PowerToys has always felt like a testing ground for the Windows features Microsoft isn't fully ready to commit to yet. A vast majority of the tools in there are clearly aimed at power users, so I get why the company wants to keep them away from the core Windows 11 experience. I wouldn't want Windows 11 to be cluttered with niche utilities most people would never touch, anyway.

But every now and then, PowerToys gets a feature that feels far too useful to remain optional. And I'm not saying that as someone who loves tweaking every little part of Windows either. Some of these tools actually solve problems many Windows users deal with almost every day.

FancyZones

It shows how limiting Snap Layouts really is

Windows 11's Snap Layouts feature isn't bad by any means, especially if you want to quickly organize a few windows side by side. But the minute you want anything beyond the preset layouts, it feels limiting. For instance, if you have an ultrawide monitor like I do, and want four windows vertically aligned with different widths, you're out of luck. You either work with what Windows gives you or manually resize every window yourself, which can get annoying quickly.

With FancyZones, you can create custom layouts that match exactly how you use your monitor. Want uneven sections? No problem. You can even make different layouts for each monitor in your setup, which is something I absolutely love. More importantly, you don't have to drag windows all the way to the top edge of the screen just to access your layout. You just need to hold an additional key while dragging a window, which is Shift by default, and your custom zones immediately show up.

Always On Top

Every time a window hides behind another app, I wish Windows had this built in

We've all had times when we needed one specific window to stay visible, no matter what. Maybe it's Discord, Spotify, or even a monitoring app like HWiNFO while gaming. But the second you click on a window behind it, whether it's your browser or File Explorer, that app immediately disappears behind everything else. All of a sudden, you're alt-tabbing back and forth just to keep one small window visible, almost making you wonder why Windows 11 still doesn't have a solution for this.

That's exactly why the Always On Top utility in PowerToys feels like such an obvious addition to Windows. You simply click the window you want to pin, then press the shortcut, which is Windows + Ctrl + T by default, and that app instantly stays above everything else until you disable it by repeating the process. The cherry on top is that you can adjust the opacity of the pinned window to see what's behind it, which I'm sure many of you would appreciate. And if you don't want to use the keyboard shortcut, you can even add it to the title bar's right-click menu.

File Locksmith

Why can't Windows tell us which app is using the file?

I'm sure many of us have run into that annoying prompt telling us a file or folder cannot be moved or deleted because it's being used by another app. More often than not, when I encounter this, I'm struggling to find which app is causing the problem in the first place. Sometimes, I even close the wrong apps only to realize the file is still locked by some random background process I didn't even know was running.

File Locksmith was all I needed to stop dealing with this altogether. You simply right-click the file or folder that's causing trouble, choose Unlock with File Locksmith from the context menu, and it shows you which app or process is actively using it. The best part? You don't even have to open Task Manager to close it. You can click End task from the same menu and get back to what you were doing without extra steps.

PowerToys Run

Some of us are tired of Windows Search at this point

Even though Windows Search works fine for the most part, I've lost count of how many times I've typed something into it, saw the relevant result at the top, only for Windows to suddenly change the suggestion right as I hit Enter. It's frustrating when you end up opening something completely different. Sometimes, it even prioritizes irrelevant Bing results and completely fails to find the file I was looking for. And let's not forget how painfully slow it can feel at times.

With PowerToys Run, this is almost never a problem. I actually like the macOS Spotlight-style minimalist interface because I've always felt overwhelmed with the amount of clutter Microsoft keeps stuffing into Windows Search. You press the shortcut, which is Alt + Space by default, start typing, and get relevant results instantly. There's no split-second delay like Windows Search. PowerToys users may be quick to recommend Command Palette nowadays, but that actually feels like a tool that caters more to power users. If I wanted something highly customizable and feature-packed, I'd rather go the extra mile and get Flow Launcher instead.

Windows 11 shouldn't need PowerToys for these features

PowerToys may be for power users, but I'm sure all the features here would benefit the average Windows user in one way or another. Sure, you may not benefit from File Locksmith so often, but utilities like Always On Top, FancyZones, and PowerToys Run can make Windows 11 feel more complete as a modern desktop OS. Considering many of us have been asking for features like these for years, it's surprising to see Microsoft still treating them as an optional download instead of making them part of the core Windows experience.