The topic PowerToys just got 28% smaller and absorbed three separate apps I used to install 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.
Microsoft’s PowerToys suite recently reached version 0.100, and with it came a much smaller installer, now just 272MB instead of 376MB. That’s a 28% reduction, so downloading and installing the app is easier than ever. But that’s not all Microsoft has been up to.
With its recent updates, PowerToys has also added new tools that replace multiple apps you used to need to install separately. That’s more space saved on your drive, less complexity to deal with, and even more reasons everyone should have PowerToys on their Windows 11 PC.
It’s always been baffling to me that Windows doesn’t offer an easy way to control the brightness and other monitor settings when using external monitors. Laptops make this easy with built-in controls, but external screens were always more limited, despite the fact they use a fairly standardized protocol for communicating these values to Windows (DDC). So I had to use tools like Twinkle Tray or ClickMonitorDDC to adjust these settings more conveniently.
Not anymore. PowerToys version 0.99 introduced a new tool called Power Display that addressed this exact complaint of mine. Power Display gives you a simple flyout that can be used to control the brightness and contrast for supported monitors, with more advanced settings available within PowerToys itself.
It’s still surprising that this isn’t built into Windows directly, but having an official Microsoft solution is already a step forward, and having it combined with a tool that already does so much more is great. Just think about how cumbersome it is to use the navigation nub so many monitors have on the back, or how frustrating it is when they require dedicated apps. This is so much easier.
ZoomIt isn’t exactly a new tool, even in PowerToys. It actually used to be a standalone app, part of the SysInternals suite, but it was absorbed into PowerToys a few months ago. However, PowerToys version 0.100 introduced some huge changes that make ZoomIt more useful than ever, to the point where if you’ve been using something like OBS to record your screen, you may no longer need it.
With this update, you can now add an overlay of your webcam on top of your screen recordings, so you can make more engaging and personal video tutorials and guides that include your face. On top of that, ZoomIt can now stitch multiple recordings together, including transition effects, so you can make properly edited videos without having to use OBS or even a full-blown video editor like DaVinci Resolve. That’s a lot of space and work saved if you only need relatively basic video recordings.
Finally, PowerToys 0.99 added yet another feature, simply called Grab and Move, and it’s yet another simply, but game-changing addition that replaces third-party apps such as AltDrag. It’s a good thing, too, because that app has long been unsupported, so who knows how long it might have remained functional.
Grab and Move has a relatively simple premise: what if you didn’t need to click a specific area of a window to resize or move it? With this tool enabled, all you need to do is press and hold a modifier key (which you can configure) and then click anywhere on a window to start dragging it. You don’t need to grab thee title bar specifically, or even set the focus to that window. Grab and Move allows you to keep moving that window even as it sits behind other windows on your desktop.
This also works for resizing; rather than having to grab a specific corner of the app’s window, you can right-click anywhere inside the window’s area to start resizing it. It can actually save a lot of time, since grabbing the exact corner of a window can take a few seconds to get right.
PowerToys has long offered a keyboard-based launcher in the same vein as Flow or Raycast, which has more recently taken the form of Command Palette. Command Palette has been evolving pretty quickly, and in version 0.100 brought along a significant update that introduces the Command Palette Extension Gallery.
While it’s not game-changing, the Extension Gallery offers a new and improved way to browse and install the available extensions for Command Palette, so you can make the experience more powerful. While Command Palette is a great app launcher, extensions are the lifeblood of this kind of software, so making them more easily accessible can only be a good thing, and it brings PowerToys up to par with solutions like Flow Launcher. It may not be ready to fully replace it yet (depending on your needs), but it’s a big step.
The search tool in Windows is a mess, but PowerToys Command Palette offers a superior alternative that goes beyond basic file searching.
These are just the most recent additions to PowerToys that make it an increasingly important addition to the PCs of any Windows user. These tools join FancyZones, Workspaces, PowerRename, Image Resizer, Mouse Without Borders, and so many more utilities that make this a must-have. If you somehow don’t have it yet, i highly recommend checking it out below.