How to install PowerToys on Windows 10

Microsoft’s PowerToys app unlocks a lot of productivity enhancements for Windows 10, and here’s how to install it.

PowerToys is a free tool created by Microsoft that you can download and install on Windows 10 to further enhance the experience with tweaks and tools to help you be a little more productive.

For example, the application includes windows manager to facilitate the creation of different window layouts. You can use the image resizer to quickly resize images with just one click and the PowerRename tool to bulk rename files. The Keyboard Manager lets you remap keys and create custom shortcuts, there’s also a color picker for quickly finding colors of anything on the screen, and much more.

In this guide, you will learn the simple steps to download and install PowerToys on Windows 10.

Install PowerToys on Windows 10

To install the PowerToys app on Windows 10, use the following steps:

1. Open the page PowerToys GitHub .
2. In the “Latest Version” section, under Assets, click the PowerToysSetup-x.xx.x-x64.exe file to download the installer.
3. Double-click on the installer to start the configuration.
4. Click on the button Next.
5. Click on the Next button to accept the license.
6. (Optional) Select the destination folder.
7. (Optional) Check the PowerToys start automatically at the logon option.
8. Click on the button Next.
9. Click on the button Install.
10. Click on the button Finish.

Once you have completed the steps, the app will run in the background, and you can open it using icon in the notification area or from the Start menu.

PowerToys Features and Tools

The app looks like the Settings app with the left navigation pane that lets you access and manage all the tools available to enhance the Windows 10 experience.

Color Picker is a tool that allows you to use a keyboard shortcut (Windows key + Shift + C) to quickly find a color in the screen and copy it to the clipboard like HEX, RGB, HSL, and many other codes. The interface even shows a color story that you previously chose.

Color picker

FancyZones is a manager that allows you to predefined window layouts on the desktop. After creating a layout, you can simply drop windows in each area, and they automatically resize without having to manually resize each window.

FancyZones

File Explorer includes enhancements you can add to the default file manager on Windows 10. Currently, the application provides the ability to preview .svg and .md files.

File Explorer

Image Resizer, as the name suggests, is a tool that allows you to quickly resize images with a simple right click on an image from File Explorer.

Image Resizer

Keyboard Manager is another tool that lets you remap keys and create custom shortcuts.

Keyboard manager

PowerRename allows Bulk rename a long list of files using find and replace or regular expressions.

PowerRename PowerRename PowerRename PowerRe

PowerToys Run is a new approach to the legacy Run command on Windows 10. Once you enable this option, you can use the Alt + Space keyboard shortcut for find and start the app quickly – just like the Windows key + R.

PowerToys Race

Shortcut Guide is a simple on-screen display of available shortcuts for the current desktop state. Once activated, to invoke the guide, simply press and hold the Windows key.

Shortcut Travel Guide

Video Conference Mute is an experimental feature that may or may not be available to everyone at the time of this writing, but it introduces an option to mute the microphone and webcam using the Windows + key NOT keyboard shortcut.