The v0.49 release cycle introduces exciting new updates primarily centered around modernizing PowerRename's UI, adding a brand new mouse utility, and merging Video Conference Mute into the stable releases!

PowerRename's new UI brings a refreshed experience that reflects the modern UI theming of Windows 11, along with helpful regular expression guidance and file formatting tips.

With the new mouse utility, PowerToys introduces functionality to quickly find your mouse position by double pressing the left <kbd>ctrl</kbd> key. This is ideal for large, high-resolution displays and low-vision users, with additional features and enhancements planned for future releases. Special thanks to Raymond Chen for providing the base code PowerToys used to develop this feature. To learn more, check out our Mouse Utilities documentation on Microsoft Docs!

As Video Conference Mute becomes available in the stable releases, there are still known bugs that we are actively working to address. These bugs are tracked on our GitHub, and we welcome any and all feedback as we work to isolate and resolve the cause.

Additionally, Color Picker's HEX format will no longer have the # character. This addresses issues with various color inputs that only accept six characters cutting off the last value. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes as we understand it impacts users who may prefer having # included. However, we believe this is the best solution while the custom string functionality (#8305) is in development.

Additional work in this release include stability updates and optimizations, installer updates, general bug fixes, and accessibility improvements.

Installer Hash

6E8F1C3BFBA3374FF1AEACC15519D27B5AC32C07F1B96DECFC38A95B32FDDD7E

Change log

General

Find My Mouse utility added! Utilize the functionality to quickly locate the cursor on your displays! Learn more on our Mouse Utility docs.
Accessibility and minor UI improvements to the settings page. Thanks @niels9001!
Added deep links to the Settings menus for various utilities within their respective editors. Thanks @niels9001!
Settings improvements to improve clarity for various options. Thanks @niels9001!
Improved settings window to adjust size and position as needed when multi-monitor conditions change. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

PowerToys Awake

Screen reader improvements for accessibility.

Color Picker

Color Picker's HEX format was changed to remove the # character. Thanks @niels9001!
Accessibility improvements for screen reader and UI to distinguish colors from the border when matching. Thanks @niels9001!

FancyZones

Fixed Color Picker and OOBE windows from being snapped by FancyZones. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Fixed regression with layouts not being changed via shortcuts.
Fixed crashing issue with FancyZones editor.
Fixed zone layouts resetting after screen locking.
Accessibility improvements for screen reader in editor.

Keyboard Manager

Fixed crashing issue when the editor is opened at high zoom on 4k monitors.

PowerRename

New UI update! We hope you enjoy the modern experience and take advantage of new tool-tips to describe common regular expressions and text/file formatting. Thanks to @niels9001 for all the support on this redesign!

PowerToys Run

Windows Terminal Plugin added. Open shells through Windows Terminal via _ activation command by default. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Added environment variables to Folder plugin search. Thanks @davidegiacometti!
Fixed certain schemas that were overwritten with HTTPS. Thanks @franky920920!
Fixed issue with program plugin getting caught in infinite loops as certain file paths are recursively searched.

Video Conference Mute

VCM added to stable releases of PowerToys!

Community contributions

We'd like to directly mention certain contributors (in alphabetical order) for their continued community support this month and helping directly make PowerToys a better piece of software.

@Aaron-Junker, @davidegiacometti, @franky920920, @htcfreek, @Jay-o-Way, @martinchrzan, @niels9001, @pritudev, and @TobiasSekan