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PowerToys Run Overview

Clint Rutkas edited this page Nov 3, 2020 · 9 revisions

Overview

PowerToys Run is a quick launcher for power users that has additional capabilities without sacrificing performance. It is open source and modular for additional plugins. Press Alt+Space and start typing! If that shortcut isn't what you like, don't worry, it is fully configurable in the settings.

Overview

1. Get Started

1.1 Requirements

  • Windows 10 version 1903 or higher

1.2 Features

Search for applications, folders, or files Searching for apps, folders and files

Search for running processes (previously known as WindowWalker)

Getting running app results

Clickable buttons with keyboard shortcuts

Using the context menu in results

Invoke Shell Plugin using "> "

Using the shell plugin

Do a simple calculation using calculator

Using the calculator

1.3 Settings

Settings Action
Open PowerToys Run shortcut The keyboard shortcut to open/hide PowerToys Run
Ignore shortcuts in Fullscreen mode When you are in full-screen Run won't be engaged with the shortcut
Maximum number of results Maximum number of results shown without scrolling on PowerToys Run
Clear the previous query on launch When launched, it will be blank rather than highlighting previous search
Disable drive detection warning The warning, if all your drives aren't indexed, will no longer be visible

1.4 Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcuts Action
Alt+Space Open or hide PowerToys Run
Esc Hide PowerToys Run
Ctrl+Shift+Enter (Only applicable to applications) Open the selected application as administrator
Ctrl+Shift+E (Only applicable to applications and files) Open containing folder in File Explorer
Ctrl+C (Only applicable to folders and files) Copy path location
Tab Navigate through the search result and context menu buttons

1.5 Action key

These will force PowerToys run into only targeted plug-ins.

Action key Action
= Calculator only. Example =2+2
? File searching only. Example ?road to find roadmap.md
. Installed app searching only. Example .code to get Visual Studio Code
// URLs only. Example //microsoft.com to have your default browser go to https://microsoft.com
< Running processes only. Example <outlook to find all processes that contain outlook
> Shell command only. Example >ping localhost to do a ping query

2. Known Issues

For a list of all known issues/suggestions, check it out here.

3. Attribution

Wox

Beta Tadele's Window Walker