If you're a Windows 11 user, PowerToys is one of the most useful programs you can have installed. With a suite of over 25 tools built-in, PowerToys is an incredibly versatile app that can enhance your productivity with a wide range of ways. But with so many tools at your disposal, one might wonder: which ones are truly the best?

To answer that question, I'm ranking the ten best tools included in PowerToys in terms of how useful they are. Subjective? Maybe, but if you disagree with any of my picks, you can let me know in the comments below. Let's get right into it.

10 Mouse without borders

Not for everyone, but very useful

I'm putting this one at the bottom (or top, depending on how you look at it) of my list simply because it's not something everyone can really benefit from, but if you are one of those people, then this is a fantastic tool to have. Mouse without borders is a tool that lets you connect up to four PCs with a link code and then share your mouse and keyboard input across them, somewhat similar to a virtual KVM.

In addition to being able to navigate and control multiple PCs with the same mouse and keyboard, Mouse without borders can even sync clipboard items across devices, so you can copy something on one PC and paste it on another much more reliably than using the built-in cloud sync on Windows. Plus, this supports items up to 100MB.

If you don't work with multiple PCs, this may be a bit of a wash, but if you do have multiple PCs in the same setup, this tool is fantastic.

9 Quick Accent

I may be biased here

Being a non-native English speaker, I suspect my bias is pushing this one a bit higher than it would otherwise be, but Quick Accent is a very useful tool if you hate how hard it can be to type characters with accents on an American keyboard. While yes, you can use the United States - International keyboard layout to enable most accents for other languages, not everyone wants to go through that setup process, plus it changes how certain keys behave if you're just typing in English.

Quick Accent brings us an easier way to enter these accented characters, which is somewhat reminiscent of how things work on macOS. With this tool, all you need to do it press Space immediately after holding down the character you want to add an accent to, and you'll see a little pop-up with all the possible accented versions of that character so you can choose the right one using your keyboard. It makes it a lot easier to type things like my name using a U.S. keyboard.

8 Image Resizer

Smaller images without the fuss

We live in an era where file size restrictions aren't as prominent as they used to be, but it can still be frustrating to try and upload images only to be met with errors saying the files are too big to send. Image Resizer is the perfect solution for this, and it's one of the most useful tools in PowerToys for sure.

Image Resizer lets you resize multiple images to the same size in one go, either replacing the originals or creating copies depending on your preference. You can choose from three preset sizes at ay given time to make images smaller, or choose a custom size for times when you might have a more unusual requirement. While I personally don't have as much need for it these days, this tool has saved my life many times in the past.

7 Keyboard Manager

What if your keyboard could do more?

Keyboard shortcuts in Windows can save you a lot of time, but what if you could just create your own? Keyboard Manager is a utility that lets you do just that, though it can be useful in other ways. WIth Keyboard Manager, you can make it so that specific keyboard shortcuts trigger all kinds of actions. They can trigger a more complex keyboard shortcut that would otherwise be harder to perform, enter a piece of text, or even launch a specific program, putting the apps you need at your fingertips.

Another aspect of Keyboard Manager I've personally used is the ability to remap a key to another key. Since I've reviewed some laptops with German keyboards before, this feature lets me swap the Z and Y keys so the layout feels a little more natural to me.

6 Peek

Proper file previews

If you've never used a Mac, you may not know this, but macOS has a very useful feature that lets you fully preview a file by simply pressing Space on your keyboard while that file is selected in Finder, and then you can easily preview adjacent files by using the arrow keys. Peek in PowerToys brings that same functionality to Windows, and that's the simplest way to describe it.

Sure, File Explorer already has the ability to preview files, but these previews are usually tiny, and they don't properly work for a lot of file types. Peek lets you see nearly full-size previews of many more file types, making it easier to compare images, documents, and more, without having to open the full apps needed to edit them. It can save a ton of time since many of these apps can take a while to load in full, so it's a great feature to have.

5 PowerRename

Rename multiple files at once

Keeping files organized can be a bit of a hassle, especially when renaming them on Windows isn't as easy as it could be. Unbeknownst to many, you can actually rename files in bulk on Windows, but I wouldn't blame you for not knowing that considering there's next to nothing in the way of an indicator of what's happening and you have no control over it.

PowerRename is a tool in PowerToys that makes it easy to rename multiple files in one go. You can replace the entire name of a file or any part of it with a different string of characters and things like numbers or dates to make them easier to identify. PowerRename also supports regular expressions for easier renaming, making this a very useful tool overall. It's not something you'll need all the time, but still.

4 New+

Unassuming, but very helpful

I didn't think much of New+ the first time I saw it, but after giving it a sot recently, this is actually a very useful feature in PowerToys that makes it easy to create files and folders based on templates. The way that it works is that you simply store files that you want to serve as a template in the dedicated templates folder, and then you can easily create new files that are essentially just copies of those.

Say, for example, you write a letter with specific formatting every time. Instead of manually creating a copy of your template for letters, you can put the template in the appropriate folder, and just create a new document in the folder of your choosing. Using New+, you can choose that original template so that everything is copied from it and you can just make the edits you need.

3 Workspaces

All the apps you need in one go

Most people who use a computer are probably using multiple apps at the same time, but launching them all individually can feel like a hassle. Starting your day off and having to launch all the apps you're going to need for work is a little harder than it really needs to be, so why not just launch them all at once?

That's what Workspaces does. This PowerToys utility allows you to set up all the apps you need to use, including their position on screen, and save that layout for later. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to a specific workspace, and then, with the press of a couple keys, you can have all your apps open in the exact place you need them. It makes it so much easier to get started with work or open all the apps you need for a specific project.

2 FancyZones

Organize your workspace effortlessly

I've talked so much about FancyZones that it's hard to say much new about it at this point, but I talk about it for a reason. While it's not at number one here, FancyZones is definitely my personal favorite, it may just depend on your setup. FancyZones is a window manager, meaning it makes it easy to organize your open windows to help maximize your productivity.

Windows 11 already offers a decent solution for window management with Snap Layouts, but it's still fairly limited. At best, you can snap up to four apps side-by-side, and you don't have much control over the design of the layout.

FancyZones completely changes the game with a much more capable layout editor, letting you create layouts with as many apps as you want, using both horizontal and vertical splits. On top of being fully customizable, it's also much easier to snap apps into specific areas of the screen simply by holding a shortcut key and moving an app window over the appropriate area.

The only reason this isn't at the top of the list is because it may not make sense for you unless you have a large, high-resolution monitor. But for me, this is easily the most useful of the bunch.

1 PowerToys Run

Everyone should use a launcher

Have you ever tried using the search bar on the Windows 11 taskbar or the Start menu? It's not great. It doesn't always suggest the best results, and it loves to switch around the suggestions right as you're hitting Enter, causing youi to open the wrong thing. And more often than not, the wrong thing is a Microsoft Edge window with a Bing search.

Enter PowerToys Run, an app launcher that's nearly perfect for boosting your productivity. PowerToys Run appears as a search bar in the middle of your screen where you can type thew name of any app to instantly launch it. It may sound redundant, but PowerToys Run is noticeably faster and more reliable than Windows search, and what's more, it goes far beyond launching apps. Through multiple plug-ins, PowerToys Run can be made to search your OneNote or Obsidian notebooks, open browser bookmarks, perform web searches with a browser you actually want to use, and more.

There's no productivity boost that's as universally beneficial as an app launcher like PowerToys Run, and while focusing on your keyboard may take some time to get used to initially, it really payds off in the long run.

PowerToys has a ton of amazing tools

This list focuses on what I consider the best tools in PowerToys, but keep in mind, it doesn't even cover half of everything included in this app. PowerToys is a gold mine of poroductivity tricks and hacks that can make your Windows 11 experience so much better. This should be the first app any Windows user installs on their PC, so go ahead and check it out below.

• Microsoft PowerToys

  OS

  Windows 10/11

  See at Github See at Microsoft Store