Windows 10 version 2004 (20H1 / build 19041) or newer
• 64-bit processor: x64 or ARM64
• Latest stable version of Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime is installed via the bootstrapper during setup

Choose one of the installation methods below:

Download .exe from GitHub

Go to the PowerToys GitHub releases, click Assets to reveal the downloads, and choose the installer that matches your architecture and install scope. For most devices, that's the x64 per-user installer.

Description	Filename
Per user - x64	PowerToysUserSetup-0.95.0-x64.exe
Per user - ARM64	PowerToysUserSetup-0.95.0-arm64.exe
Machine wide - x64	PowerToysSetup-0.95.0-x64.exe
Machine wide - ARM64	PowerToysSetup-0.95.0-arm64.exe

Microsoft Store

You can easily install PowerToys from the Microsoft Store:

WinGet

Download PowerToys from WinGet. Updating PowerToys via winget will respect the current PowerToys installation scope. To install PowerToys, run the following command from the command line / PowerShell:

User scope installer [default]

winget install Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget

Machine-wide scope installer

winget install --scope machine Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget

Other methods

There are community driven install methods such as Chocolatey and Scoop. If these are your preferred install solutions, you can find the install instructions there.

✨ What's new

Version 0.95 (October 2025)

For an in-depth look at the latest changes, visit the Windows Command Line blog.

✨ Highlights

• NEW: The Light Switch utility in PowerToys allows you to automatically switch between light and dark themes in Windows based on the time of day.
• Command Palette delivered major search performance gains (new fuzzy matcher and smarter fallbacks) improving relevance and speed.
• Peek can now be activated using just the Spacebar!
• Find My Mouse added transparent spotlight with independent backdrop opacity, boosting focus and accessibility.
• Settings now lets you delete shortcuts entirely and ignore conflicts.
• Mouse Pointer Crosshairs gained orientation options (vertical / horizontal / both) for customizable accessibility. Thanks @mikehall-ms!
• PowerRename fixed enumeration counter skipping ensuring reliable batch renames. Thanks @daverayment!
• ZoomIt restored legacy draw and snipping behaviors, and fixed recording issues, improving reliability. Thanks @chakrik73!

Command Palette

• Reorganized core projects and introduced CoreLogger to reduce dependencies.
• Applied conditional margin for icon-only tags to tighten layout. Thanks @samrueby!
• Added setting to choose Clipboard History primary action (Paste vs Copy). Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Prevented false "Unresponsive" flags for UWP apps in Window Walker. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Hardened activation flow for x-cmdpal:// links with synchronous handling + timeout. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Enabled AOT by default for performance while simplifying publish configs.
• Cleaned and codified .editorconfig without behavior change. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Replaced service state color dots with play/pause/stop icons for accessibility. Thanks @samrueby!
• Fixed filter dropdown sync and crash by binding SelectedValue and raising UI-thread notifications. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Ensured long links wrap correctly in details view.
• Removed animation + enforced min width on filter dropdown for clarity. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Restored focus to More button after ESC closes context menu improving keyboard flow.
• Marked main and toast windows as tool windows to keep them out of Alt+Tab while preserving style. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Fixed AOT template + theming issues for filter separators. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Introduced grid layouts (small/medium/gallery) for richer page presentation.
• Materialized result lists to avoid rescoring overhead.
• Disabled problematic selection TextToSuggest behind env flag.
• Resolved AOT warning by making IconMarginConverter partial. Thanks @samrueby!
• Major search performance improvements (new fuzzy matcher, smarter fallbacks, fewer exceptions).
• Added context menu "Show Details" command when details pane hidden.
• Reduced window flicker by avoiding unnecessary cloaking. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Restored EmptyContent rendering for blank states. Thanks @DevLGuilherme!
• Saved new state even if prior app state file corrupt (better resilience). Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Migrated settings window to WinUI TitleBar control. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Prevented crash on duplicate keybindings and simplified matching. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Centralized fullscreen ignore-hotkey logic for summon handling. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Hid search box on content pages; improved focus and a11y; added Home title. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Synced generated resource comment to eliminate noisy diffs. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Blocked Ctrl+I from inserting stray tab in search box.
• Logged HRESULT codes in error logs for deeper diagnostics. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Advanced font/emoji icon classification & alignment improvements. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Preserved fallback item icons in Settings by storing initial icon. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Fixed breadcrumb margin misalignment (visual polish). Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Truncated overly long command labels with ellipsis to prevent overflow.

Command Palette Extensions

• Replaced localized WebSearch setting keys with stable literals and numeric history count. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Enabled advanced markdown tables and emphasis extensions. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Added actionable empty-state hints for File Search (search PC / open indexing settings). Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Ensured all WinGet extension assets copy reliably to output. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Improved Run command line parsing for paths with spaces; sped up related tests.
• Updated WebSearch extension icon set for clarity and contrast. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Added Terminal profile sort order setting including MRU tracking. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Added Uninstall Application command (UWP direct, Win32 via Settings). Thanks @mKpwnz!
• Deferred WinGet details loading and added timing logs.
• Removed LINQ from All Apps extension for performance.
• Added standardized key chord system + shortcuts to File Search commands. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Added Terminal channel filter & remembered selection option. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Enabled loading local/data/app images in markdown with sizing hints. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Added external extension reload via x-cmdpal://reload (configurable). Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Instant WebSearch history updates with in-memory store & events. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Added keep-after-paste option and safe delete with confirmation for Clipboard History. Thanks @jiripolasek!

Environment Variables

• Replaced custom window chrome with WinUI TitleBar for cleaner, maintainable Environment Variables UI.

File Locksmith

• Adopted WinUI TitleBar to simplify window chrome while preserving appearance.

Find My Mouse

• Added transparent spotlight support with separate backdrop opacity; migrated to WASDK composition.

Hosts File Editor

• Migrated to native WinUI TitleBar for cleaner, maintainable window chrome.

Light Switch

• Introduced as a brand-new PowerToy module.
• Automatically switches between light and dark themes.
• Supports time-based scheduling or location-based sunrise/sunset switching.
• Supports using a keyboard shortcut to force a change.
• Supports filtering changes for Apps and/or System Theme.

Mouse Pointer Crosshairs

• Added Esc key to cancel active gliding cursor sequence. Thanks @mikehall-ms!
• Added orientation option (vertical / horizontal / both) for crosshairs customization. Thanks @mikehall-ms!

Mouse Without Borders

• Continued Common class refactor (part 5/7) by extracting clipboard and init/cleanup logic into focused classes. Thanks @mikeclayton!

Peek

• Added optional single Space key activation with context-aware eligibility and telemetry.

PowerRename

• Fixed enumeration counter skipping when regex replacement equals original filename (counters now advance reliably). Thanks @daverayment!

Quick Accent

• Expanded Welsh layout with acute, grave, and dieresis variants for vowels (consistent ordering). Thanks @PesBandi!

Registry Preview

• Migrated to native TitleBar and AppWindow APIs for cleaner window chrome.

Screen Ruler

• Fixed ARM64 crash by aligning cursor position structure to 8-byte boundary.

Settings

• Added ability to ignore specific hotkey conflicts to reduce noise.
• Stopped creating backup directory during dry-run status checks (cleaner first-run).
• Standardized casing and localization for ZoomIt and modules header.
• Improved search results page accessibility and conditional module grouping.

ZoomIt

• Updated resource file to reflect standalone v9.01 and current copyright year. Thanks @foxmsft!
• Restored legacy draw/snipping behaviors and fixed recording race conditions. Thanks @chakrik73!

Documentation

• New Microsoft Learn documentation for the Light Switch module.
• New dev docs for the Light Switch module.

Development (Area-Build & Area-Tests)

• Allowed debug launches to continue when modules fail to load, speeding developer iteration.
• Fixed spell checker dictionary entry (advapi) to eliminate false error.
• Added VS Code development guide and launch configs to streamline cross-editor workflows.
• Upgraded Windows App SDK and related dependencies to 1.8 for newer platform features.
• Rewrote YAML comment to resolve new spell checker forbidden pattern. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Corrected solution structure by returning misplaced Common project, reducing build confusion.
• Modernized build scripts with shared helpers and VS environment autodetection for simpler CLI builds.
• Standardized build scripts and platform detection to improve reliability and reuse.
• Added missing Command Palette version bump to align module release cadence.
• Added EXECUTEDEFAULT term to dictionary to prevent regression build failures. Thanks @jiripolasek!
• Introduced nightly pre-warm pipeline and configurable MSBuild cache mode to improve CI performance.
• Resolved CI forbidden pattern spelling complaint to keep pipelines green.
• Added AI contributor instruction set to clarify code area expectations.
• Added accessibility IDs to settings and FancyZones toggles, stabilizing UI tests.
• Added automatic log collection on UI test failures to speed root cause analysis.
• Stabilized Mouse Utils tests by switching to AccessibilityId selectors.
• Added Screen Ruler UI test coverage to validate core measurement workflows.

🛣️ Roadmap

We are planning some nice new features and improvements for the next releases – a revamped Keyboard Manager UI, custom endpoint and local model support for Advanced Paste, Commmand Palette improvements and a brand-new Shortcut Guide experience! Stay tuned for v0.96!

❤️ PowerToys Community

The PowerToys team is extremely grateful to have the support of an amazing active community. The work you do is incredibly important. PowerToys wouldn't be nearly what it is today without your help filing bugs, updating documentation, guiding the design, or writing features. We want to say thank you and take time to recognize your work. Your contributions and feedback improve PowerToys month after month!

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions of all types. Besides coding features / bug fixes, other ways to assist include spec writing, design, documentation, and finding bugs. We are excited to work with the power user community to build a set of tools for helping you get the most out of Windows. We ask that before you start work on a feature that you would like to contribute, please read our Contributor's Guide. We would be happy to work with you to figure out the best approach, provide guidance and mentorship throughout feature development, and help avoid any wasted or duplicate effort. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you grant us the rights to use your contribution and that you have permission to do so. For guidance on developing for PowerToys, please read the developer docs for a detailed breakdown. This includes how to setup your computer to compile.

Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct.

Privacy Statement

The application logs basic diagnostic data (telemetry). For more privacy information and what we collect, see our PowerToys Data and Privacy documentation.