alt.hn

3/20/2026 at 3:31:17 AM

The miracle of PowerToys, Microsoft's last great Windows app

 https://www.fastcompany.com/91510973/the-miracle-of-powertoys-microsofts-last-great-windows-app

by Foe

3/20/2026 at 5:36:56 AM

> Microsoft PowerToys feels like something that shouldn’t exist in Windows today. What started in 2019 as a couple of utilities for things like window and shortcut management has gradually expanded to nearly 30 useful tools

Year 2019? Oh no, not by a longshot. I've been using Microsoft-branded PowerToys since Windows XP, around the year 2001. Wikipedia says:

> PowerToys are available for Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows 10, and Windows 11 (and explicitly not compatible with Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerToys

by nayuki

3/20/2026 at 6:40:11 AM

A journalist writing about something technology relayed abd getting their facts wrong? The devil, you say?

by GaProgMan

3/20/2026 at 5:52:27 AM

I will just note, that about two weeks ago I was trying to shrink my Parallels Windows 11 VM disk size only to discover, that PowerToys update files were stored on the drive indefinitely, accumulating over 10 gb of disk space.

by neonstatic

3/20/2026 at 4:47:52 AM

Weird, just today I saw that the powertoys directory is taking up 17gb on my computer. It’s filled with multiple installer versions I guess.

by whycome

3/20/2026 at 5:53:21 AM

Ahh, just posted about the same issue. Should have read the comments more carefully. Toys indeed.

by neonstatic

3/20/2026 at 6:42:19 AM

that is wild - it seems like just a 'toy' project for them

by chid

3/20/2026 at 8:35:50 AM

you're talking about windows/office/teams, right? :) seems that quality code in those times is very hard to find...

by riccardik

3/20/2026 at 11:58:15 AM

Keep this stuff on the download, if the win execs find out about this it'll have a subscription tier next week

by Rallen89

3/20/2026 at 4:45:54 AM

If a user desires Windows hackery, there's also Windhawk.

https://windhawk.net

by burnt-resistor

3/20/2026 at 5:33:25 AM

Indeed, this is the miracle app, not the primitive "power toys"

by eviks