Just a month ago, Microsoft released PowerToys 0.51.1 which was a patch on top of PowerToys 0.51.0. Some of the most highlighted improvements in that release were within the mouse utilities part of the Microsoft PowerToys. Now, the company released another update which is rolling out as Microsoft PowerToys version 0.53.1.
Being a maintenance release, the latest version of Microsoft PowerToys also comes loaded with several improvements and fixes. Here's everything that you would like to know about Microsoft PowerToys version 0.53.1.
The v0.53 release cycle was designed for a maintenance sprint but with some amazing community support, it is loaded with greatness. We're still working on improving the installer but this should drastically improve things. 3 things you will want to check out are G-code support in file explorer preview pane and thumbnails, the new web search plugin from PowerToys Run via ?? action phrase, and the new Always on Top utility via Win + Ctrl + T.
Changelog
Things to be aware of
- The new installer currently has a visual quirk when upgrading if you have a custom install path. It will show the default install path but it will actually overwrite the current location. We are investigating how to fix this.
Always on Top
- Welcome to the family! With a quick Win+Ctrl+T, the window in focus is toggled to be on top. Toggle again, and it reverts back to normal.
ColorPicker
- HEX input improvements for adjusting color menu including support for hex code without the hashtag and short hex code like #CF0.
- Better bottom right screen detection for overlay
FancyZones
- Increased negative space margin
- Fix for not snapping child windows
- Fix for clearing keyboard focus on editor launch
- Fix to improve overlays to reduce brightness and hide numbers.
File Explorer
- Added G-code support for thumbnails and preview pane.
Image Resizer
- Fixed regression from Metadata tag removal of ColorSpace.
PowerRename
- Row highlighting + preview support is now implemented.
- Fixed AltGR input issue
- Improved folder renaming support
- Opens on the active monitor
PowerToys Run
- Web searching has been added!
?? What is the answer to life will go to your favorite search engine via your browser. You can change the default action key too! - VS Code workspace improvements.
- Binary and Hex number support.
- Ability to use factorials in calculations
- PT Run will not show in Window Walker results anymore.
- Fix log / ln calculations
- Fix to make previous results clear
- Fix to detect symlinks and prevent recursive loops
- Fix for trackpad scrolling being too fast
- Removed unneeded NuGet package.
- Better detection for if a packaged app can be elevated
- Improve crash resiliency for the Program plugin.
- Improved Windows setting results.
- Fixed a bug where some similar activation phrases aren’t working as expected.
Video conference mute
- Disabled by default as this requires elevation to register the virtual camera.
- Changed (default) hotkey for mute camera & microphone from Win+N to Win+Shift+Q to not conflict with a Windows 11 keyboard shortcut
Settings
- Multiple accessibilities, layout, image, string, and icon fixes.
Runner
- Improved mutex support to prevent multiple PT Run instances from running
Installer
- NOTE: The new installer currently has a visual quirk when upgrading if you have a custom install path. It will show the default install path but it will actually overwrite the current location. We are investigating how to fix this.
- Large progress toward user-based installing vs machine-wide. The Upgrade scenario still needs additional work.
- Removed custom bootstrapper and now are using a WiX bundle.
- Removed unused image assets that were still being shipped.
ARM64 support
- Setting WinUI3 proof-of-concept and validating we do need at least one more feature, elevation support from WinUI 3 unpackaged applications.
Dev improvements
- New YAML-based pipeline for building our signed installer. This will allow us to consolidate our CI to use the same file. This was critical for us to unblock ARM64 and .NET 6 migration.
- Our submodules will no longer auto fetch to prevent locking issues. If you want a refresher on how to do this, head to our dev docs
- The localization system shifted to Touchdown from CDPx. This should remove many of the loc issues.
- Consolidated a lot of the naming of EXEs and DLLs along with projects
- Update to spell checker.
- /dup response has been added
- /reportbug /bugreport will ask for a “report bug” zip
Would you like to download Microsoft PowerToys version 0.53.1? Head over to the Official GitHub Page.
