PowerToys v0.14 released with PowerRename improvements, more

Microsoft has released an update to their PowerToys for Windows 10 package which offers a range of tools which makes life easier for power users.

PowerToys is, of course, a set of utilities first introduced by Microsoft in Windows 95, in order to let users modify some of the trickiest settings, without having any knowledge about Windows Registry.

After 17 years Microsoft introduced version three to Windows 10, this time open-source and accessible on GitHub. The package currently contains 3 tools – PowerRename, FancyZones and Shortcut.

PowerRename

PowerRename – PowerRename is a Windows Shell Extension for advanced bulk renaming using search and replace or regular expressions. PowerRename allows simple search and replace or more advanced regular expression matching. While you type in the search and replace input fields, the preview area will show what the items will be renamed to. PowerRename then calls into the Windows Explorer file operations engine to perform the rename. This has the benefit of allowing the rename operation to be undone after PowerRename exits.

FancyZones

FancyZones – FancyZones is a window manager that makes it easy to create complex window layouts and quickly position windows into those layouts. The FancyZones backlog can be found here

Shortcut

Windows key shortcut guide – The shortcut guide appears when a user holds the Windows key down for more than one second and shows the available shortcuts for the current state of the desktop. The shortcut guide backlog can be found here

Version 0.14 of the package contains the following fixes and improvements:

PowerRename

Changes:

• The dialogue can be resized (still need to finish the work to handle DPI changes when moving the dialogue between the screen with different scaling %).
• Added settings to restore search and replace flags value from the previous run.
• Added settings to enable autocomplete and auto-suggest.

Bug fixes:

• Improved RegEx replace result.
• Fix bug preventing sub-folder items to be renamed if parent folder is also renamed.

FancyZones

Changes:

• Removed legacy editor (along with the settings option to choose between the legacy editor and the new editor).
• Added a setting to disable FanzyZones for user-defined list of applications.
• The editor now opens highlighting the currently active layout.
• Show the correct keyboard key for the editor shortcut (with some limitations due to the WebView control).

Bug fixes:

• Fixed the FancyZones bug that was stealing the number keys (mostly happening when dragging Chrome tabs).
• Fixed a DPI scaling bug in the FancyZones editor that was causing the zones to be placed in the wrong position on the screen.
• Fixed bug preventing several apps from working with FancyZones (there are still some cases, like remote apps, that may not work).

Other bug fixes

• fixed a bug in the runner that was causing the tray icon to not appear.
• minor UI tweaks to the Settings appearance (icons position and margins, module’s description text and documentation link position and margins).
• fixed a crash in the SortcutGuide.

Find the latest version of Powertoys for Windows 10 at Github here.

Via Neowin