PowerToys 0.85 is now available for download. Microsoft released a new version of its popular set of utilities for Windows 10 and 11, delivering the promised New+ utility, the ability to select the language independently from your Windows localization, and plenty of quality-of-life improvements for existing modules, especially for Workspaces.
Here are the update highlights:
- New utility: New+ - allows setting a personalized set of templates to quickly create files and folders from a File Explorer context menu. Thanks @cgaarden!
- Language selection - it"s now possible to select which UI language should be used by PowerToys utilities.
- Lots of quality fixes for Workspaces, improving the number of supported applications.
- Reduced Peek memory usage by fixing image leaks. Thanks @daverayment!
And here is the rest of the changelog:
General
- Added a general setting to select which UI language should be used in PowerToys utilities.
- Fixed internal code of some policies for Group Policy Objects, that were reading registry entries using the wrong internal functions, and structured code better to avoid future mistakes of the same kind.
Advanced Paste
- Fixed some telemetry calls to signal Advanced Paste activation on the cases where a direct shortcut is being used without showing the UI.
- User-defined custom actions can only be used with AI turned on, so custom actions were disabled on Settings when AI is disabled and were hidden from the Advanced Paste UI.
Awake
- Fixed tray icon behaviors, not appearing and showing incorrect time.
Environment Variables Editor
- Added the _NT_SYMBOL_PATH, _NT_ALT_SYMBOL_PATH and _NT_SYMCACHE_PATH as variables that are shown as lists.
FancyZones
- Allow snapping applications that were launched by Workspaces.
File Locksmith
- Fixed an issue causing File Locksmith to be triggered by unrelated verbs in the context menu.
Mouse Pointer Crosshairs
- Allow crosshairs radius to be 0 pixels.
New+
- New utility - Allows setting a personalized set of templates to quickly create files and folders from a File Explorer context menu.
- Added missing entry for New+ policy state reporting in the Bug Report tool.
- Added a policy for enabling/disabling whether filename extensions should be shown.
Peek
- Properly show file"s modified date instead of creation date in the file previewer.
- Fixed memory leak caused by unmanaged bitmap images not being freed.
- Fixed an issue causing Peek to not be displayed the first time when using a preview handler to display files.
- Prevent tooltip in file previewer from overlapping with title bar controls.
- Fixed memory leaks in thumbnails and refactored image previewer.
PowerToys Run
- Improved the message boxes to be more specific when PowerToys Run failed to initialize itself or any plugin.
- Use capital letters when showing degree results in the Unit Converter plugin.
Quick Accent
- Add the Middle Eastern Romanization character set.
- Add the degree sign, integral and vertical ellipsis when "All Languages" is selected.
Settings
- Fixed the link to the Workspaces documentation. (This was a hotfix for 0.84)
- Fixed flyout issues after the Windows App SDK upgrade.
- Fixed initialization for the New+ settings page.
- Fixed enabled state of a control on the New+ settings page if the module is enabled by policy.
- Fixed a crash when cancelling the template folder selection in the New+ settings page.
Workspaces
- Fixed detecting and snapping applications like Discord. (This was a hotfix for 0.84)
- Fixed detecting and snapping applications like Steam. (This was a hotfix for 0.84)
- Fixed button visibility in the UI. (This was a hotfix for 0.84)
- Fixed an issue launching the wrong project when the editor was closed without saving or cancelling a new project.
- Properly handle repositioning windows running as administrator.
- Properly handle cases where the monitor where a workspace was saved is no longer present.
- Fixed the workspace launcher restarting itself in a loop without success.
- Properly handle standalone applications.
- Fixed issues causing icons to not show.
If you already use PowerToys, you can update to version 0.85 by opening the app and clicking "Check for updates" on the General tab. You can also download the installer from GitHub or the Microsoft Store.