📢 Discover What's New in PowerToys v0.75.0: Environment Variables, Peek Updates, and More

Highlights from Microsoft PowerToys v0.75.0

1. Environment Variables Editor

One of the most exciting additions to PowerToys in version 0.75.0 is the Environment Variables Editor. This utility allows users to configure profiles for environment variables, enabling or disabling them as needed. This feature provides greater control and flexibility for managing environment variables on your Windows system. A special thanks to user @niels9001 for their design and UI work that made this utility possible.

2. New Dashboard Home Page for Settings

The Settings utility in PowerToys now boasts a new Dashboard home page. This page provides quick access to enable or disable modules, short descriptions, and activation methods, making it easier than ever to customize PowerToys to your preferences. Once again, a shoutout to @niels9001 for their design and UI contributions to this feature.

3. Peek Improvements

The Peek utility has received an exciting update. It now hosts File Explorer previewers, which means it can support previewing virtually any file type that your machine can handle. For instance, if you have Microsoft Office handlers installed, Peek can now preview Office files. This enhancement, brought to you by @dillydylann, enhances the utility's versatility and usefulness.

What's new and improved in Microsoft PowerToys v0.75.0?

General Improvements

In addition to these highlights, PowerToys v0.75.0 also comes with several general improvements:

• Typo Fixes: Many typos have been corrected throughout the projects and documentation, thanks to the efforts of @brianteeman.
• Window Activation Logic: The logic for bringing a window to the foreground after activation has been refactored and improved across various utilities.

Utility-Specific Enhancements

Here are some critical updates for specific PowerToys utilities:

Color Picker

• After activating the Color Picker, you can now cancel the session by right-clicking, thanks to @fredso90.
• The title bar now indicates if the Color Picker is running as an administrator, thanks to @davidegiacometti.

FancyZones

• An issue causing context menu pop-ups from certain apps to snap automatically to a zone has been fixed (a hotfix for 0.74).
• The "Keep windows in their zones" option has been reworked to include the work area and is now turned on by default, resolving incompatibility with the Copilot flyout.
• An issue that caused Windows to snap while moving to a different virtual desktop has been resolved.

File Explorer Add-ons

• An issue that prevented some SVG files from being previewed correctly has been fixed (a hotfix for 0.74).
• Crashes related to invalid files in the STL Thumbnail generator have been resolved.

Group Policy Objects (GPO)

• A global GPO rule has been added, applying to all utilities unless overridden, thanks to @htcfreek.
• GPO rules now control which PowerToys Run plugins can be enabled or disabled by policy, thanks to @htcfreek.
• All plugins are required to provide their plugin ID as a static property in their Main method.

Image Resizer

• A registry association issue with .bmp files has been fixed, thanks to @meitinger.
• The Numpad Subtract key in the editor has had a typo corrected.

Mouse Highlighter

• The lower limit of fade delay and duration has been removed, allowing for better signaling of double-click actions, thanks to @fredso90.

Mouse Jump

• The process now runs in the background, leading to faster activation times, thanks to @mikeclayton.

Peek

• Reported file sizes in Peek now more closely match those reported by File Explorer.
• The Peek utility now features a previewer that hosts File Explorer previewers to support every file type that your machine can preview.
• Several issues, including one causing the first file's preview to get stuck loading and another displaying the previously previewed video file when invoking Peek with a new file, have been resolved.

PowerRename

• Data from the last run is now saved in a different file to avoid conflicts with changing settings in the Settings application.

PowerToys Run

• An issue where the query wasn't cleared after invoking a result action through the keyboard has been fixed.
• The shell selection option for Windows Terminal in the Shell plugin has been improved, and the backend code for adding combo box options to plugins has also been enhanced, thanks to @htcfreek.
• The combo box item implementation has changed, which may affect older plugins.
• Several improvements have been made to the TimeDate plugin, including the addition of Unix time in milliseconds and better error messages.
• The PowerToys plugin now allows calling the new Environment Variables utility.
• Support has been added for VSCodium Stable, VSCodium Insider, and Remote Tunnels workspaces, thanks to @eternalphane.

Quick Accent

• Characters that were removed from "All languages" due to not being present in any single language have been fixed (a hotfix for 0.74).
• Asturian characters have been added to the Spanish character set.
• Greek characters with tonos have been included, thanks to @PesBandi.

Registry Preview

• A parsing error that crashed the application has been fixed (a hotfix for 0.74).
• Opening file names with non-ASCII characters is now handled correctly.
• Issues related to key transversal when a key was a substring of a parent key have been resolved.

Runner

• The update notification toast now displays a Unicode arrow.

Settings

• A lock icon has been added to the flyout listing of all modules when their enabled state is controlled by policy.
• The "All apps" list in the flyout now includes all apps, even if their enabled state is controlled by policy.

Video Conference Mute

• An option to allow the toolbar to hide after some time has been added.
• The ability to select to mute or unmute at startup is now available.
• An issue causing a cascade of mute/unmute triggers has been fixed.

Microsoft PowerToys v0.75.0 represents a significant step forward in enhancing the functionality, stability, and user experience of this Windows utility suite. With new features like the Environment Variables Editor and improvements across various utilities, PowerToys continues to be a valuable tool for Windows users looking to customize and streamline their computing experience.

To get the latest version of PowerToys, visit the official PowerToys GitHub repository and stay tuned for future updates as Microsoft continues to refine and expand this fantastic tool.

How to download the latest version of Microsoft PowerToys

You can download the newest version of Microsoft PowerToys from the Microsoft Store or from the official repository on GitHub. If you already have Microsoft PowerToys installed on your computer, you can manually update it by navigating to the Settings page.

You can also download Microsoft PowerToys version 0.75.0 by clicking either of the following official links:

• PowerToysSetup-0.75.0-arm64.exe
• PowerToysSetup-0.75.0-x64.exe

Please note that the links shared above to download the latest version of Microsoft PowerToys are official links hosted by Microsoft on the GitHub servers. It is still advisable to always scan with your antivirus software once you download something from the internet. Neither the author of this post nor the site will be responsible if something goes wrong.