We’re back with a fresh PowerToys release – PowerToys 0.98! This month introduces the new Command Palette Dock, along with a refreshed Keyboard Manager experience and many other improvements across the utilities. You can grab the update by checking for updates in PowerToys or by heading to the release page. Let’s dive in!
⌨️ A refreshed Keyboard Manager Editor experience (Preview)
This release introduces a new editor experience for Keyboard Manager. The UI has been rebuilt from the ground up using WinUI 3, making it easier for us to maintain and improve going forward.
With the new foundation, we also took the opportunity to address feedback and rethink the editing experience. Instead of working across two separate windows, the new editor provides a single, unified view where you can manage both single key and shortcut remappings. A new editing dialog makes it easier to create remappings—whether you want to remap a key or shortcut, send text, or open an app or URL.
As part of this UI refresh, we also added individual toggle switches, allowing you to quickly enable or disable remappings without having to delete the entry. The new Keyboard Manager Editor can be enabled in Settings, and all your existing remappings should just work and carry over. As we love getting early feedback, we are keeping both editor systems in place while we improve the new experience. Give it a try and let us know what you think by filing bugs or feature requests on GitHub!
Alongside the new editor, you can now enable or disable Keyboard Manager using a shortcut or through the Keyboard Manager command in Command Palette. We also added support for multi-line input when sending text.
🚀 Meet the new Command Palette Dock (Preview)
This release introduces the Command Palette Dock, a new optional mode that lets you keep your favorite commands and extensions always within reach. When enabled via the Command Palette settings, the Dock stays visible on your screen and provides quick access to the tools you use most.
You can position the Dock at the top, bottom, left, or right side of your screen and customize it to fit your workflow. To get started, open Command Palette settings and enable the Dock on the Dock page. From there, you can also adjust its position and appearance. By default, a few extensions are already pinned. To add more, open Command Palette, navigate to a command, and select Pin to Dock from the right-click or more actions menu. Pinned items will appear in the Dock, and you can rearrange or remove them by right-clicking the Dock and selecting Edit Dock, where you can drag items into the order you prefer.
If you want to explore even more functionality, be sure to check out the extension Store for additional Command Palette extensions! The Dock is currently in preview, and we’d love to hear your feedback as we continue improving the experience together with the community.
⚡ Command Palette is now faster and adds support for window transparency
Alongside the new Dock, this release includes many additional improvements to Command Palette. We’ve fixed a large number of bugs and added several new settings, including options to adjust window transparency, preserve search text between activations, and hide non-app results.
Performance has also received significant attention in this release. Improvements to caching, UI responsiveness, and other optimizations make Command Palette faster and smoother than ever.
Massive thanks to @jiripolasek for his many, many contributions!
🖱️ Better multi-monitor support for CursorWrap
CursorWrap also received several improvements in this release based on community feedback. The wrapping engine has been rewritten to better support complex multi-monitor layouts, making the behavior more reliable across different setups. We also added a few new options, including the ability to disable CursorWrap when only a single monitor is connected, and a new activation mode that lets you wrap the cursor only while holding Ctrl or Shift.
#41826 by @mikehall-ms)
⌨️ Always On Top is now easier to activate
We’ve added a much-requested improvement to Always On Top. In addition to the keyboard shortcut, you can now pin a window directly from the title bar by right-clicking it and selecting the Always On Top option. This makes it easier for mouse users to quickly pin or unpin a window. You can also now adjust the transparency of a pinned window using Ctrl + Shift + +/- keys to increase or decrease the transparency.
🧩 Other notable changes
- ZoomIt: Added a new video editor experience that lets you trim screen recordings.
- Awake: Numerous bug fixes and improvements to make the experience more reliable.
- New+: You can now hide the Windows built-in “New” item from the context menu.
- Advanced Paste: Added auto-copy for custom action hotkeys, allowing a single shortcut to copy and execute an action, along with improved Foundry Local support.
For the full list of changes and fixes, check out the complete release notes on GitHub.
✨ Big thanks to the community
As always, a big thank-you to everyone who contributed — we couldn’t do this release without you! Thanks @dend, @ruthiesun, @jiripolasek, @michaeljolley, @daverayment, @mikehall-ms, @cgaarden, @chenmy77, @Jay-o-Way, @weikequ, @foxmsft, @MarioHewardt, @RubenFricke, @davidegiacometti, @htcfreek, @snickler, @noraa-junker, @Youssef1313, @SeanKilleen and @PesBandi for your pull requests!
🚀 What’s next?
For the next update, we’re focusing on a broad stability and bug-fix push, improving overall performance and stability. Stay tuned!
We’re always happy to get your feedback and contributions – whether it’s a bug report, a feature idea, or a pull request. Head over to the PowerToys repo to jump in.
The full release notes can be found here.
new Keyboard Manager
I’m so excited to try it out! 😀