Microsoft’s First Rebooted PowerToys Go Live

The first two utilities in Microsoft’s new PowerToys—a Windows key shortcut guide and a Snap window manager—are now available.

Only the latter could be described as a true PowerToy; the Windows key shortcut guide is about as basic as they come, and a subset of the type of help that Windows 10 itself should provide. But FancyZones, a terrible name for a useful utility, is interesting. It extends the Snap feature in Windows 10 to allow for more complex and useful on-screen window layouts. (It should be called Power Snap. Obviously.)

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More PowerToys are coming, and hopefully some of these will live up to the vaunted PowerToy name. Microsoft says that Maximize to new desktop (previously announced), Process terminate, Batch file renamer, and Animated GIF screen recorder are on the way too.

It’s impossible to use Windows 10 and not think of possible PowerToys, like Center Taskbar Icons, Classic Start, Remove Crapware, and Bulk Store App Remover. Come on people, let’s make Windows 10 great again (gag). We can do this.

You can download the new PowerToys from GitHub.

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Conversation 14 comments

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    06 September, 2019 - 9:02 am

    <p>You just had to go f@#$@g go there…</p>

  • Jeff Fodiak

    06 September, 2019 - 9:29 am

    <p>I never could understand why some of these tools weren't just installed with the operating system. If power snap is in an 'advanced' menu in settings then it will be found by power users and ignored by basic users. Another example (outside of power tools) is the 'quick photo resize tool' which is now managed by a third party and offers a right click menu for instantly resizing photos one by one or in batch. It's so useful and very easy to use – especially for novice users – who probably have no awareness of its availability and so will never have it installed.</p>

  • gregsedwards

    Premium Member
    06 September, 2019 - 10:10 am

    <p>Very interested in FancyZones, as I frequently need to record screen demos and having fixed window sizes/positions would be really helpful for consistency. But I absolutely agree the name is terrible and needs to be "Power Snap." Can I write my Congressperson?</p>

    • IanYates82

      Premium Member
      06 September, 2019 - 10:46 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#460637">In reply to gregsedwards:</a></em></blockquote><p>Pull request to the github repo? </p>

  • mattbg

    Premium Member
    06 September, 2019 - 10:47 am

    <p>I'd argue that with the release of these PowerToys it's now a matter of keeping Windows great.</p>

  • mattbg

    Premium Member
    06 September, 2019 - 10:49 am

    <p>Having an ultrawide (21:10) monitor, FancyZones sounds really useful. The defaults are more optimized for 16:9 screens. We'll see about real-world utility and if it gets in the way more than it helps.</p>

  • PeteB

    06 September, 2019 - 11:04 am

    <p>And a Telemetry OFF switch is needed.</p>

  • PeteB

    06 September, 2019 - 11:06 am

    <p>Thank God it's proper Win32 program not some UWP garbage that requires the windows 10 store *shudder*</p>

  • RonV42

    Premium Member
    06 September, 2019 - 11:14 am

    <p>Darn requires 1803 and at work 35% of our systems are 1703 due to shitty McAfee software.</p>

    • mattbg

      Premium Member
      06 September, 2019 - 11:58 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#460724">In reply to RonV42:</a></em></blockquote><p>What is it with companies deploying Windows 10 versions that are not LTSC builds?</p><p><br></p><p>I'm about to get upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 build 1703 where I work (a large corporation) and as far as I can tell it is end-of-life in Oct 2019!</p>

  • wosully

    Premium Member
    06 September, 2019 - 1:36 pm

    <p>Love this, "<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Power Snap. Obviously." Hell yes! Obviously. Frankly.</span></p>

  • saint4eva

    07 September, 2019 - 12:57 pm

    <p>This is amazing. I believe it is an open source project, also? </p>

  • mrdrwest

    07 September, 2019 - 4:43 pm

    <p>Power Snap for the win!</p>

  • mrdrwest

    07 September, 2019 - 4:47 pm

    <p> Paul, you didn't mention that Windows 10 PowerToys source code is available on GitHub?!</p><p><br></p><p>Wow!</p>

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