The first two utilities in Microsoft’s new PowerToys—a Windows key shortcut guide and a Snap window manager—are now available.

Only the latter could be described as a true PowerToy; the Windows key shortcut guide is about as basic as they come, and a subset of the type of help that Windows 10 itself should provide. But FancyZones, a terrible name for a useful utility, is interesting. It extends the Snap feature in Windows 10 to allow for more complex and useful on-screen window layouts. (It should be called Power Snap. Obviously.)

More PowerToys are coming, and hopefully some of these will live up to the vaunted PowerToy name. Microsoft says that Maximize to new desktop (previously announced), Process terminate, Batch file renamer, and Animated GIF screen recorder are on the way too.

It’s impossible to use Windows 10 and not think of possible PowerToys, like Center Taskbar Icons, Classic Start, Remove Crapware, and Bulk Store App Remover. Come on people, let’s make Windows 10 great again (gag). We can do this.

You can download the new PowerToys from GitHub.

Tagged with PowerToys