The Return of PowerToys

Power users rejoice at the return of these powerful time savers first introduced more than 25 years ago.

PowerToys is a suite of small utilities for power users and enthusiasts to fine-tune the operation of their Windows PC’s for greater convenience and productivity. These utilities date back to the mid-90s where they shipped in a resource kit folder on the Windows 95 CD-ROM disc and were available for many Windows versions for the next decade.

One of my favorite utilities was TweakUI, a tool that provided an accessible user interface to tweak various aspects of the Windows desktop environment such as animation speeds, mouse drag thresholds, overlay icon styles, and so much more. While these modifications could be made directly in the system registry, the registry accepts any value you type, while the TweakUI applet provided some guard rails for these changes so that only valid inputs could be made.

While the original PowerToys were a collection of unsupported software scraps almost literally picked up from the workshop floor, later iterations were purpose-built tools and shipped in Windows between 1995 and 2003. Some eventually were removed from distribution for security review and didn’t reappear, while supported versions made new debuts over time.

After Windows XP, PowerToys were no longer offered as design philosophies shifted for several reasons ranging from simple and standardized (i.e. “untweakable”) defaults, new software priorities (it’s tough to spend time building toys when you’re busy reinventing a new generation of Windows such as Vista/7), to new incentives, such as some extra utilities being targeted only to higher-end software variations as in Vista Ultimate Extras — a near total bust I might add.

Fast forward 15 years to today, and PowerToys are making a comeback in a whole new way. The new PowerToys are being developed by a “rapid-incubation, open source team aimed at providing power users with ways to squeeze more efficiency out of the [Windows] shell and customize it for individual workflows.”

In coming posts, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite utilities in the suite of toys so far.