How to Download and Install Microsoft PowerToys in Windows 10
PowerToys is a set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows 10 experience for greater productivity.
Inspired by the Windows 95 era PowerToys project, this reboot provides power users with ways to squeeze more efficiency out of the Windows 10 shell and customize it for individual workflows.
PowerToy Utilities:
Awake
Awake is a utility tool for Windows designed to keep a computer awake without having to manage its power & sleep settings. This behavior can be helpful when running time-consuming tasks, ensuring that the computer does not go to sleep or turn off its screens.
Color Picker
A system-wide color picking utility for Windows 10 that enables you to pick colors from any currently running application and automatically copies it in a configurable format to your clipboard.
FancyZones
FancyZones is a window manager utility for arranging and snapping windows into efficient layouts to improve the speed of your workflow and restore layouts quickly. FancyZones allows the user to define a set of window locations for a desktop that are drag targets for windows. When the user drags a window into a zone, the window is resized and repositioned to fill that zone. The FancyZones backlog can be found here.
File Explorer add-ons
File Explorer add-ons currently include:
- Preview Pane rendering of SVG icons (.svg) -
- Preview Pane rendering of Markdown files (.md)
- Icon thumb preview for SVG icons
Image Resizer
Image Resizer is a Windows shell extension for bulk image-resizing. After installing PowerToys, right-click on one or more selected image files in File Explorer, and then select Resize pictures from the menu.
Keyboard Manager
The PowerToys Keyboard Manager enables you to redefine keys on your keyboard.
PowerRename
PowerRename is a bulk renaming tool that enables you to:
- Modify the file names of a large number of files (without giving all of the files the same name).
- Perform a search and replace on a targeted section of file names.
- Perform a regular expression rename on multiple files.
- Check expected rename results in a preview window before finalizing a bulk rename.
- Undo a rename operation after it is completed.
PowerToys Run
PowerToys Run is a quick launcher for power users that contains some additional features without sacrificing performance. It is open source and modular for additional plugins.
Shortcut Guide
This guide uses PowerToys to display common keyboard shortcuts that use the Windows key.
Video Conference Mute
Quickly mute your microphone (audio) and turn off your camera (video) with a single keystroke while on a conference call, regardless of what application has focus on your computer.
This tutorial will show you step by step on how to download and install Microsoft PowerToys from GitHub in Windows 10.
In order to run PowerToys, you'll need to be running at least Windows 10 build 17134 or higher. Also, PowerToys does not currently support Windows ARM machines.
You must be signed in as an administrator to install PowerToys.
EXAMPLE: PowerToys settings in Windows 10
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Here's How:
1 Go to the PowerToys GitHub releases page.
2 Under the latest release version of PowerToys (ex: "Release v0.19.2"), click/tap on the PowerToysSetup-0.19.2-x64.msi download link under Assets. (see screenshot below)
3 Save the PowerToysSetup-0.19.2-x64.msi file to where you want.
4 Run the downloaded PowerToysSetup-0.19.2-x64.msi file.
5 Click/tap on Next to start PowerToys Setup. (see screenshot below)
6 Click/tap on Next to accept the PowerToys license agreement. (see screenshot below)
7 Check or uncheck the options you want, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)
8 Click/tap on Install when ready to install PowerToys. (see screenshot below)
9 If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes to approve. (see screenshot below)
10 Check (default) or uncheck Launch PowerToys for what you want, and click/tap on Finish. (see screenshot below)
11 If you checked Launch PowerToys, click/tap on Yes to approve running PowerToys if prompted by UAC. (see screenshot below)
That's it,
Shawn