{"id":26935,"date":"2023-10-01T10:35:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T14:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=26935"},"modified":"2023-10-01T10:35:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T14:35:26","slug":"if-you-havent-tried-microsoft-powertoys-yet-youre-missing-out-on-some-great-windows-utilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/if-you-havent-tried-microsoft-powertoys-yet-youre-missing-out-on-some-great-windows-utilities\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Haven&#8217;t Tried Microsoft PowerToys Yet, You&#8217;re Missing Out on Some Great Windows Utilities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 24pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">If You Haven&#8217;t Tried Microsoft PowerToys Yet, You&#8217;re Missing Out on Some Great Windows Utilities<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2023\/powertoys.png\" alt=\"PowerToys Is Better Than Ever- Cloudeight InfoAve\" width=\"332\" height=\"381\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">We have featured Microsoft PowerToys previously but it keeps improving and adding more Power Toys than many of you will really like. So, we are featuring it again. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">PowerToys was once a collection of toys created for power users, but PowerToys now has many great features that most users will find very useful. Ans more good points &#8211; it&#8217;s from Microsoft, it works on Windows 10 (all currently supported versions) and Windows 11 (all versions) and it&#8217;s free.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>First, what is Microsoft PowerToys?<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Microsoft PowerToys is a free and open-source suite of utilities for Windows that can be used to customize and extend the operating system. It includes a variety of tools, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Always on Top:<\/strong> Enables you to pin windows above other windows with a quick key shortcut\u00a0 Windows key + Ctrl +T).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Power Toys Awake:<\/strong>\u00a0 PowerToys Awake is designed to keep a computer awake without having to manage its power &amp; sleep settings. This behavior can be helpful when running time-consuming tasks, ensuring that the computer does not go to sleep or turn off its displays.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>PowerRename:<\/strong> A smart renaming tool that can rename multiple files with complex expressions at once.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Image Resizer:<\/strong>\u00a0A tool for quickly resizing batches of images.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Keyboard Manager:<\/strong>\u00a0A tool for remapping keyboard keys and creating custom keyboard shortcuts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>PowerToys Run:<\/strong>\u00a0A utility for launching apps and files quickly and easily.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>File Explorer Add-ons:<\/strong>\u00a0A collection of add-ons for the Windows File Explorer, such as a preview pane for RAW images and a file search history.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>ColorPicker:<\/strong> A color picker tool that can quickly select colors from any screen.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Crop And Lock:<\/strong> A utility that creates a new window that&#8217;s a crop or a thumbnail of another window.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Shortcut Guide:<\/strong>\u00a0A tool that displays a list of keyboard shortcuts for the current app.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>File Locksmith:<\/strong>\u00a0A tool for seeing what process is preventing you from accessing or modifying a file.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Hosts File Editor:<\/strong>\u00a0A tool for editing the Windows hosts file.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Paste as Plain Text:<\/strong>\u00a0A tool for pasting text without any formatting.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Peek: <\/strong>Peek allows you to preview file content without the need to open multiple applications or interrupt your workflow. Simply select the file and use the shortcut (<kbd>Ctrl<\/kbd>+<kbd>Space<\/kbd>).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Quick Accent:<\/strong>\u00a0 Quick Accent is an alternative way to type accented characters, useful for when a keyboard doesn&#8217;t support that specific accent with a quick key combo.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Screen Ruler:<\/strong> Screen Ruler allows you to quickly measure pixels on your screen based on image edge detection. To activate, use the shortcut <kbd>Windows key <\/kbd>+\u00a0 <kbd>Shift <\/kbd>+ <kbd>M<\/kbd>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Text Extractor:<\/strong> Text Extractor is a convenient way to copy text from anywhere on your screen. To activate, use the shortcut <kbd>Windows key + Shift + T.<\/kbd><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Mouse utilities<\/strong>: Mouse utilities add functionality to enhance your mouse and cursor. With Find My Mouse, quickly locate your mouse&#8217;s position with a spotlight that focuses on your cursor. Mouse Highlighter displays visual indicators when the left or right mouse buttons are clicked. Mouse Jump allows a quick jump on large displays. Mouse Pointer Crosshairs draws crosshairs centered on the mouse pointer.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">PowerToys is still (and always) under development. While it once was a popular tool for power users, many new features have been added to make Power Toys a must-have for every Windows 10 and Windows 11 user.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>PowerToys is easy to use<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Best of all it&#8217;s easy to use. When you start PowerToys its shortcut resides in the notification area (the area of the taskbar nearest the clock).\u00a0 Simply click on its icon to access any of the PowerToys.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2023\/ptoys0.png\" alt=\"PowerToys Is Better Than Ever- Cloudeight InfoAve\" width=\"479\" height=\"651\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Above the main PowerToys window. To see more PowerToys click &#8220;More&#8221; at the top&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2023\/ptoys.png\" alt=\"PowerToys Is Better Than Ever- Cloudeight InfoAve\" width=\"540\" height=\"654\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2023\/ptoys1.png\" alt=\"PowerToys Is Better Than Ever- Cloudeight InfoAve\" width=\"539\" height=\"665\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2023\/ptoys2.png\" alt=\"PowerToys Is Better Than Ever- Cloudeight InfoAve\" width=\"544\" height=\"347\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">You can learn more about PowerToys from this page. You can also download PowerToys from that page but the four options make downloading more difficult than it should be. <a href=\"https:\/\/aka.ms\/installpowertoys\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Here&#8217;s the download page<\/strong><\/a> we recommend that you use. And <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/microsoft\/PowerToys\/releases\/download\/v0.74.0\/PowerToysUserSetup-0.74.0-x64.exe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here is the direct link to the download<\/a><\/strong> for the current version of PowerToys.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">We know you&#8217;ll find many of the PowerToys useful. We use &#8220;Stay on Top&#8221;, &#8220;Image Resizer&#8221;, &#8220;PowerToys Awake&#8221;, &#8220;Color Picker&#8221; and &#8220;Peek&#8221; a lot, but you&#8217;ll probably have your own favorite PowerToys after you you&#8217;ve used it a while.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; If You Haven&#8217;t Tried Microsoft PowerToys Yet, You&#8217;re Missing Out on Some Great Windows Utilities We have featured Microsoft PowerToys previously but it keeps improving and adding more Power Toys than many of you will really like. So, we are featuring it again. PowerToys was once a collection of toys created for power users, but PowerToys\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/if-you-havent-tried-microsoft-powertoys-yet-youre-missing-out-on-some-great-windows-utilities\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4424,11,4353,4221,3602],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26935"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26940,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26935\/revisions\/26940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}