Tech Sense: Potpourri (April 2025)

Windows Power Toys

            Microsoft Power Toys started as a collection of small utilities distributed freely to Windows 95 users.  It provided 15 tools initially.  The ones I personally found the most useful included:

·         “Command prompt here” a tool that opens the DOS command prompt in the current folder

·         “CabView” opens Microsoft Cabinet files like a file folder.  Cabinet files were used to distribute and install files onto Windows.

·         "TweakUI” a tool to easily make changes to the user interface

            In 2009 Microsoft released a new version of Power Toys for Windows XP.  This provided a different set of utilities and retired others.  TweakUI was still there and the most useful new tool for me was the new SyncToy utility. SyncToy allows synchronization of the files between two folders, even across networks.  It was very useful to backup photos and music between computers to move your working files between laptop and desktop machines.

 

Power Toys for Windows 11

            After many years of neglect, a new version of Power Toys is available for Windows 10 & 11.  This new version is now free and open source from Microsoft and provides a different set of tools.  It can be downloaded and installed via the Microsoft Store, or GitHub, or using the relatively new Windows Package Manager.

 

The New Toys

            The following list provides an overview of the Power Toys available currently:

·         Advanced Paste – Takes the content in the paste buffer and transforms it into the appropriate format for the destination.  For example, a photographic clip of the text from a newspaper can be pasted, as text into a Word document.  Advanced Paste can be a complex command with many options to choose from.

·         Always on Top – Makes a window always appear on top (in front of) of the other windows.

·         Awake – Keeps the computer from going to sleep and turning off the screen.  This is useful when you have a long running process, and you do not want interruptions.

·         Color Picker – Allows selection of a color for use editing.  It is useful when you want to determine a specific for use somewhere else.

·         Command not Found – a useful tool for PowerShell users when missing commands hinder writing a script.  Allows download and installation of the missing command.

·         Environment Variables – Environment Variables are little bits of information stored in the context and used by scripts and programs.  This tool provides a mechanism to manage these variables to make it easier to change the context based on what the user is doing.  Software developers often need environment management tools when using multiple programming languages and development tools.

·         File Explorer Additions – These tools allow previewing files directly in the file explorer based on the type of file.  For example, seeing a preview of a PDF file without opening the file.  This is similar to viewing image files in the explorer.

·         File Locksmith Utility – If you have ever not been able to restart the computer because a file is in use, this tool will find which file and allow you to kill it.  Very useful, but this can also be done using the Process Explorer from SysInternals, another set of useful tools from Microsoft that we will explore in the future.

·         Host File Editor – The Hosts file is a file that maps the names of each computer with its IP Address.  The IP address is sort of like the phone number for the computer on the network.  This tool allows easy editing of the hosts file on the windows computer.

·         Image Resizer – This tool makes it easy to resize an image to specific sizes. It is useful for adding your face to your Zoom application.

·         Keyboard Manager – This allows you to reprogram a key to send a different output.  We mostly use this to create special key combinations.  For example, if I want to use the “?” to send the word “Question” I could program the “?” key to send “Question” when I hold the CTRL key with the “?”.

·         Mouse Utilities – These are several simple mouse aids to help find the mouse pointer.  Great for us older folks.

·         Mouse without Borders – Supports using the mouse and keyboard on multiple machines at the same time.  You can also cut and paste across screens and do file transfers between the machines.

·         Peek – Another file preview tool.

·         Power Rename – It is about time for this one.  It makes it easy to rename large groups of files using wild cards and regular expressions.  This is why I keep Linux utilities on my Windows computers.

·         Power Toys Run Utility – This is a set of tools to aid in scripting Power Toys to make new Power Toys.

·         Registry Preview – A tool to ease viewing and editing the Windows Registry.

·         Screen Ruler – used to measure things on the screen. Typically, in pixels.

·         Shortcut Guide – Pops up a little guide showing all of the Windows shortcut keys.  Useful if you need them but don’t know them.

·         Text Extractor – Use this to copy text from an image and then paste it as text into a document.

·         Video Conference Mute – This useful app may be going away soon.  It simply lets you mute and unmute your video conferencing camera and microphone.

·         Workspaces – This allows you to arrange several applications on the screen and remember their arrangement so the arrangement can be automatically setup again.  Helpful if you use the same application arrangement every day. 

·         ZoomIt – ZoomIt is sort of a magnifying glass for your screen.  This came out with the original Power Toys so many years ago.  The new version records, snaps screen shots, and allows drawing.  It is no longer just a magnifier.  But all I ever needed what the magnifier.

Next Month

            I hope you find these tools useful.  I tried to list most of them, but I left a few off that I haven’t found much use for myself.  Power Toys are free and over the years, I have found them useful. 

            Next month my column will be about World Change your Password Day and we will cover more ways to create good secure passwords.  Some other topics coming in the future will include an article covering the Windows technical toolkit known as SysInternals.  I am also getting ready to make changes in my systems at home and will share what I am doing and why, as it happens.  I am also thinking about a series on how to create your own website.  Have a great month!