The Best Microsoft PowerToys Shortcuts You’ll Want to Use Every Day
Windows isn’t the same without Microsoft PowerToys , a suite of utilities full of useful features, including a Spotlight-like search bar for quickly opening apps or performing calculations, a shortcut that immediately silences your microphone and disables your webcam, and a tool that allows you to pin any application window to the screen. All PowerToys are free – here are our favorites.
Disable video conferencing
There’s nothing more embarrassing than not realizing your webcam and microphone are on, but Video Conference Mute gives you a keyboard shortcut to immediately mute your sound, another keyboard shortcut to turn off your webcam, and a third one to turn both off. . Since this is a global keyboard shortcut, it applies to all video conferencing applications and you only need to remember one or two keyboard shortcuts instead of a separate set of commands for each application.
find my mouse
Do you have a large monitor or two? One of the biggest problems with this setup is finding the tiny mouse cursor. I keep losing my cursor on my ultra-wide monitor so I no longer use a utility other than Find My Mouse. To find the cursor, press the left Ctrl key twice.
Always on top
As a writer, I often choose to pin my writing app to the screen while I’m accessing screenshots or opening apps to accurately describe the features I’m writing about. That’s why Always On Top has been extremely helpful for me. If you are a student who likes to take notes from videos or PDF documents, you will also love this utility. The default shortcut to enable or disable Always On Top is Windows Key + Ctrl + T .
FancyZones
Some of us are very picky about window management. If you are one of us, then FancyZones will help you create neat zones on your screen and allow you to arrange multiple windows in these zones. Once you’ve selected a layout in FancyZones, press and hold the Windows key while dragging windows around until they lock into the layout you’ve chosen.
Image resizing
Image Resizer allows you to quickly resize an image by right-clicking and selecting a different resolution. You can even add your own resolution here to suit your needs. Image Resizer can’t completely replace Photoshop, but for many people it’s an easy and free way to get the job done well.
PowerRename
PowerRename is a utility that allows you to bulk rename multiple files. Select a group of files in Windows Explorer, right-click them, and select PowerRename. It has radio buttons to choose whether you want to capitalize each word or follow the filenames in uppercase or lowercase. You can also add a number to each selected file.
PowerToys Running
Mac users have long used Spotlight search for everything from opening apps to performing calculations. PowerToys Run brings this feature to Windows. Shortcut – Alt + space.
Awake
If you don’t want your computer to go to sleep, enable the wake utility in PowerToys. He does one thing and he does it well. You can choose whether you want to keep the screen on or not, and choose whether you want to keep the PC awake permanently or temporarily.