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Microsoft Updates PowerToys With A New Feature To Prevent Your PC From Sleeping

Microsoft has come out with a new update for PowerToys that adds a feature to keep your PC awake and overrides the power plan set in the Windows settings. That aside, the new update includes fixes and improvements, and bumps the app to version 0.41.2 as well.

 

The PC awake feature will give users options between using the current power plan; as well as keeping the PC awake indefinitely or keeping the PC awake for a set number of hours/minutes. This should be helpful for those who don’t want their system to go to sleep temporarily.

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Apart from the new feature, the update also comes with improvements; some to the ColorPicker, FancyZones, as well as Image Resizer, and more. You can head down to check out the full change log for the update:

  • Shortcut guide removed support for long Win press to activate. Now supports Win + ? by default
  • Turned off FancyZones canvas editor magnetic snapping to allow keyboard support
  • Updated Color Picker GIF for OOBE. Thanks @niels9001!
  • Removed outdated MSIX code
  • Upgraded all projects to Modern WPF 0.94
  • Dropped support for the module interface API to save settings
  • Removed Winstore dependency

General

  • Improved auto-update experience in PowerToys Settings
  • Updated general bug report information to be more robust
  • Improved settings layout for radio button groups. Updated images and menu for OOBE. Thanks @niels9001!
  • Localization updates

Awake

  • New Awake utility added! Power-Users can now keep their computer awake on-demand without having to manage its power settings. Huge thank you to @dend

Color Picker

  • Improvements to Color Picker’s zoom functionality. Thanks @DoctorNefario
  • Prevent duplicate colors from appearing in selection history
  • Improved UX to better support keyboard navigation. Thanks @niels9001!
  • Fixed OOBE hotkey description. Thanks @coc0a

FancyZones

  • Full keyboard support for canvas editor’s main window and context. Thanks @niels9001
  • New support for faster layout selection by double clicking a desired layout from the editor to automatically apply it and dismiss the editor.
  • New zone activation behavior allows users to snap a window to the zone who’s center is closest to the cursor. Thanks @ulazy1!
  • Added process icon for FancyZones.
  • Fixed issue with zoning minimized windows.
  • Fixed a bunch of accessibility bugs
  • Now an independent exe, detached from the runner process.

File Explorer Add-Ons

  • Adjusted Markdown newline behavior to be less strict so the add-on behaves more like GitHub implementations
  • Image Resizer
  • Fixed bug with custom size option where leaving a height/width value blank caused the output to be a 1 x 1 square pixel. Now the blank value automatically adjusts to the height/width that was set.

Image Resizer

  • Fixed bug where specifying a width but no height generated a 1×1 px image instead of auto-adjusting the height. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

PowerRename

  • Fixed File Explorer crash when running PowerRename

PowerToys Run

  • Multiple crashing bugs resolved.
  • New Unit Converter plugin! Activate in the query prompt with the default activation phrase %%. Ex: %% 10 ft in m. Thanks @jsoref and @ThiefZero!
  • New Windows Settings plugin! Search for specific Windows settings from PowerToys Run by utilizing the default activation phrase $ followed by the desired setting. Ex: $ Add/Remove Programs or $ Device:. Thanks @TobiasSekan and @htcfreek.
  • Updated the URL plugin to enable quickly launching the default browser with the action keyword, which defaults to //.
  • Added remainder/modulo support for Calculator plugin via % operator.
  • Faster launching from improved Win32 program indexing. Thanks @royvou!
  • Search text results now highlight matched characters from input. Thanks @niels9001!

Settings / Welcome to PowerToys

  • Fixed Color Picker’s key-binding information

Shortcut Guide

  • Customize key-binding from settings menu
  • Took Shortcut guide out of the runner process to remove unnecessary interdependencies

Installer

  • Updated .NET Core dependency to 3.1.15
  • Reduced the network traffic by making the updater not download files when they’re already cached

 

Microsoft has also released a small patch after this update that fixes an issue wherein PowerToys was incorrectly identified as a malware by Bitdefender. Microsoft has released version 0.41.3 to patch the issue.

 

 

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