Newsletter Archives

• Managing your hardware with PowerToys

  Posted on October 21, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.43 • 2024-10-21

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  Find your mouse pointer, customize your keyboard layout, and shift your focus between multiple computers.

  As screens get bigger and interfaces get busier, spotting your mouse pointer on the screen has gotten trickier. Instead of waggling your mouse or cranking up the cursor size so that it hides what you’re trying to click on when you do find it, you could turn on what used to be called “mouse sonar.” From Windows XP on, there’s been an option in the control panel to show a highlighted ring around the mouse pointer when you press and hold the Ctrl key, just like a target in a submarine’s periscope.

  These days, that feature is actually part of the first PowerToy I’ll discuss, but it now comes with several other helpful options.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.43.0, 2024-10-21).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Windows 11 Keyboard Manager, Mouse Utilities, Mouse without Borders, Newsletters, PowerToys, Video Conference Mute, Windows 11

• Microsoft PowerToys aren’t just for power users

  Posted on July 29, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  Microsoft keeps adding useful tools to the free PowerToys set and improving what’s already there.

  Back in the Windows 95 days, system tweaking and cleaning utilities were so common — and so likely to change system settings that stopped Windows features from working properly — that the Windows shell and kernel teams came out with their own tools, known as PowerToys.

  These were refreshed for Windows XP. A few other Microsoft teams joined in. Engineers on the OneNote development team created multiple power toys, including one that eventually became the Onetastic add-on.

  There were so many changes in Windows Vista and Windows 7 that many PowerToys stopped working. Microsoft didn’t update them. And some just turned into Windows features. It wasn’t until 2019 that PowerToys returned for Windows 10, and with a slightly different approach.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.31.0, 2024-07-29).

  Windows 11 Always On Top, Awake, Color picker, Command Not Found, Crop and Lock, FancyZones, File Locksmith, Hosts File Editor, Image Resizer, Mouse Crosshairs, Mouse without Borders, Newsletters, PowerToys, PowerToys Run, Screen Ruler, Shortcut Guide