I’ve been using Microsoft PowerToys on my work machine for some time and find myself more and more rely on it every day. The name, PowerToys, is a very old name on Windows. The 1st version of PowerToys came with Windows 95 more than two decades ago. It’s actually a fantastic idea to build new the set of productivity tools on top of a legacy brand. It feels like the good old days were finally connected with the new era, and the history continues.
I cannot remember exactly when I used PowerToys for Windows last time. It could be the time around Windows 98 when I was still in college, long time ago. Honestly, I was not a fan of it at that time. Although I’ve forgotten why I didn’t like it, it was not something that I must install on my machine. But PowerToys for Windows 10 has changed my mind and it has made its way to my must-installed software list.
The two features that I used most in PowerToys are FancyZones and File Explorer Preview. As I’m using a 4k monitor, FancyZones helped me to better utilize the space of the monitor. It made me feel like the laptop screen becomes redundant that I turned it off most of the time. File Explorer Preview is an add-on of Windows file explorer. I can preview file content directly in Windows explorer with it. The best part is it supports markdown preview. Now I can read those README files without even opening them with markdown editors.
Another tool that I am going to use frequently is PowerToys Run which was just released with version 0.18. I always wanted to have such a tool to run apps quickly and I’ve already tried some 3rd tools. PowerToys Run looks quite promising.
The PowerToys is quite stable. I didn’t hit any problem with it since I started using it. So if you are on Windows 10 and haven’t tried it, maybe it’s the time. ๐