PowerToys 0.17 with Auto Update released

[German]Microsoft released version 0.17 of PowerToys for Windows 10 users a few hours ago. These tools are free and offer nice additional features for Windows 10. The new version 0.17 includes the code for an auto-update for the tools, but it can be tested with upcoming v0.18.


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PowerToys Background

PowerToys were free programs under Windows 95/98, with which certain Windows features could be optimized or adapted. Inspired by the PowerToys project under Windows 95, some developers dared to restart. The intended was to give power users the ability to get more efficiency out of the Windows 10 shell and customize it for individual workflows. The announcement tool place at the beginning of May 2019 (Windows 10: PowerToys will come as Open Source). More information can be found in the articles linked at the end of this blog.

PowerToys settings UI.
(PowerToys Settings)

The PowerToys known from Windows 9x are also available in the version for Windows 10 Open Source and free of charge.

Update to Windows PowerToys 0.17

The announcement was made on April 30, 2020 by developer Clint Rutkas – here is his corresponding tweet.


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The details including the release notes can be found on this GitHub page. Version 0.17 is an update that was designed to improve stability and upgradeability. The biggest new feature is the auto-update function, which has now been implemented. But this feature can't be tested until an update (probably v0.18) is available.

Rutka mentioned also that ha has added telemetry built into the new PowerToys 0.17 version. This should help to prioritize the FancyZone developments. Rutkas writes that it was known that there was a subset of bugs. In order to see how many users were affected, telemetry was used, which then made it possible to do the work faster than planned. A list of the fixes can be found here – an extract of the fixes:

  • PowerToys can now update itself #1686
  • FancyZone can now snap to two zones (still experimental since it doesn't support restoring the app to two zones)
  • Per machine installation fixed, non-admin user will be able again to use PowerToys after the regression in 0.16.
  • Fixed most of the FancyZones Virtual Desktop bugs.
  • Fixed several FancyZones bugs including proper handling of taskbar position.
  • PowerToys icon in the Start menu will always show

Details and the download are also available on this GitHub page.

Similar articles:
Windows 10: First Open Source PowerToys released
PowerToys v0.12 Beta released
PowerToys v0.13 released
PowerToys 0.14.0 released
PowerToys 0.14.1 released
Windows 10: PowerToys get QuickLauncher
PowerToys 0.15.0 released
Windows 10: PowerToys Version 0.16 released
Windows PowerToys 0.16.1 released


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