PowerToys: Useful Add-ons from Microsoft
PowerToys Contents:
1. Get PowerToys 2. File Explorer Add-on 3. Image Resizer 4. Mouse Utilities 5. Shortcut Menu
As many readers well know, I am very skeptical of add-on gizmo software.
That is, unless that little applet comes from the same software vendor
as does the main software. Adobe, for example, has several useful
add-ons to their applications.
Many readers of this blog are regular (daily?) users of one the
earliest PowerToys from Microsoft, SyncToy. The PowerToys set of
applications has been continually updated. The newest version,
v.053.1, requires either the most version Windows 10 or Windows11.
[ED. An update was released January 12, 2022, with minor bug
fixes, and bringing the current version to V.053. Access the
update from the PowerToys General Screen.] All the screen shots herein are Windows 11. So your mileage may
vary.
1. Get
PowerToys
There are a few different way to
get PowerToys, but the easiest method is to install PowerToys from the
Microsoft Store.
To get to the Microsoft Store click the icon
of a shopping bag with the Windows Logo that is on the taskbar.
At the
Microsoft Store, type PowerToys Windows. The Microsoft PowerToys
Application will be first.
When you click PowerToys at the MSStore you will go to the PowerToys Description and Installation page. Simply click Install. The rest of the installation is automatic.
The PowerToys icon will now show in your Notification Area.
Click the upward pointing arrow to display the all the
icons.
The notebook I use is configured with an Intel i5 processor and 16gb of
system memory. I noticed no impact on performance by having
PowerToys running dormant in the background. For the keyboard
shortcuts that activate any one PowerToy to work, PowerToys must be
running in the background.
When you click the PowerToys icon,
the General Screen will open. From there, you can select a Window Theme and
whether PowerToys runs automatically at startup. On the left side
of the screen is the menu of the 12 PowerToys apps. Each app has
its own default keyboard shortcut to activate and other settings.
It is from the General Screen were you can customize how each PowerToys
works Or, you can simply pick the few apps that you think are
useful to you, and then remember those few keyboard combinations
Each PowerToy page has a link to a microsoft.com page with more info of that specific PowerToy.
We will look at 4 of what I think are the most overall useful of the 12
PowerToys apps. The first app presented here is the File
Explorer-Add-on.
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Before you can use the new preview capabilities of the PowerToy, you must first turn on the Preview Pane in File Explorer. Click View → Preview Pane. The Preview Pane appears on the right side of the screen.
This PowerToy enables previews of files that cannot be previewed in Windows. In the not too distant future, the general meaning of "time to take at the trash" will be time to find and delete all the superfluous and duplicative PDF files. With the File Explorer PowerToy you can now preview PDF files. Other file types are added as well, but everyone has PDF issues.
3. Image Resizer
Next we take a look at an app that has been heaven sent for me, and I
can think of a few people who could also put the PowerToy Image Resizer
to good work. I can now resize each image for a story, and make
them all uniform sizes with no stretching of the borders and
perspective. You activate Image Resizer from a RIGHT-CLICK
on the image you want to resize → Show More Options
→ Resize Image. The here the resize
image dialogue box appears. When you chose a size, Image
Resizer will make a copy of that file with the file size selected
appended to the filename. You can select from
preformatted sizes intended for common usage. I choose Small 854x480 for
this project, and then add 100 pixels to the resized image. All
the images for this website are now consistent dimensions with very clean
imaging.
From the PowerToys General Screen, you can bring up the File Explorer Add-on customization screen. Here you can, among other things, set your own custom image sizes.
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4. Mouse Utilities
I don't know about you, but I am constantly loosing sight of my mouse
pointer. Enter PowerToys Mouse Utilities. This has a few
specialty mouse features for gamers and others, but for me and you it's
2 presses of the Control key and There You Are! Screen dims and an
illuminated circle is your mouse pointer. Hit escape.
You know there is a keyboard shortcut to that Windows command or function, but damned if any of us can remember more than a few. With PowerToys Shortcut Menu, hold down the Windows key for a few seconds and up pops a menu to the most used Windows commands. Then simply type the letter on the blue button that corresponds with the Windows command you want to use while still holding down the Control key.
All in All pretty dang darn cool I'd say. What Say You? Give these PowerToys a try and let me know how you like them.
Gerald Reiff