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Microsoft PowerToys is a free, open-source suite of Windows utilities from Microsoft that adds custom window snapping, bulk file renaming, a keyboard remapper and a fast app launcher to Windows 11 and 10, with nothing to buy.
PowerToys is Microsoft's own free toolbox for the things Windows still does not do well.
It is open source, MIT-licensed, developed in public on GitHub, and every module can be switched off individually.
There are two current builds right now, so it is worth thirty seconds working out which one you want.
Stable 0.100.2 or the 0.101 Preview?
Version 0.100.2 is the stable release, published on 26 June 2026, and it is what Microsoft still serves as the latest build. Version 0.101.2211.0 arrived on 10 August 2026 and is labelled a pre-release.
Take the stable build unless you have a reason not to. The 0.101 preview is genuinely interesting, but preview builds exist to find bugs, and PowerToys hooks deep into window management and keyboard input. A bad build there is more annoying than a bad build almost anywhere else.
The 0.101 preview also introduced something useful in its own right: Settings now has an update channel selector, so you pick Stable or Insider once and the app handles the rest. That replaces the old prerelease checkbox.
What PowerToys Actually Does
It is not one program but a collection of independent utilities sharing a settings window. Four of them do most of the heavy lifting.
- FancyZones - design your own window snap layouts, well beyond what Windows offers natively, which is the reason most ultrawide and multi-monitor users install the suite at all.
- PowerRename - batch-rename hundreds of files using search-and-replace or regular expressions, with a live preview before you commit.
- Keyboard Manager - remap individual keys and whole shortcuts system-wide.
- Command Palette - the successor to PowerToys Run, opening apps, files and searches from a single Alt+Space.
Around those sit the smaller ones: Color Picker, Image Resizer, Text Extractor for pulling text out of a screenshot, File Locksmith for finding which process has a file locked, and Peek for previewing a file without opening it.
Peek pairs well with Media Preview if you also want proper video thumbnails in Explorer. If you are new to the suite, our What is the Use of PowerToys? guide walks through every module before you commit to the download.
What the 0.101 Preview Adds
The most interesting addition is in Advanced Paste, which gains an on-device Phi Silica AI provider along with per-action prompts and provider selection. On-device matters here: the processing happens locally rather than in a cloud service.
- Command Palette gets a large stability and memory pass, plus deep links that open the extension gallery or a specific extension directly.
- FancyZones, Grab And Move and Always On Top now exit cleanly instead of hanging Windows shutdown and sign-out.
- Always On Top borders finally render as a solid frame when opacity is set to 100%.
- Mouse Jump has been rebuilt on the newer WinUI architecture, replacing the last of its old WinForms interface.
- Settings adds a guided Bug Report flow with a progress window and a shortcut straight to GitHub.
- Quick Accent's press-and-hold activation now cancels cleanly, so the accent picker only appears when you meant it.
What Landed in the 0.100 Series
Worth separating out, because this is where the headline features actually came from. Version 0.100.0, released on 10 June 2026, was one of the largest updates the project has shipped.
It brought the Command Palette Extension Gallery, an app-store-style browser for discovering, installing and removing Command Palette extensions without leaving the tool, along with multi-monitor Dock support.
Shortcut Guide was rebuilt as V2, shipping with built-in shortcut manifests for Windows, PowerToys and common applications, so it shows shortcuts relevant to whatever you are actually using. ZoomIt gained a webcam overlay while recording, plus the ability to append multiple clips with transitions.
Underneath, the whole suite moved to .NET 10, which cut the installer footprint by 15% and made the app faster to start. Version 0.100.2 followed on 26 June as a small patch, fixing a Command Palette memory leak in the Performance Monitor dock.
ZoomIt's recording improvements combine well with ShareX if you regularly capture or share what is on your screen.
Who Should Look Elsewhere
The tell is how you use the machine. If your laptop is for browsing, email and video calls, PowerToys is harmless but pointless, and the snap layouts already built into Windows will cover you.
It also does nothing whatsoever for media playback, which catches people out on a codec site. If your actual problem is a video that will not play, you want K-Lite Codec Pack or a self-contained player like VLC Media Player.
Our browser-based Codec Finder will tell you which decoder a stubborn file actually needs, and the Web Player lets you test a file without installing anything at all.
Where PowerToys does earn its place is on a desktop where you juggle many windows, rename files in bulk, or dig through the Start menu all day. Developers, editors and multi-monitor users get the most out of FancyZones and Command Palette.
Before You Install
- Windows 10 version 2004 or later, or any Windows 11 build.
- x64 or ARM64 hardware - there is no 32-bit build.
- A per-user installer if you have no admin rights, or the machine-wide installer to cover every account on the PC.
- MIT-licensed and open source, so no telemetry-for-features trade and no bundled extras.
Every module can be toggled off in Settings, and the suite idles in the system tray. You can see the interface on the screenshots page before installing.
Setting up a fresh Windows 11 machine? FlyOobe smooths out the out-of-box experience, and it is worth checking DirectX is current for anything graphics-heavy.
FxSound rounds out the audio side, and our guide to DirectX and D3D11 video decoding explains what your GPU is doing during playback.
If you script your media work, Command Palette is a quick way to fire off FFmpeg jobs or yt-dlp commands without opening a terminal first.
Quick questions
Is PowerToys really free?
Yes. It is an official Microsoft project released under the MIT licence, with no paid tier, no ads and no bundled software in the installer.
Should I install 0.100.2 or the 0.101 preview?
Take 0.100.2 unless you specifically want to test new features. It is the build Microsoft still serves as the latest stable release, while 0.101.2211.0 is marked as a pre-release.
Does PowerToys work on Windows 10?
Yes, on Windows 10 version 2004 or later, as well as every Windows 11 build. You need x64 or ARM64 hardware, as there is no 32-bit version.
What is the difference between the per-user and machine-wide installers?
The per-user installer sets PowerToys up for your account only and needs no administrator rights. The machine-wide installer covers every account on the PC but requires admin access to run.
Will PowerToys help with a video that will not play?
No, it has nothing to do with media playback. Try K-Lite Codec Pack, or run the file through our Codec Finder to see which decoder it needs.
Does it slow the computer down?
Not noticeably, and you control it. Each utility runs only when enabled, so switching off the modules you do not use keeps the footprint small.
If playback misbehaves after heavy system tweaking, the Codec Tweak Tool repairs codec configuration in a couple of clicks.
The rest of the Windows toolkit lives in Other Tools, and the wider Multimedia Tools section covers everything else.
Download PowerToys 0.100.2 and see how it fits your setup, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.
