The miracle of PowerToys, Microsoft's last great Windows app (opens in new tab)

(fastcompany.com)

29 pointsFoe7d ago12 comments

12 comments

> Microsoft PowerToys feels like something that shouldn’t exist in Windows today. What started in 2019 as a couple of utilities for things like window and shortcut management has gradually expanded to nearly 30 useful tools

Year 2019? Oh no, not by a longshot. I've been using Microsoft-branded PowerToys since Windows XP, around the year 2001. Wikipedia says:

> PowerToys are available for Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows 10, and Windows 11 (and explicitly not compatible with Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerToys

pseudohadamard5d ago

They've been around since the 1980s, only they were called TSRs then and were mostly by third parties rather than Microsoft.

Not sure why this is news, there are a bazillion little Windows utilities out there not by Microsoft, they just aren't called PowerToys and Microsoft-branded.

GaProgMan7d ago

A journalist writing about something technology relayed abd getting their facts wrong? The devil, you say?

burnt-resistor7d ago

If a user desires Windows hackery, there's also Windhawk.

https://windhawk.net

eviks7d ago

Indeed, this is the miracle app, not the primitive "power toys"

neonstatic7d ago

I will just note, that about two weeks ago I was trying to shrink my Parallels Windows 11 VM disk size only to discover, that PowerToys update files were stored on the drive indefinitely, accumulating over 10 gb of disk space.

whycome7d ago

Weird, just today I saw that the powertoys directory is taking up 17gb on my computer. It’s filled with multiple installer versions I guess.

neonstatic7d ago

Ahh, just posted about the same issue. Should have read the comments more carefully. Toys indeed.

chid7d ago

that is wild - it seems like just a 'toy' project for them

riccardik6d ago

you're talking about windows/office/teams, right? :) seems that quality code in those times is very hard to find...

hulitu4d ago

> 17gb

Microsoft power /s

Rallen896d ago

Keep this stuff on the download, if the win execs find out about this it'll have a subscription tier next week

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

12 comments

nayuki7d ago

Year 2019? Oh no, not by a longshot. I've been using Microsoft-branded PowerToys since Windows XP, around the year 2001. Wikipedia says:

> PowerToys are available for Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows 10, and Windows 11 (and explicitly not compatible with Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerToys

pseudohadamard5d ago

They've been around since the 1980s, only they were called TSRs then and were mostly by third parties rather than Microsoft.

Not sure why this is news, there are a bazillion little Windows utilities out there not by Microsoft, they just aren't called PowerToys and Microsoft-branded.

GaProgMan7d ago

A journalist writing about something technology relayed abd getting their facts wrong? The devil, you say?

burnt-resistor7d ago

If a user desires Windows hackery, there's also Windhawk.

https://windhawk.net

eviks7d ago

Indeed, this is the miracle app, not the primitive "power toys"

neonstatic7d ago

whycome7d ago

Weird, just today I saw that the powertoys directory is taking up 17gb on my computer. It’s filled with multiple installer versions I guess.

neonstatic7d ago

Ahh, just posted about the same issue. Should have read the comments more carefully. Toys indeed.

chid7d ago

that is wild - it seems like just a 'toy' project for them

riccardik6d ago

you're talking about windows/office/teams, right? :) seems that quality code in those times is very hard to find...

hulitu4d ago

> 17gb

Microsoft power /s

Rallen896d ago

Keep this stuff on the download, if the win execs find out about this it'll have a subscription tier next week

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse