Outside of the various native customization and tweaking apps Windows already comes with, Microsoft also offers PowerToys which brings with it various useful utilities like Advanced Paste, FancyZones, File Explorer add-ons, Registry Preview, and keyboard and mouse manager, among others.
As the name suggests, PowerToys is meant for power users and Windows enthusiasts.
One such utility is PowerToys Run, and back in December last year, Microsoft shared that version 2 of PowerToys Run was coming. The new version brought in a fresh UI (user interface) and improved UX (user experience), among other changes. You can find the details about it in our dedicated article here.
Kayla Cinnamon, who is a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft for PowerToys and Windows developer experiences, shared on her X handle that the company is working on a new PowerToys utility for installing WinGet packages. A tiny preview has also been shared:
Reunited with the Windows Terminal devs and we"re cooking up something new. Here"s a sneak peek of installing a winget package through a new utility coming soon to PowerToys:
— Kayla Cinnamon ☕ (@cinnamon_msft) February 13, 2025
P.S. this is live working code, courtesy of @zadjii 😉 pic.twitter.com/HnzQeZNHpm
When a user on the thread enquired further about the new feature, Clint Rutkas, a Lead for developer experiences on Windows, revealed that this was the "next gen version" of PowerToys Run:
This is the next gen version of pt run
— Clint Rutkas (@ClintRutkas) February 14, 2025
For those who may not be familiar, WinGet is the command line tool and client interface (cli) for Windows Package Manager service. Package Managers are essentially used to automate the installing, upgrading, configuring and the using of software, though it is mainly used in the context of developer tools.