I don't know how I used Windows 11 before these 7 PowerToys apps

Key Takeaways

PowerToys offers 26 different utilities to enhance the way your Windows laptop runs.
Notable PowerToys include Color Picker, FancyZones, and File LockSmith.
PowerToys also features a Text Extractor, Image Resizer, Keyboard Manager, and Mouse Utilities.

Microsoft’s PowerToys is a free app suite that adds advanced features to your Windows 11 laptop. It’s easy to download and almost acts like a free Windows update for users who want to get the most out of their OS. They’ve dramatically improved my own user experience, and have really helped me max out my efficiency.

The current version of PowerToys has 26 utilities that each unlock some aspect of your laptop’s full potential. Not all are equal, and in this article, I’ll discuss the seven best PowerToys apps I use to make my life easier.

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1 Color Picker

Replicate any color on your screen

Color Picker is the perfect tool for matching colors from different apps. Once activated, it lets me move my cursor anywhere on my screen and capture the color of anything it’s hovering over. I can then lift specific colors off images, web pages, and more and transfer them into Photoshop or Pixlr for easy replication.

The handy Color Picker utility can save colors in many popular formats, like HEX, RGB, HSL, HSV, and more. It will also automatically display colors similar to the one I’ve picked, so I can compare them to find the best. The app also stores these picks, so I can easily find them later without repeating the process and potentially losing some favorites.

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2 FancyZones

Create zones on your display to organize your windows

FancyZones helps me move and arrange open windows into preset zones on my screen. It makes multitasking more manageable, especially when using dual monitors. I can drag open Windows across my display, and they’ll automatically resize and fit into the selected zone when I drop it. I can then have multiple windows neatly displayed on the same screen without overlapping or changing their size manually.

Customization is easy, and I can create separate templates for each display in whatever orientation I like. I usually have two equally sized zones on my primary monitor, with one large zone and three smaller horizontal zones on my secondary monitor for displaying multiple sites simultaneously. I can even create a zone spanning multiple monitors or change their opacity and appearance. FancyZones also provides keyboard shortcuts to navigate through various windows quickly without a mouse.

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3 File LockSmith

Unlock those pesky files without restarting your PC

I usually have countless apps and background tasks running simultaneously, and finding out why some programs are locked or why I can’t delete certain files can be challenging, if not blatantly frustrating. File LockSmith makes it easy by scanning all my running processes to identify which files they’re currently using. The app can scan a single file or entire folder and its subdirectories to find which programs are using the files.

File LockSmith is one of the most user-friendly PowerToy features. Once it’s activated, I right-click on the file or folder I want it to scan, then click on Show more options, and select Unlock with File LockSmith to get it working. I don’t use this PowerToy feature daily, but it is handy when moving and deleting files.

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Grab text from pictures and videos

Text Extractor is a nifty tool for snagging text from images. It’s simple and effective, and it makes my life infinitely easier to extract text from photos, videos, posters, and other images without typing them out manually. I find it particularly useful for capturing text from online presentations and meetings when I have limited time to copy the onscreen slides.

Text Extractor is user-friendly and grabs text in seconds without diving into menus or complicated settings. I press the Windows + Shift + T keys to activate the app, and I can highlight any text with the cursor. I can then paste it into Word, Google Docs, or another program. The app can format the text as a single line or a table, but you’ll need to download additional OCR packs to extract languages other than English.

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5 Image Resizer

The easy way to resize images

The Image Resizer tool in PowerToys is a totally simple way to increase or decrease the size of your images without requiring graphics software like PhotoShop. The app includes preset small, medium, large, and phone sizes, and I can easily create custom settings to suit my requirements. I can also adjust the JPEG quality level and TIFF compression type, as well as create a new timestamp to show when the image was resized.

After activating this too, it’s so easy to just get going. All I do is right-click on an image and click on Resize with Image Resizer. The Image Resizer menu opens, and I can select the size I want from the presets or use a custom setting. After clicking the Resize button, the app will create a duplicate image in the same folder using the new size.

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6 Keyboard Manager

Remap keys and create shortcuts

The PowerToys Keyboard Manager utility is the easiest way to change my key mapping or create shortcuts to activate certain features or apps. Most users stick to the default settings, but it can be useful if you have a foreign language keyboard or provide a quick fix if specific keys aren’t functioning. I use the Keyboard Manager to remap my seldom-used Function keys to control media and swap the left Shift and Control buttons for faster crouching in games.

It can’t overwrite the Windows defaults baked into the system.

This tool is also handy for creating shortcuts but can’t overwrite the Windows defaults baked into the system. However, creating other shortcuts allows me to access functions or open programs with keypress combinations instead of navigating to my desktop icons. I can launch the Snipping Tool, Paint, and other commonly used apps without exiting the CMS I’m working in.

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7 Mouse utilities

Track your cursor anywhere on your display

The Mouse Utilities tool has some handy features that make tracking easier when I move my mouse across multiple displays. Find My Mouse is easy to use, and it circles my cursor when I press the left control button twice. I can also customize the circle’s radius, color, zoom, and duration to maximize its effectiveness without getting in the way of my work. Most word processors and CRMs have white backgrounds, so I change my cursor color to red or pink to stand out even more when highlighted by Find My Mouse.

Enable Mouse Highlighter is another great feature that provides visual indicators when you left or right-click on your display. It’s a simple tool that displays circles around my cursor in different colors with every mouse click. Customizing the circles is easy, and I can change their colors, size, and more to suit my preferences.