The topic The new PowerToys Command Palette extension gallery makes installing tools really… is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
Giving users the power to easily find and install new extensions is just as important as having a huge library of them. You can have the biggest catalog of tools known to man, but if people can’t easily browse them and grab the ones they want, a lot of them will go uninstalled, or worse, undiscovered.
For a while now, PowerToys users have found it a little trickier than they’d like to install extensions to the Command Palette. Fortunately, Microsoft has listened to their pleas and has now released an Extension Gallery that makes customizing your experience a breeze.
Over on the PowerToys GitHub page, Microsoft has announced the release of version 0.100.0. There’s a bunch of new tools arriving with this update, but my personal favorite feature is the new Extension Gallery. As Microsoft describes it:
Available directly from Command Palette Settings, the Extension Gallery makes it easy to browse, discover, install, update, and remove extensions without leaving Command Palette. Whether you’re looking for new capabilities or managing existing extensions, everything is now just a few clicks away.
You can see the Extension Gallery in the animated GIF above. It brings an app store-esque browser to the Command Palette, which makes finding and installing the tools you want really easy.
PowerToys version 0.100.0 also adds some nice features to existing tools. for example, if you like using the Shortcut Guide as a cheat sheet for all of your hotkeys, it has been completely reworked to intelligently detect which window is active. It then shows you the shortcuts relevant to your app via a side pane. Plus, if you like using ZoomIt to make demos and instructional videos, you can now add a webcam feed so you can better present what you want to show.