Microsoft has released version 0.55.0 of PowerToys. The PowerToys are a collection of small programs for power users. There were PowerToys for Windows 95 and Windows XP and since mid-2019 Microsoft has also been developing a version for Windows 10 and higher. The PowerToys currently consist of wake† Color Picker† FancyZones† File Explorer Add-ons† Image Resizer† Keyboard Manager† PowerRename† PowerToys Run† Shortcut Guide and the Video Conference Mute, which is no longer offered as experimental from version 0.49. The changelog for this release can be found below.
General
- .NET runtime is now on 5, our next release will be upgraded to .NET 6. Moving to .NET 5 and then 6 helped reduce our moving parts in a single release so we went this route. Why this is important is this is one of the major work items needed for ARM64 support. In addition, this should help provide a speed boosts once we are on .NET 6.
- @jsoref’s spelling plugin help
Always on Top
- Fixed one of two borders showing incorrectly bugs.
- Border defaults to OS accent color now.
- Reduced CPU/GPU activity. Not done improving, we know we can do better.
FancyZones
- Bug fixed to not lose zones after update
- Fixed editor margin issue for Chinese language.
File explorer add-ons
- GCode thumbnails now have transparency.
- New Utility – Developer files for File Explorer preview pane. This should add about 150 file extensions total. We are using the Monaco Editor to power this experience.
- New Utility – STL thumbnails added! Preview pane support is already in Windows.
Image Resizer
- Fixed bug with too much metadata.
- Fixed bug resizing bug for constant height while maintaining aspect ratio.
Mouse utilities
- New Utility – Crosshair over pointer via Ctrl+Alt+P. This feature was co-developed with the accessibility team at Microsoft.
PowerRename
- Files are sorted now how File Explorer sorts.
PowerToys Run
- Improved speed and fixed bugs with Window walker plugin.
- Window Walker will now show path of elevated apps.
- Added UEFI command to system commands.
- Fixed crashing bug in EnvironmentHelper class.
- Fix URI plugin bug with ^:.
- VS Code plugin not showing workspaces with latest Code version was corrected.
- Fixed bug that caused plugins to not load.
- Fixed crash in Uri plugin and Web search plugin.
Settings
- Fixed a regression with settings being reset when moving from admin to non-admin
Video Conference Mute
- Fixed crashing bug with Zoom and other clients. We found someone we could remotely debug with and identify the actual crashing part.
- Change of behavior: When leaving a meeting, VCM will now leave your microphone in the state it was. This mimics behavior of applications if VCM was not present.
- Change of behavior: When you exit PowerToys, your current microphone state will remain.
| Version number | 0.55.0 |
| Release status | Final |
| Operating systems | Windows 10, Windows 11 |
| Website | Microsoft |
| Download | |
| License type | GPL |