The Secret Microsoft App That Improves How I Use Windows

I'm someone who routinely switches between Mac and Windows. It's a hazard of being a tech writer. But the thing is, I'm so used to the user friendliness in macOS that whenever I shift to Windows mode, there are some hiccups. Windows tends to throw up walls where there really shouldn't be any. I used to just white-knuckle through it, but that was before I fully embraced PowerToys.

PowerToys is a collection of utilities made by Microsoft itself. It's free to download on GitHub, or a myriad of other places, and unlike with Windows 11, Microsoft actually adds useful and interesting features to it every couple of weeks. You can download and install PowerToys from the GitHub page, the Microsoft Store, or using Windows Package Manager.

Here are a few of PowerToys utilities that have become a must for me (after installing the app, you really should browse all that it offers to see what strikes your fancy). If you took them away, I wouldn't be sure how to use my Windows PC anymore—this thing should really come pre-installed.

Command Palette

These days, Windows Search can come across a little heavy and bloated, just like the Start menu. While it’s fine for opening apps once in a while, I can’t really use it for anything more than that. Plus, I’m a macOS user, so I’m used to Spotlight Search’s lightning-fast keyboard launcher. While you can use third-party keyboard launchers on Windows now (Raycast being the latest addition), my favorite option is actually Microsoft’s own keyboard launcher, the Command Palette that’s included in PowerToys.

Like Spotlight Search, it’s light and fast, and you can assign any shortcut to it. I use it to quickly launch apps, search for files, and even search for open windows. Command Palette even has a really helpful Bookmarks feature that I use a lot. I’ve created bookmarks for quickly opening frequently used folders like Downloads and Screenshots, and even websites. A Bookmark can be triggered by searching for a keyword, or through its own dedicated keyboard shortcut (I’ve set one up for my Downloads folder, which is really handy). For more, I’ve got a detailed guide on setting up Command Palette that you should check out.

Light Switch

It's mind-boggling that Windows 11 still does not have an automatic dark mode. Over the years, Windows 11's dark theme has slowly expanded to cover all the apps you care about. But there's no easy way to toggle it on, and there's no way to automatically turn it on in evening, or on a schedule.

So, of course, there's a PowerToys utility for that. The recently added Light Switch utility lets you create a global custom keyboard shortcut for turning on the dark theme. For the Schedule section in the Light Switch utility, you can set up an automated schedule based on fixed hours, or using the local sunset time, which is how I use it.

Peek

I shuffle between macOS and Windows 11 all the time, and there are some creature comforts in macOS that I now have a hard time living without. One of them is the ability to quickly preview any file in Finder by pressing the Space button. There is no such option in Windows, and until now, you needed a third-party app to enable it, which wasn't always reliable. Now, Microsoft has included a similar feature in PowerToys' Peek utility. Once enabled, you can press the Space bar after selecting any file to preview it. You can then use the arrow keys to navigate to other files in the folder as well. Press Enter to open the file in the default app.

Text Extractor

Windows has a built-in OCR (or text extractor) feature for images that can be accessed via the Snipping Tool. But it's really slow. When I'm in a pinch and I need to copy text from an image, I prefer to use the Text Extractor utility in PowerToys instead. It's much faster. Use the dedicated shortcut Windows + Shift + T to see an overlay on the screen. Use the mouse to highlight the area that you want to transcribe. Once you let go of the cursor, the text will be saved to your clipboard automatically.

Image Resizer

This is one of those PowerToys utilities that really should be a default Windows 11 feature by now. Resizing an image, or a batch of them, is something that I need to do often, as someone who writes online for a living. But you might need it too, from time to time, to compress or resize images for an online upload, or a presentation. Instead of opening a heavy image editing program and manually resizing images one by one, use this plugin instead.

Once enabled, it will show up in the right-click menu in File Explorer. Select one or multiple images, click Resize with Image Resizer, choose one of the size presets (you can add more presets from the PowerToys app) or create a custom resolution, click the Resize button, and that's it.

Awake

I can't imagine using Windows without PowerToys' Awake utility. It adds a handy little tray icon that I can click to keep my PC awake longer than the default sleep settings would allow for. I have a custom-built PC with a big honking power supply, so I take my auto-sleep settings quite seriously. But there are times when I'm downloading a large file in the background, or I have a long AI task running, when I want the PC to stay on. That's where the Awake utility really helps. You can choose to keep your PC awake indefinitely, or for 30 minutes, 1 hour, or any custom duration.

FancyZones

The built-in window management in Windows is quite impressive in its own right, but it falls short for my workflow. I usually like working with my text editor, a browser, and Slack open at all times. Because I have a large monitor, I have my writing app and Slack on one side and a browser on another. But it can take me a while to get everything set up. This is where FancyZones really helps. I can create custom zones for each app I use that helps me puts them where I want them, and resizes them, too.

To set this up for yourself, first go to the FancyZones section in PowerToys utilities. Here, open the Zones Editor and create a new custom layout. You can now use the mouse to move the zones around and to add a new zone. Once a layout is enabled, all you have to do is move a window around and hold down the Shift key. Dropping the window in any designated zone to instantly resize it.