Microsoft has released a new version of its PowerToys suite of tools, bringing it to version 0.56.1. This update focuses less on brand-new features, but it does bring some notable improvements to existing ones, such as FancyZones and the mouse utilities, specifically Find My Mouse. Another noteworthy change is that new PowerToys updates now include release notes, so you don't have to follow the GitHub releases page to know what's new in each update.
As we mentioned above, FancyZones is getting some upgrades with PowerToys 0.56.1. Most notably, you can now create up to 128 zones using FancyZones, a massive boost from the previous maximum of 40. FancyZones is a window manager, and it lets you create custom layouts to organize all your windows. It seems unlikely that most users would ever need more than 40 zones, but if you have a massive multi-monitor setup, this might be useful for you.
Additionally, FancyZones now supports child and popup windows officially. It was already possible to assign these windows to a specific zone, but it was considered a bug, not a feature. However, Microsoft says many users asked for it to come back once it was fixed, so now it can be enabled in the FancyZones settings inside PowerToys.
Meanwhile, the Find My Mouse utility, which was introduced with PowerToys 0.49, can now be triggered by shaking the mouse cursor, which makes a ton of sense. Previously, you'd have to press Ctrl twice to highlight the mouse cursor, but shaking is the natural motion most will probably do when trying to find their mouse. The default behavior remains the same, but you can enable the new option in the settings.
Another notable new feature is in PowerToys Run, the app launcher and search engine built into PowerToys. There's a new plugin for time zone conversion, so you can quickly find out what a specific time is equal to in a different time zone.
Aside from these bigger upgrades, almost every tool in PowerToys has received some improvements and fixes. You can find the full list of changes below:
If you haven't yet, you can download PowerToys 0.56 from GitHub, where you can easily find a history of previously released versions as well. This is also the ideal place to make contributions to the project if you want to help. You can also find it on the Microsoft Store, though it's still installed externally from GitHub.