Microsoft has released a new feature update for PowerToys, a set of various tools for Windows 10 and 11 users. Although the July 2024 update does not contain any new modules, it reworks the Awake tool (the tool that can prevent your computer from going to sleep) and adds improvements and fixes for other existing tools.
There is also some good news for those wanting something new for PowerToys. According to Clint Rutkas from the PowerToys team, some "bigger items" are currently in Microsoft"s ovens for 0.84 and 0.85 releases, so stay tuned for those. Meanwhile, check out what is new in PowerToys 0.83:
0.83 - July 2024 Update
In this release, we focused on stability and improvements.
Highlights
- Awake Quality of Life changes, including changing the tray icon to reflect the current mode.
- Changes to general GPO policies and new policies for Mouse Without Borders. The names for some intune policy configuration sets might need to be updated as seen in https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-dev-docs/pull/5045/files.
General
- Reordered GPO policies, making it easier to find some policies. Thanks @htcfreek!
Advanced Paste
- Fixed CSV parser to support double quotes and escape delimiters when pasting as JSON.
- Improved double quote handling in the CSV parser when pasting as JSON.
Awake
- Different modes will now show different icons in the system tray.
- Removed the dependency on Windows Forms and used native Win32 APIs instead for the tray icon.
- Fixed an issue where the UI would become non-responsive after selecting no time for the timed mode.
- Refactored code for easier maintenance.
- The tray icon will now be shown when running Awake standalone to signal mode.
- The tray icon tooltip shows how much time is left on the timer.
- Added DPI awareness to the tray icon context menu.
Color Picker
- Added support to using the mouse wheel to scroll through the color history.
File Explorer add-ons
- Allow copying from the right-click menu in Monaco and Markdown previewers.
File Locksmith
- Fixed a crash when there were a big number of entries being shown by moving the opened files of a process to another dialog.
Installer
- Fixed the path where DSC module files were installed for the user-scope installer. (This was a hotfix for 0.82)
Mouse Without Borders
- Disabled non supported options in the old Mouse Without Borders UI.
- Added new GPO policies to control the use of some features.
Peek
- Allow copying from the right-click menu in Dev files and Markdown previews.
PowerToys Run
- Fixed a crash on Windows 11 build 22000.
- Blocked a transparency fix code from running on Windows 10, since it was causing graphical glitches.
- Accept speed abbreviations like kilometers per hour (kmph) in the Unit Converter plugin.
- Added settings to configure behavior of the "First week of year" and "First day of week" calculations in the DateTime plugin.
- Fixed wrong initial position of the PowerToys Run when switching between monitors with different dpi values.
- Started allowing interchangeable use of / and \ in the registry plugin paths.
- Added support to automatic sign-in after rebooting with the System plugin.
- Added suggested use example results to the Value Generator plugin.
Quick Accent
- Added support for the Bulgarian character set.
Runner
- Add code to handle release tags with an upper V when trying to detect new updates.
Settings
- Fixed the UI spacing in the "update available" card.
- Fixed the information bars in the Mouse Without Borders settings page to hide when the module is disabled.
- Improved consistency of the icons used in the Mouse Without Borders settings page.
- Improved action keyword information bar padding in the PowerToys Run plugins section.
- Fixed a crash in the dashboard when Keyboard Manager Editor settings file became locked.
As usual, you can get PowerToys from the Microsoft Store, GitHub, or winget. Existing installations can be updated on the Settings > General page. The app will also send you a notification that a new version is available for download.