Microsoft revived its PowerToys utility last year releasing a new open-source version designed to tweak the Windows 10 experience. Since then, Microsoft has been releasing regular updates bringing bug fixes, performance enhancements, and… new toys.
This week Microsoft released PowerToys v.016 and, among other things, it support for batch image resizing from File Explorer, and a new Alt+Tab alternative called Window Walker that lets you switch tasks by typing.
Update: Less than a week later, Microsoft has released PowerToys version 0.16.1 with several bug fixes.Â
At this point, that means PowerToys is up to six modules, which you can enable/disable from the PowerToys settings menu:
- Window Walker – Hit Ctrl + Win to bring up a text box, and start typing the name of the app you want to switch to. Note that this is a task switcher, not an app launcher — it only works with currently running apps.
- Image Resizer – Highlight the images you want to resize in the File Explorer, right-click, and select the Resize Pictures option to bring up a window that will let you adjust the dimensions of all selected images at once.
- Power Rename – Select a set of files in Explorer, right-click, choose PowerRename, and get a list of options for batch renaming.
- Preview Pane – File Explorer already has an optional preview pane. But this add-on lets you view previews of more file types including Markdown and SVG files.
- Fancy Zones – Create custom zones that let you resize and reposition apps by dragging them into a zone.
- Shortcut Guide – Press and hold the Windows key to see a list of available keyboard shortcuts.
You can download the latest version of PowerToys from Microsoft’s github page for the project.
