Microsoft is rolling out an update for its PowerToys Windows utilities, bringing the service to version 0.64.0. With this release, Microsoft is adding interesting new utilities that will make PowerToys even more useful.
Those new additions are a Host File Editor and a File Locksmith.
Starting with File Locksmith, it is a utility that allows users to see which processes are in use when a file is selected. As for the Host Editor, it provides users to edit host files with a special Editor UI.
Microsoft is also adding new features in PowerToys 0.64.0. For example, in Settings there is now the ability to back up or restore settings from within a file. As always, the release also has its share of improvements and bug fixes.
Back in May 2019, Microsoft rebooted its PowerToys, a modern version of the suite of tools that appeared on Windows 95. The core difference was that the suite is now open source. Among the popular utilities on the platform as FancyZones and a ColorPicker. The idea behind the service is to boost productivity on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
You can get the latest version of the app by heading to Settings within PowerToys, navigating to the “General” tab and then scrolling down to “Update”. Click the “Check for Updates” option.
Version 0.64.0 Changelog
“Installer Hashes
x64 Installer Hash
5BAFC1EF4683F83C16D0FCE6BA11F97A9B6E9C12732B07FF8480F2D47F72C44E
ARM64 Installer Hash
D3F225D00A748E94A5BC09C21CE6ED3A1B1F0DC5E1D6FE1870F82A0154B0772C
Highlights
- New utility: File Locksmith allows seeing which processes are currently using the selected files.
- New utility: Hosts File Editor allows you to edit your hosts file in an Editor UI. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
- Settings has a new feature for backing up / restoring the settings from a file. Thanks @jefflord!
- FancyZones allows you to set defaults for horizontal/vertical screens to get better intended behavior for new screens and cases where a monitor ID resets.
- PowerToys ships with Group Policy Objects settings for force disabling and enabling PowerToys utilities in organizations. Check the GPO docs for more details.
- Added a warning about deprecating Video Conference Mute in the future (v0.67), please check #21473 for more information.
Known issues
- The Text Extractor utility fails to recognize text in some cases on ARM64 devices running Windows 10.
- After installing PowerToys, the new Windows 11 context menu entries for PowerRename and Image Resizer might not appear before a system restart.
- There are reports of users who are unable to open the Settings window. This is being caused by incompatibilities with some applications (RTSS RivaTuner Statistics Server is a known examples of this). If you’re affected by this, please check the linked issue to verify if any of the presented solutions works for you.
Always on Top
- Detect and put a window on top again if it’s no longer on top.
Color Picker
- Added the hexadecimal integer format. Thanks @marius-bughiu!
FancyZones
- Added a way for users to configure default layouts for horizontal and vertical screens.
- Replaced remaining Number Boxes in FancyZones Editor with Sliders, to improve accessibility for screen readers.
- Fixed an issue breaking window switching shortcuts.
File Locksmith
- Added a new utility: File Locksmith.
- Thanks @niels9001 for the design on the UI!
Group Policy Objects
- Group Policy Objects settings for force disabling and enabling PowerToys utilities.
- Thanks @htcfreek for your help in reviewing to make sure the shipped settings conform to system administrators expectations!
Hosts File Editor
- Added a new utility: Hosts File Editor. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
- Thanks @niels9001 for the design help on the UI!
- Thanks @davidegiacometti for fixing the bugs found and adding features up until release!
- Thanks @AtariDreams for consolidating the packages comparing to the rest of the project!
- Thanks @htcfreek for adding a scrollviewer to the entry editor!
Keyboard Manager
- Fixed a delay that was not being cancelled properly. Thanks @AtariDreams!
Mouse Utilities
- Changed the opacity setting to the 1-100 range. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
PowerToys Run
- Changed image loading to release the images in PowerToys Run main executable. This is a try to fix the “app.dark.png” missing issues received after a PowerToys update.
- Fixed the PowerToys Run hiding after the default action failed. Thanks @hlaueriksson!
- Fixed the PowerToys Run allows showing after a context menu action succeeded. Thanks @hlaueriksson!
Quick Accent
- Corrected “Dutch” word to “German”. Thanks @damienleroy!
- Added the Portuguese language accents. Thanks @pcanavar!
- Fixed positioning of toolbar on scaled desktops.
Screen Ruler
- Improved the acrylic brush used in the menu. Thanks @niels9001!
Settings
- Added a feature to backup/restore settings to/from a file. Thanks @jefflord!
- Fixed an issue causing shortcuts shown in OOBE not updating to new values when the window was re-opened.
- Fixed the “Documents” folder usage in the backup/restore feature. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Text Extractor
- Added a warning about how to install languages for OCR recognition.
- Fixed the overlay not focusing after the first activation.
- Added spaces between CJK and non-CKJ words. Thanks @maggch97!
Video Conference Mute
- Added a setting to hide the Video Conference Mute overlay when muted. Thanks @akabhirav!
- Added a warning about deprecating Video Conference Mute in the future (v0.67), please check #21473 for more information.
Installer
- Added some missing files that were causing Settings and PowerRename to not function correctly on some configurations.
- Updated the .NET dependency to 6.0.10.
Development
- Consolidated nuget packages and removed a few unused packages.
- Updated the Windows.CppRT to the latest version. Thanks @AtariDreams!
- Removed the cxxopts dependency, which was no longer used. Thanks @AtariDreams!
- Updated the cziplob dependency to 0.25. Thanks @AtariDreams!
- Updated the System.IO.Abstractions dependency. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
- Turned on C++ code analysis and incrementally fixing warnings.
- Added the install method to the issue template on GitHub, since some issues seem to be related to specific installation methods.
- Automated installer hash creation in the release CI.
- Simplified use of .First() on ImageResizer. Thanks @AtariDreams!
- Improved and clarified the issues templates. Thanks @Jay-o-Way!
- Fixed a PTRun unit test to be more compatible with .NET 6. Thanks @AtariDreams!”
Tip of the day: For the most part, Windows apps are stable, but they can still be still thrown out of whack by updates or configuration issues. Many boot their PC to find their Microsoft Store isn’t working or their Windows apps aren’t opening. Luckily Windows 11 and Windows 10 have an automatic repair feature for apps that can resolve such issues.
