14 DAY TRIAL // Long-time Windows users certainly remember PowerToys, as it was one of the most popular suites of tools supposed to enhance the operating system beyond the default feature lineup offered by Microsoft.
And while PowerToys was retired many years ago, the ambition that Microsoft is putting into making the open-source world a priority is close to bringing it back with a more modern approach.
The PowerToys project is thus being rebooted with the source code published on GitHub, and now Microsoft is calling for devs to contribute to the development of new features that would be included in a Windows 10 version of the app.
“PowerToys is a set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience for greater productivity,” Microsoft says.
“Inspired by the Windows 95 era PowerToys project, this reboot provides power users with ways to squeeze more efficiency out of the Windows 10 shell and customize it for individual workflows.”
Two features already in the works
Microsoft says it’s currently working on two different features that would be included in the modern version of PowerToys for Windows 10, and one of them is a Windows key shortcut guide. This would show up when users press and hold the Windows key, thus helping them discover the available shortcuts and thus make the most of the hotkey support in Windows 10.
The other one is a maximize to new desktop widget that comes down to a pop-up button displayed when a user hovers the maximize button. When clicked, it maximizes the window on another desktop in Windows 10.
There are several other improvements that Microsoft is looking into, like a Win + R replacement, a keyboard shortcut manager, a full window manager, better Alt + Tab, a battery tracker, quick resolution swaps in the taskbar, and mouse events without focus.
You can see the full list and vote for the features you want to see in PowerToys on the GitHub page mentioned above.