PowerToys has a new tool to crop other windows, but to use it effectively, there’s a few things to know about it and how Windows handles your windows.
Generally the PowerToys Crop & Lock tool does exactly what it says on the tin: it crops another window and locks that aspect ratio and sticks it foremost on your screen (always on top). The later effect I do wish was optional because PowerToys already provides an on-top tool that can be activated on-demand, and having this tool forcibly set so is not always preferred. It doesn’t detract from the utility too much, at least on my large 4K display with ample space to dedicate to always-on-top placement. On my smaller laptop monitor it can be a nuisance. I digress.
I’ve found this tool useful most recently to monitor a few key metrics on a real-time web status page, without having to keep the entire tab visible. I have essentially created my own desktop widget out of a cropped version of the page. In the example further below I use it to crop the time from the time.is website.
Win + Ctrl + Shift + (R or T)
You can set your own keyboard shortcuts, but that’s the default. Depending on which you use you’ll activate one of two modes to crop-and-clock: reparent and thumbnail. The former replaces the original program and contains it inside this new parent window. Not all programs will react well to this, although I’ve not observed any issues. For apps where it works, the main benefit is the cropped window can still be controlled.
The thumbnail mode on the other hand, is the most compatible and creates a window that shows the selected area of the original window. It’s almost a literal window, but I won’t push the pun along. Any changes to the original window’s selected area will be reflected on the thumbnail (caveats apply), but the original application can’t be controlled through the thumbnail window: it’s just for viewing.
After cropping you may be inclined to move the original full window elsewhere and generally that’s fine, although if you minimize it the cropped version will stop updating as well.1
In the example above at the end, I press Win+Tab to open task view and drag the original full Edge window to another virtual desktop. This really was unnecessary, I should have just used the “reparent” mode of Crop & Lock ( Win+Ctrl+Shift+R ) instead, especially if I only needed one crop.
However, if you do want the cropped version (or the thumbnail you see in the taskbar virtual desktop flyout) to be live even when the window is on another display like this, you must first open edge://flags and disable the occlusion calculation function (other Chromium based browsers may have the same flag). I wouldn’t generally advise setting this unless you need to—it can waste power and impact performance, in particular if you have multiple tabs open running scripts or updating the display (even ads). Disabling this also means the browser would stop paying attention to whether the window is visible when deciding whether or not to update the page contents or allow javascript to run at full speed.
1Some programs continue delivering updates to the thumbnails like those in the taskbar, alt-tab, or task view even when minimized, but typically only because the developers took special care to do so like in the case of Windows Media Player. There is an API to do so, but most programs just use the default experience and freeze when minimized.
Overall, the PowerToys new Crop & Lock has become one I have been using daily for a few weeks. There’s now over 20 tools in PowerToys (many include multiple tools in one) and new updates are arriving constantly. Check them all out and learn what they can do at learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys or #PowerToys for other posts from me.
