Microsoft has released PowerToys v0.94, a comprehensive update that enhances user experience and introduces various improvements across its suite of utilities. The new version boasts an advanced search function in the PowerToys Settings, hotkey conflict detection system, and improved security through WiX 5 installer upgrades. Multiple utility updates have been made, including enhancements to Mouse Utilities, Command Palette, Hosts Editor, Quick Accent, Always On Top, PowerRename, Peek, and others. These updates aim to streamline user workflow, resolve bugs, and refine the overall performance of PowerToys.
Microsoft Unveils PowerToys v0.94 with a Range of Significant Updates
In its ongoing efforts to enhance user experience, Microsoft has rolled out PowerToys v0.94, a comprehensive update that brings numerous improvements across its suite of utilities.
Enhanced User Interface and Settings
The latest release boasts a revamped PowerToys Settings, which now features:
- A sophisticated search function with fuzzy matching, providing users with relevant results.
- Suggestions and a dedicated results page for more efficient navigation.
- Advanced hotkey conflict detection system, helping users identify and resolve overlapping shortcuts.
Additionally, the installer has been upgraded to WiX 5, ensuring improved security and reliability, while context menu registration has been moved to runtime to prevent disabled module loading.
Utility Updates
Several PowerToys utilities have received significant updates:
- Mouse Utilities: A new "Gliding cursor" accessibility feature for single-button mouse control has been added to Mouse Pointer Crosshairs.
- Command Palette: This utility has seen numerous bug fixes and improvements, including:
- Visual updates
- New support for filters on ListPages
- Clearer error messages with timestamps and HRESULTs
- Prevention of crashes during provider updates
- Reliable Settings window display
- Hosts Editor: A "No leading spaces" option has been added, allowing active host entries to begin at column 0 even if others are disabled.
- Quick Accent: Support for Maltese has been added, and frequently used accents are now prioritized and remembered across sessions. GPU usage issues have been reduced by making the window Topmost only when the picker is visible.
- Always On Top: The border hover cursor has been fixed to display an arrow instead of a wait cursor.
- PowerRename: The Explorer accelerator key has been changed to "PowErRename" to avoid conflicts with the New menu.
- Peek: Visual Studio shared project file types have been added to the XML preview, and the BGcode handler registration has been fixed, along with the preview handler registration and events.
Other Notable Updates
The following utilities have also received updates:
- Mouse Without Borders: Easy Mouse switching machines during fullscreen apps has been blocked, with an allow-list for exceptions.
- Settings: Telemetry for the new shortcut conflict detection workflow has been added, the shutdown action has been moved to a footer menu item, branded visuals for Office and Copilot keys have been added to the KeyVisual control, the Spanish localization has been corrected for product names, the Advanced Paste description has been simplified, and conflict messages have been localized.
- Installer: "Files in Use" handling has been improved for smoother winget installs, and Win10 context menu modules have been switched to runtime registration with cleanup on uninstall.
- Documentation: Docs for building the installer locally and testing winget installs have been added, and a broken style guide link in developer documentation has been fixed.
- Development: Test and coverage DLLs have been excluded from BinSkim scans, NOTICE maintenance has been simplified, NuGet dependency validation has been improved, UTF.Unknown has been updated, the package catalog in CI is refreshed before dependency installation, CmdPal tests have been refactored with dependency injection, unit tests have been added for various functionalities including Close on Enter swaps, accessibility IDs have been added to CmdPal UI, system command tests have been rewritten, unit tests for WebSearch and Shell extensions have been added, unit tests and abstractions for Apps and Bookmarks extensions have been added, AI-generated tests have been cleaned up, and the obsolete debug dialog has been removed from Settings.
Overall, PowerToys v0.94 brings significant enhancements to user experience, utility functionality, and developer tools, solidifying its position as a powerful productivity suite for Windows users.
Downloads
| Description | Filename | sha256 hash |
|---|---|---|
| Per user - x64 | PowerToysUserSetup-0.94.0-x64.exe | F395CC209B1F77191F96DE3CBF2512B66C8BB4C562043BD1A3A7FD4B9C7B5BC0 |
| Per user - ARM64 | PowerToysUserSetup-0.94.0-arm64.exe | EA2E430476BD54E359A401623863E5130A500A169EF9FB27BBB064ADB3887AC5 |
| Machine wide - x64 | PowerToysSetup-0.94.0-x64.exe | 55D5B07AEC402D504AED8101BF4F3FBA79310198F004A4D74326F951FA7BC7A0 |
| Machine wide - ARM64 | PowerToysSetup-0.94.0-arm64.exe | E111A3ED83D1FB33386A5412AC5324C15E684D89512BA988ABF12D6E95691DB5 |
PowerToys Release v0.94
In the v0.94 release cycle, we focused on new features, stability, optimization improvements, and automation.
