Experimental v0.46.0

This experimental release contains our Video conference mute feature plus everything in our v0.45.0 release. We know we have some issues and we have a main tracking issue - #6246.

This version includes the following updates:

• Fixed toolbar top right vertical offset to allow users to close other app windows.
• Fixed compatibility issues for certain systems when compiling from source.
• Fixed toolbox from persisting on screen.
• Fixed microphone un-muting when changing Video Conference Mute toolbar position.
• Added Video Conference Mute to the "Welcome to PowerToys" window.

To find out more about the Video conference mute utility, head over to our Video Conference Mute overview.

Installer hash

F7AD1B71235CDB3D4F85D94BAE65F8367EAFD642CD7D153AD18B6B0E0A035E1D

Current known issues and limitations:

• With some webcams, there is an incompatibility with Teams and the overlay image is not rendered, instead a corrupted frame is shown. If your camera has this quirk, please let us know the model in the [main tracking issue - #6246]
• The application preview (Teams, Meet, etc.) may show the overlay image flipped horizontally but that is expected, the image will show correctly to the other people on the call.
• In order to enable/disable the VCM, PowerToys should run as administrator
• Changes to some of the VCM settings require the application to restart to pick up the new values such as a new overlay image.
• In some cases, the overlay image can be shown flipped vertically (the workaround is to edit the image and flip it before selecting it).
  (#6246)
• If the PowerToys Video Conference Mute webcam doesn't show up in the video conference app, try restarting the app and if still doesn't show up try restarting Windows.

Things to note

• This release will not be on WinGet. We are evaluating if this is something people would be interested in.
• This release is on the "Experimental" train, so only prerelease versions will be prompted for updates.

Release v0.45.0

Our goals for the v0.45 release cycle primarily centered around stability updates and optimizations, installer updates, general bug fixes, and accessibility improvements.

We also worked extensively with the community to build an updated settings menu UI. This UI update takes advantage of the latest styling elements to provide users with a refreshed, modern experience navigating the various utilities and their settings.

An experimental version of PowerToys (v0.46) was released the week of September 13th. Download and install it to try out the latest improvements to our Video Conference Mute utility! All updates from this v0.45.0 release will still apply in v0.46.0.

Installer Hash

BC1C7EDA2EB80F3780C27467FEF65C774E2008DA908A4CA5C7C2AD87750735DF

Change log

• Removed ModuleImageLink. Thanks @niels9001!
• Replaced theme radiobuttons settings with combobox. Thanks @niels9001!
• Consolidated to one testing framework for C# components of the project. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• StyleCop and warnings fix. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Removed unused namespace alias. Thanks @jakeoeding!
• Standardized .NET JSON on System.Text.Json. Thanks @royvou!
• Fixed various .xaml broken links and icons. Thanks @Jay-o-Way!
• Updated name property in "Edit layout" and "Create custom layout" controls to not include private Unicode characters. Thanks @niels9001!
• Changed bitmask variable from size_t to uint64_t which will enable PowerToys to support more than 40 zones per layout.
• Adjusted telemetry to better disambiguate when PowerToys Run launches at startup.
• Plugins "Direct activation phrase" setting renamed to "Direct activation string". Thanks @niels9001!
• Updated environment variables when changed. Thanks @dchristensen!

General

• Settings and OOBE windows updated with Fluent UX! We hope you enjoy the new modern feel of the application menus as we align our product with upcoming Windows 11 interfaces. Special thanks to @niels9001 for driving the development of this UI, along with many thanks to the various community members who offered constant feedback and adjustments to make this a truly spectacular update!
• Added button to settings which displays version history. Thanks @niels9001!
• Signed PowerToysSetupCustomActions.dll.
• Improved Update available & Update ready message severity visual. Thanks @niels9001!
• Improved auto-update experience. Thanks @niels9001!
• Aligned OOBE theme color with Settings theme color. Thanks @niels9001!
• Adjusted labeling of "Restart as Administrator" button to "Restart PowerToys as Administrator" to avoid ambiguity in meaning. Thanks @niels9001!
• Added colored icons to settings sidebar. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed accessibility issue in OOBE where Microsoft Docs and PowerToys release notes links could not be navigated to via keyboard. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed settings header alignment. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed updates text next being visible when in light mode. Thanks @niels9001!
• Updated "Learn More" text to be more descriptive. Thanks @niels9001!
• Updated "Read more" text on updates to be more descriptive. Thanks @niels9001!
• Added link to documentation in system tray. Thanks @BenConstable9!
• Fixed error caused by file in use issues when installing PowerToys.
• Fixed issue where opening settings from start menu didn't work when PowerToys was run as admin. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Awake

• Added Awake as option in translation bug template. Thanks @Aaron-Junker!
• Adjusted description of inactive setting to improve distinguishing between the utility being disabled vs inactive. Thanks @niels9001!

Color Picker

• Fixed bug where changing RGB values doesn't update color's HEX value. Thanks @martinchrzan!
• Fixed accessibility issue with screen reader not announcing when "Copied to Clipboard" is activated.
• Fixed accessibility issue where user could not hover the content of the info icon using a mouse. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed color picker format order not being accessible via keyboard. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed accessibility issue where screen reader announces incorrect name for "Editor color format" button and not announcint "Toggle switch" button at all. Thanks @niels9001!

FancyZones

• Adjusted "Save and apply" editor button to adjust with text size for localizations. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed "Create new layout" button visibility when in high contrast mode. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed scaling quirks related to editor UI. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed editor crashing when double clicking the "edit layout" button.
• Fixed issue with editor crashing immediately after displaying zones.
• Fixed bug when navigating editor options via keyboard where pressing enter on unselected Canvas option launches Grid editor instead.
• Fixed issue where FancyZones would not restore Console Applications.
• Fixed Canvas editor and Grid editor window heights. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed crash due to KERNELBASE.dll.
• Fixed FancyZone icons to be smoother at higher DPI settings. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed crash when changing between zone layouts.
• Fixed regression where FancyZones does not resize windows on layout change.
• Adjusted layout settings to reset shortcut key after canceling changes on a particular layout.

File Explorer add-ons

• Fixed issue where markdown files were still previewed even when "Enable Markdown" was unselected.

Image Resizer

• Added warning that GIF files with animations may no correctly resize if the encoding used for the files is incompatible.

Keyboard Manager

• Improved UI for KBM re-mappings list. Thanks @niels9001!

PowerRename

• Expanding a plugin option in settings can now be toggled. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed race condition causing PowerRename to crash File Explorer. Thanks @ianjoneill!

PowerToys Run

• Fixed lag caused from PowerToys running in background and invoking Alt-Tab.
• Resolved file not found exception when loading "System.Windows.Controls.Ribbon".
• Fixed null reference exception crash.
• Fixed registry plugin load crash.
• Fixed unauthorized access exception crash when setting registry keys for the utility.
• Improved visibility of warnings when plugin properties are collapsed. Thanks @niels9001!
• Added search for Plugin Manager. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Fixed VSCode workspace plugin not working. Thanks @BenConstable9!

Video Conference Mute

• Fixed toolbar top right vertical offset to allow users to close other app windows.
• Fixed compatibility issues for certain systems when compiling from source.
• Fixed toolbox from persisting on screen.
• Fixed microphone unmuting when changing Video Conference Mute toolbar position.
• Added Video Conference Mute to OOBE.

Community contributions

We'd like to directly mention certain contributors (in alphabetical order) for their continued community support this month and helping directly make PowerToys a better piece of software.

@Aaron-Junker, @BenConstable9, @davidegiacometti, @dchristensen, @dend, @franky920920, @htcfreek, @ianjoneill, @jakeoeding, @Jay-o-Way, @jsoref, @martinchrzan, @niels9001 and @royvou

Release v0.43.0

Our goals for the v0.43 release cycle primarily centered around stability updates and optimizations, installer updates, general bug fixes, and accessibility improvements.

Installer hash

5500395AF64808129B4DFB0BDF02E3D3650D8A103C4C3244898C8BB7B92F9D48

Change log

• Changed tooltip text for systray icon to be on a single line for Windows 11 compatibility.
• Fixed escape behavior on Color Picker so that only the fly-out is closed if active.
• Changed URI PowerToys Run plugin to launch HTTPS by default instead of HTTP. Thanks @chrisharris333!
• Added confirmation dialog when system commands are executed from PowerToys Run. Thanks @chrisharris333!

General

• New UI for sizes list view in Image Resizer settings. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed FileInUse errors during install/update scenarios.
• Fixed toggle switches on PowerToys run settings to display correctly.
• Fixed header text not updating when theme color is changed. Thanks @niels9001!
• Added Name/Alt text to GIF image
• Expanded the Report Bug tool to collect more robust diagnostic information.
• Fixed screen reader functionality to stop announcing hidden text in settings.
• Added Name and alt text properties to GIF images in Welcome to PowerToys window

Awake

• Fixed bug when right-clicking menu of Awake app icon. Thanks @dend!
• Fixed high CPU usage for timed keep awake. Thanks @dend!
• Fixed Awake icon spamming notification tray. Thanks @dend!
• Added telemetry to collect Awake settings and logs.

Color Picker

• Removed private Unicode Chars in element Name properties.
• No Class names in Name properties.
• Added non-null bounding rectangle property.
• Fixed color shade numbering for screen reader.
• Fixed focusable elements to have non-null name property.
• Distingushed name property and LocalizedControlType from elements and their parent.
• ControlType and LocalizedControlType are no longer both set to Custom.
• Fixed screen reader incorrectly naming Color Picker when launched.
• Fixed screen reader not announcing colors when navigating.

FancyZones

• Fixed bug causing multi-monitor spanning errors.
• Added minimum zone size limit to the settings.
• Fixed issue where re-opened windows don't appear in previously assigned zone.
• Fixed excluded apps setting to save on text change instead of when leaving focus.
• Fixed corrupt/outdated plugins load crash.
• Fixed issue with FancyZones not working after computer goes to sleep.
• Added screen reader confirmation to canvas editor when new zones are added.

Keyboard Manager

• Fixed screen reader usage bugs to increase intuitiveness.

PowerToys Run

• Fixed crashing bug due to missing image file app.dark.png.
• Fixed URI plugin bug with handling numeric input. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
• Improved launch performance of PowerToys run on first call. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Community contributions

We'd like to directly mention certain contributors (in alphabetical order) for their continued community support this month and helping directly make PowerToys a better piece of software.

@Aaron-Junker, @chrisharris333, @davidegiacometti, @dend, @franky920920 @htcfreek, @Jay-o-Way, @jsoref, @niels9001, @royvou, and @tony-xia

Release v0.41.4

This is a patch release to fix issues in v0.41.3 we deemed important for stability based on user feedback. See v0.41.2 for full release notes.

• #11898 - PowerToys Run crashing when selecting search results
• #11912 - Awake has high CPU usage
• #11955 - PowerToys Run error on Windows Startup
• #11964 - Add "PowerToys" to Awake in systray
• #12031 - FancyZones unable to start correctly
• #12044 - Image resizes to 1x1

Installer SHA256 Hash

15BC88A752F1D32AAD1242897663BBB5C502203E44545A84625FED2C75FC55C4

Release v0.41.3

This is a patch release to fix an issue in 0.41.2 we deemed important for stability based on user feedback. See v0.41.2 for full release notes.

• #11896 - PowerToys flagged by Bitdefender

Installer SHA256 Hash

3D386926D1EF48050ED0FFD15BA54E75CC72A00ACF52117ADAAB3EBC1BE132E9

Release v0.41.2

Our goals for the v0.39 release cycle and v0.41 release cycle included stability updates and optimizations, general bug fixes, accessibility improvements, and supporting the integration of the new community led project, Awake, which allows Power-Users to now keep their computer awake on demand!

Installer hash

4BACDA8925D5267BE455348EEB0BACFE5CB3DB2E5189E9CA2FF85297C597E8D8

Change log

• Shortcut guide removed support for long Win press to activate. Now supports Win + ? by default
• Turned off FancyZones canvas editor magnetic snapping to allow keyboard support
• Updated Color Picker GIF for OOBE. Thanks @niels9001!
• Removed outdated MSIX code
• Upgraded all projects to Modern WPF 0.94
• Dropped support for the module interface API to save settings
• Removed Winstore dependency

General

• Improved auto-update experience in PowerToys Settings
• Updated general bug report information to be more robust
• Improved settings layout for radio button groups. Updated images and menu for OOBE. Thanks @niels9001!
• Localization updates

Awake

• New Awake utility added! Power-Users can now keep their computer awake on-demand without having to manage its power settings. Huge thank you to @dend

Color Picker

• Improvements to Color Picker’s zoom functionality. Thanks @DoctorNefario
• Prevent duplicate colors from appearing in selection history
• Improved UX to better support keyboard navigation. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed OOBE hotkey description. Thanks @coc0a

FancyZones

• Full keyboard support for canvas editor's main window and context. Thanks @niels9001
• New support for faster layout selection by double clicking a desired layout from the editor to automatically apply it and dismiss the editor.
• New zone activation behavior allows users to snap a window to the zone who's center is closest to the cursor. Thanks @ulazy1!
• Added process icon for FancyZones.
• Fixed issue with zoning minimized windows.
• Fixed a bunch of accessibility bugs
• Now an independent exe, detached from the runner process.

File Explorer Add-Ons

• Adjusted Markdown newline behavior to be less strict so the add-on behaves more like GitHub implementations
  Image Resizer
• Fixed bug with custom size option where leaving a height/width value blank caused the output to be a 1 x 1 square pixel. Now the blank value automatically adjusts to the height/width that was set.

Image Resizer

• Fixed bug where specifying a width but no height generated a 1x1 px image instead of auto-adjusting the height. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

PowerRename

• Fixed File Explorer crash when running PowerRename

PowerToys Run

• Multiple crashing bugs resolved.
• New Unit Converter plugin! Activate in the query prompt with the default activation phrase %%. Ex: %% 10 ft in m. Thanks @jsoref and @ThiefZero!
• New Windows Settings plugin! Search for specific Windows settings from PowerToys Run by utilizing the default activation phrase $ followed by the desired setting. Ex: $ Add/Remove Programs or $ Device:. Thanks @TobiasSekan and @htcfreek.
• Updated the URL plugin to enable quickly launching the default browser with the action keyword, which defaults to //.
• Added remainder/modulo support for Calculator plugin via % operator.
• Faster launching from improved Win32 program indexing. Thanks @royvou!
• Search text results now highlight matched characters from input. Thanks @niels9001!

Settings / Welcome to PowerToys

• Fixed Color Picker’s key-binding information

Shortcut Guide

• Customize key-binding from settings menu
• Took Shortcut guide out of the runner process to remove unnecessary interdependencies

Installer

• Updated .NET Core dependency to 3.1.15
• Reduced the network traffic by making the updater not download files when they're already cached

Community contributions

We'd like to directly mention (in alphabetical order) for their continued community support this month and helping directly make PowerToys a better piece of software.

@Aaron-Junker, @coc0a, @davidegiacometti, @dend, @DoctorNefario, @dogancelik, @htcfreek, @itsme-alan, @Jay-o-Way, @djsoref, @niels9001, @nitroin, @ricardosantos9521, @ThiefZero, @TobiasSekan, and @ulazy1

Release v0.37.2

This is patch release to fix two regression bugs in 0.37.0 we deemed important for stability based on user feedback. See v0.37.0 for full release notes.

• #11068 - Power Rename freezes & resets explorer.exe after latest update
• #11162 - Event handle leak in PowerToys.KeyboardManagerEngine.exe

Installer SHA256 Hash

BB045E34A8C6DDA640C1CB262E7A3C646C6F6BE8ADBCB7DC7B6E77F9217B71E6

Release v0.37.0

Our goals for v0.37 release cycle Video Conference Mute work so we can bring it into the stable branch, general bug fixes, moving Keyboard manager out, and removing the legacy settings app.

Installer hash

262CD602206DF552323AF7FDCF1032FB0B0D0E8DAD82E1E3B11290CEFCF5757B

Change log

• PowerToys now requires Windows 10, version 1903 or higher
• FancyZones editor default launching key is Win+Shift+`
  • Windows Terminal's new Quake mode will use Win+`. We feel this is a far better use of the keystroke.
  • Current PowerToys users can update this in our settings in the FancyZone section.
• Removed our v1 HTML based settings system

New Spec - Feedback please!

• What is new in PowerToys (SCOOBE) - Pull Request

FancyZones

• Editor UX bug fixes. Thanks @niels9001
• Monitor resolution is added to the top to directly infer the boxes on top are your monitors
• Fix for editor crash when editing a custom layout

PowerRename

• Option added for capitalization.
• Improved loading responsiveness with large sums of files.

PowerToys Run

• Changed XAML to improve rendering. Thanks @niels9001
• Disabled plugins are no longer loaded
• VS Code plugin workspaces showing up now. Thanks @ricardosantos9521

Keyboard manager

• Now an independent exe. This now runs high priority in its own process. When your CPU is under load, this should allow the process to continue to be prioritized

Color Picker

• uses a centralized keyhook. This should improve activation
• Esc for closing will no longer bubble through. Thanks @DoctorNefario

Settings / Welcome to PowerToys

• Shortcuts will stand out more
• Few accessability bugs fixed. Thanks @niels9001

Shortcut Guide

• Excluded apps for Shortcut Guide. Thanks @davidegiacometti

Installer

• new arg for starting PT after silent install

Developer quality of life

• Ability to directly debug against Settings

Community contributions

We'd like to directly mention (in alphabetical order) for their continued community support this month and helping directly make PowerToys a better piece of software.

@Aaron-Junker, @addrum, @davidegiacometti , @DoctorNefario, @htcfreek, @Jay-o-Way, @niels9001 and @ricardosantos9521

Experimental v0.36.0

This experimental release contains our Video conference mute feature plus everything in our v0.35.0 release. We know we have some issues and we have a main tracking issue - #6246.

This is our first release with the webcam driver actually being a DirectShow filter. This solves a multitude of quirks and simplifying the signing through our compile pipeline.

To find out more about the Video conference mute utility, head over to head to our Video Conference Mute overview.

Installer hash

6191C8B0781406622B24AD93EF58F7880EF67BAE6E165B6B7C693C8D8ECBB951

Current known issues and limitations:

• with some webcams, there is an incompatibility with Teams and the overlay image is not rendered, instead a corrupted frame is shown. If your camera has this quirk, please let us know the model in the [main tracking issue - #6246]
• the application preview (Teams, Meet, etc.) may show the overlay image flipped horizontally but that is expected, the image will show correctly to the other people on the call.
• in order to enable/disable the VCM, PowerToys should run as administrator
• changes to some of the VCM settings require the application to restart to pick up the new values such as a new overlay image.
• in some cases, the overlay image can be shown flipped vertically (the workaround is to edit the image and flip it before selecting it).
  (#6246)
• if the PowerToys Video Conference Mute webcam doesn't show up in the video conference app, try restarting the app and if still doesn't show up try restarting Windows.

Things to note

• This release will not be on WinGet. We are evaluating if this is something people would be interested in.
• This release is on the "Experimental" train, so only prerelease versions will be prompted for updates.

Release v0.35.0

Our goals for v0.35 release cycle were to add in new functionality to support quick swapping layouts for FancyZones, wrap up work for the DirectShow migration for Video Conference Mute so we can migrate into the main dev branch as well as fixing bugs.

Where is the Video Conference utility?

Released 0.36 which is based on the 0.35 branch. You can find more on the experimental 0.36 release page

Installer hash

8A052767127A6E2058BAAE03B551A807777BB1B726650E2C7E92C3E92C8DF80D

Highlights from v0.35 Stable/0.36 Experimental

General

• PowerToys will start requiring Windows 10 v1903 or greater after 0.35.x release. The v1 settings, which supports older Windows versions, will be removed in 0.37.
  • Note: We may be able to bring back support when we migrate to WinUI3 but as of now, we will be increasing the minimum version of Windows to 1903 or greater.
• Localization corrections
• Improved GitHub report bug template.
• Increased .NET Core to 3.1.13
• Fixed installer 'run as user' regression

Color Picker

• UX adjustments to editor. Thanks @niels9001!
• Esc can now be used to exit the editor. Thanks @BenConstable9!

FancyZones

• Added hotkeys and quick swap functionality for custom layouts! Users can now assign a hotkey in the editor and use it to quickly set a desktop's zones with Ctrl + Win + Alt + NUMBER key binding, or by pressing the hotkey while dragging a window.
• UX updates. Thanks @niels9001!
• Fixed zone placement algorithm for when the Taskbar is vertical
• Bug fixes

PowerToys Run

• Users can specify where to show the launcher window. Thanks @addrum!
• New plugin added to support opening previously used Visual Studio Code workspaces, remote machines (SSH or Codespaces), and containers! When enabled, use { to query for available workspaces. Thanks @ricardosantos9521! Please note, this plugin is off by default.
• Shell history now saves the raw command instead of the resolved command. A command like %appdata% would now save in the Shell history as is instead of C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming. Thanks @mayitbeegh!
• Better logging to try to track down some bugs
• Bug fixes

Video Conference Mute (Experimental)

• Tracking work remaining at issue #7944
• Goal is to have 0.36 experimental release week of April 5th (Yes, we've stated this before, we know)

Contributor workflow

• Main project now has a vsconfig which will prompt you to install needed items versus having to use a script. This will aid in keeping you up-to-date when something changes.
• Updated spell checker. Thanks @jsoref!

Community contributions

We'd like to directly mention (in alphabetical order) for their continued community support this month and helping directly make PowerToys a better piece of software.

@Aaron-Junker, @addrum, @BenConstable9, @htcfreek, @Jay-o-Way, @jsoref, @mayitbeegh, @niels9001, @pc-v2, and @ricardosantos9521