PowerToys Now Converts Video and Audio
Want to turn a video file into MP3? Or any video in MP4? If you have PowerToys installed on Windows, you don’t need a third-party app—a quick copy and paste will do the job.
We talked about Powertoys , a long-standing Windows utility that offers all sorts of tweaks to the operating system. One of the many tweaks added is the Advanced Paste feature , which can convert copied text to other formats. This is caused by using the Windows-Shift-V keyboard shortcut to paste instead of the usual Ctrl-V. A pop-up window will ask you what format you want to paste the text in – Markdown, HTML and JSON are offered. If you wish, you can configure the use of artificial intelligence, which is useful if you want to convert text to a format that is not offered. This is very useful for anyone who regularly needs to convert text from one format to another.
But now it can convert more than just text. The new feature means that Advanced Paste can turn any ripped audio or video file into an MP3 or MP4 file. To use this feature, you need PowerToys version 0.89.0 or later – open the app and check the General tab to make sure.
If you have this feature, all you have to do is copy the video or audio file in File Explorer and then try to paste it using the Windows-Shift-V keyboard shortcut. Please note that if you select Copy as Path, this feature will not be available because you have not copied the file itself.
There are two conversion options: “Transcode to MP3” and “Transcode to MP4”. The MP3 option will allow you to extract audio from any media file, including video, and save it in MP3 format. The “Transcode to MP4” option converts the video to use the H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec.
But there are cases where this doesn’t work – for example, if you want to create an AAC audio file or convert a video to some other format. In such cases, software like Handbrake is a must. But it’s nice to have a simple option built into PowerToys; try it next time you want to turn a video into an audio file.