Microsoft PowerToys is a set of utilities, which allows users to streamline their Microsoft Windows experience to have greater productivity using the operating system. The company has now released PowerToys version 0.56.1, which has removed the last dependency on the .NET Framework.

 

The latest version of Microsoft PowerToys adds several new improvements (FancyZones zone limit has been increased to 128 zones, Find my mouse will now activate via shaking the mouse with a settings change, and more) and fixes. For a complete list of changes, continue reading further.

 

Microsoft PowerToys v0.56.1 is now available for download

 

What's new and improved in Microsoft PowerToys v0.56.1

Always on Top

  • Fixed excess GPU / CPU usage when enabled
  • If border has focus, not closable via F4
  • Changing border sizes should resize correctly for existing windows
  • Border goes away with Outlook modal windows

ColorPicker

  • No longer crashes during theme change

FancyZones

  • Increased zone limit from 40 to 128.
  • Child and Popup window support for FancyZones. To enable, go to Settings→FancyZones→Windows. These were bugs we fixed that without realizing it was a useful feature to most.

File explorer

  • Fixes for Dev file preview: (Thanks @Aaron-Junker)
    • Fix fix for object reference not set.
    • Fix for encoding UTF-8.
    • Fix for file is in use.
    • Fix for saying the file is too big.

Image Resizer

  • Fix for invalid operation error. @CleanCodeDeveloper!

Mouse utility

  • Find my mouse will now activate via shaking the mouse with a settings change!
  • Find my mouse now can excludes apps.
  • Fix for crosshair thickness looking odd due to anti-aliasing
  • Fix for a hard crash on crosshair (This was a hotfix for 0.55)

PowerRename

  • Will not spells check file names anymore. Thanks @niels9001
  • Autocomplete result box to not obscure apply button. Thanks @niels9001
  • Regex fix

PowerToys Run

  • Timezone conversion plugin for PowerToys Run! Thanks @TobiasSekan
  • Hexadecimal and binary numbers now are supported in the calculator plugin. This was added a bit ago and we'd like to extend a belated thanks to @gsuberland
  • Terminal plugin performance boost. Thanks @htcfreek!
  • Terminal will now be found via the Program plugin again.
  • Shutdown command is now using hybrid fast argument for shutting down
  • Support for VSCodium with VS Code workplace plugin. Thanks @makeProjectGreatAgain

Video conference mute

  • nVidia Broadcast software won't crash anymore

Settings

  • Upgrade notes in OOBE
  • Fix for settings being lost (This was a hotfix for 0.55)
  • UX improvements. Thanks @niels9001

Installer

  • Believe we have a fix for the long hated "app.dark.png is missing" error. Thanks to @robmen for having a great blog!
  • Installer will launch PowerToys under appropriate elevation versus Admin only due to UAC prompt for installation (This was a hotfix for 0.55)
  • PowerToys will now start if installed under different user

 

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