It has been over a month since Microsoft released PowerToys 0.41.4 which was mainly a bug squashing release following the release of a new Toy to keep your PC awake, along with a few fixes and improvements. It appears the firm has been hard at work stamping out more bugs as it has skipped over a 0.42 release entirely and released 0.43 instead.
Microsoft notes, as with the past few releases: "Our goals for the v0.43 release cycle primarily centered around stability updates and optimizations, installer updates, general bug fixes, and accessibility improvements." The changelog for 0.43 can be viewed below, and it"s a long one:
Change log
- Changed tooltip text for systray icon to be on a single line for Windows 11 compatibility.
- Fixed escape behavior on Color Picker so that only the fly-out is closed if active.
- Changed URI PowerToys Run plugin to launch HTTPS by default instead of HTTP. Thanks @chrisharris333!
- Added confirmation dialog when system commands are executed from PowerToys Run. Thanks @chrisharris333!
General
- New UI for sizes list view in Image Resizer settings. Thanks @niels9001!
- Fixed FileInUse errors during install/update scenarios.
- Fixed toggle switches on PowerToys run settings to display correctly.
- Fixed header text not updating when theme color is changed. Thanks @niels9001!
- Added Name/Alt text to GIF image
- Expanded the Report Bug tool to collect more robust diagnostic information.
- Fixed screen reader functionality to stop announcing hidden text in settings.
- Added Name and alt text properties to GIF images in Welcome to PowerToys window
Awake
- Fixed bug when right-clicking menu of Awake app icon. Thanks @dend!
- Fixed high CPU usage for timed keep awake. Thanks @dend!
- Fixed Awake icon spamming notification tray. Thanks @dend!
- Added telemetry to collect Awake settings and logs.
Color Picker
- Removed private Unicode Chars in element Name properties.
- No Class names in Name properties.
- Added non-null bounding rectangle property.
- Fixed color shade numbering for screen reader.
- Fixed focusable elements to have non-null name property.
- Distingushed name property and LocalizedControlType from elements and their parent.
- ControlType and LocalizedControlType are no longer both set to Custom.
- Fixed screen reader incorrectly naming Color Picker when launched.
- Fixed screen reader not announcing colors when navigating.
FancyZones
- Fixed bug causing multi-monitor spanning errors.
- Added minimum zone size limit to the settings.
- Fixed issue where re-opened windows don"t appear in previously assigned zone.
- Fixed excluded apps setting to save on text change instead of when leaving focus.
- Fixed corrupt/outdated plugins load crash.
- Fixed issue with FancyZones not working after computer goes to sleep.
- Added screen reader confirmation to canvas editor when new zones are added.
Keyboard Manager
- Fixed screen reader usage bugs to increase intuitiveness.
PowerToys Run
- Fixed crashing bug due to missing image file app.dark.png.
- Fixed URI plugin bug with handling numeric input. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
- Improved launch performance of PowerToys run on first call. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
PowerToys boasts nine "toys" which can be seen above. All in all, version 0.43 contains a lot of fixes, as well as thanks for community contributions for those bug fixes, so we recommend upgrading to it.
If you are using PowerToys, you can open the app and click on "Check for updates" under the updates section on the General tab. Those who would like to try PowerToys for the first time can grab the version 0.43 installer from the app"s GitHub page.