The free PowerToys install for Windows provides several useful tweaks and new features to Windows. Quite a few of these will really boost your productivity. Microsoft PowerToys is a set of free, open-source utilities developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems. These tools are designed for power users, offering advanced features and customizable options that aren’t built-in to Windows. You’ll find utilities like FancyZones for window management, PowerRename for renaming files in bulk, and a Keyboard Manager for remapping keys. Let’s look at what features you should enable in PowerToys to maximize your productivity.

7 FancyZones utility

Quickly snap windows into layouts that boost efficiency

FancyZones is a window manager included in the PowerToys bundle. You can choose one of several default layouts for your desktop, or define your own set of zones for apps to live in.

When you drag an app into a zone or use a keyboard shortcut, its window snaps into that zone, resized and repositioned to fill it. This can help boost your productivity when you’re working in several windows and need to position them so they are easy and quick to switch between.

6 Advanced Paste

Easily paste text formatted the way you need it

With Advanced Paste, your clipboard just got a lot smarter. Do you have rich text you want to copy and paste into Markdown, complete with the proper formatting? Advanced Paste can help.

The tool lets you paste as plain text, Markdown, or JSON. You can assign keyboard shortcuts to paste directly in one of those formats or use the popup window to choose. Advanced Paste also includes an optional AI feature that you can use to explain how you want your text pasted. Not to worry, though, it’s turned off until you decide you want to use it.

5 Crop And Lock

Reduce distractions, highlight parts of your desktop, or easily track live feeds

Sometimes, you want to focus on one section when working in a window. Other times, it’s helpful to crop an area of the window to eliminate distractions. You can also use it to highlight parts of your desktop during screen sharing without exposing other parts of your desktop. In Thumbnail mode, your selected area shows up in a separate window that you can move somewhere else on the desktop, even to a different monitor. When you scroll in the mail window, for example, the thumbnail follows along as you scroll.

Using reparented mode, a new window pops up, taking over the original one. It only shows the part you’re interested in, so you can control the app from there. This can be helpful for keeping an eye on a chat window, live feed, or any other dynamic content while working in other applications.

4 Image Resizer

Scale batches of images to the same size with ease

If you’ve ever needed to resize several images at a time, you can appreciate how tedious and time-consuming the process can be. This time can be better used doing something more productive, so being able to batch resize those images can significantly boost your productivity.

That’s where Image Resizer comes in. This PowerToys feature lets you resize multiple images simultaneously using a preset or custom size you define. Just select all the images you want to resize, right-click, and choose Image Resizer.

3 File Explorer add-ons

Enhance File Explorer with a preview pane to help you always open the correct file

Another time-waster in your busy day might be opening files to discover they weren’t the ones you meant to open. You can save time looking through those files by previewing them before opening them.

Thanks to the File Explorer add-ons available in Microsoft PowerToys, you can add a preview pane to the file manager. After installing PowerToys and enabling File Explorer add-ons, choose Preview Pane from the View options in File Explorer. You’ll now be able to quickly preview images, source code files, Markdown files, and more without opening them.

2 Peek

Efficiently preview one or more files before opening them

As useful as the Preview pane from File Explorer add-ons can be, you might need to get a better look at your images before opening them. You can easily do that using Peek. Select the image or images and press the keyboard shortcut to open Peek (Ctrl + Space by default).

This utility opens a preview of your selected image or images that you can resize to see the image contents better. If you want to open the image in the default program, you need only click Open in… or press Enter. Peek can also preview source code files, like text files, Python scripts, and more.

1 Workspaces utility

Get to work or switch gears quickly with predefined app layouts

This tool is a game-changer if you use different applications for various tasks throughout your day. The Workspaces utility is a quick and easy way to open those applications all at once, positioned and sized precisely how you want.

You can create as many desktop layouts as you need and launch them using a keyboard shortcut. If you use one set of applications for reading and replying to emails, but another group of applications to take care of other tasks, Workspaces allows you to open each set of apps sized and positioned just how you like them for better focus and ease of access. To make launching even easier, I recommend creating a desktop shortcut when you set up your workspace.

Put Microsoft PowerToys to work so you don’t have to work so hard

The whole reason Microsoft PowerToys exists is to help Windows users of all sorts be more productive. Whether you’re a programmer, sales executive, or anybody else who spends a lot of time on the computer, there are probably several tools in this free application that can make life easier for you.