PowerToys is one of those apps that you read a lot about, put off actually trying on your own PC, eventually give up, download it to see what the hype is about, and then make it an essential install for every single Windows PC you own from then on out. Trust me, it has happened to people before.

Even after you've gotten used to all the cool new things you can do now, the PowerToys community continue to add features and tools that make it even more invaluable. It's sort of like having a toolbox that slowly develops over time without you needing to lift a finger. For instance, the newest update has added some welcome changes to the Command Palette that makes finding items on your PC even easier than it was before.

PowerToys version 0.96 adds some nice new features to the Command Palette

You can see everything new with this version, plus a link to download this handy suite on your own PC, over on the PowerToys GitHub page. The team lists a handful of highlight features for version 0.96, but the one that sticks out to me most are the changes to the Command Palette. It feels like the Windows Search tool, except it works a lot faster, includes some useful features to help you locate what you want faster, and can even do math for you. Seriously, once you've given it a try, you'll likely never use the default Windows Search ever again.

There are a ton of patch notes for both the Command Palette and its extension in this update, but here are my cherry-picked favorites:

• Fallback items such as math calculations or the Run command now appear in results more quickly.
• When you modify a command, its alias, hotkey, and tags now update in the top-level list, keeping the displayed information in sync.
• Press Ctrl + , to open Command Palette settings from anywhere.
• You can use Page Up and Page Down to navigate the list while focus is in the search box.
• Added search to the extension list and a link to extensions on the Microsoft Store.
• Clipboard history: Items shown in Command Palette’s clipboard history now include helpful metadata. For example, image items show dimensions, text files show names and sizes, web links include page titles, and text entries display word counts.
• File search: Added filter buttons to show all items, files only, or folders only. Selecting a filter adds kind:folders or kind:not folders to narrow results.

That's not the only thing that got updated in this version of PowerToys. The other spotlight features involve Advanced Paste working with other AI providers instead of just OpenAI. And PowerRename now has "photo metadata extraction support using EXIF and XMP" so you can rename images using their camera data. Very nice.