These 5 apps completely changed PowerToys on my Home windows 11 PC

PowerToys is a Microsoft-built suite of PC utilities that provides a layer of further performance on high of the usual Windows 11 expertise. With over 25 modules to select from, the free program targets not solely energy customers, but additionally common every-day folks searching for further customization choices and ease-of-use options.

Since PowerToys is made by Microsoft in-house, it is an unsurprisingly well-polished software program program. The utility supplied by some of its respective modules is so plain, that I nearly at all times set up the applying immediately when establishing any new Home windows 11 laptop.

After all, as with every piece of software program, PowerToys is not flawless. In some instances, I discover myself turning to third-party Home windows 11 utilities to both complement the PowerToys suite, or to exchange sure modules of their entirety. Listed below are 5 free apps specifically that I take advantage of in lieu of their PowerToys counterparts, partially as a consequence of characteristic set variations, and partially out of sheer familiarity.

Auto Darkish Mode

A Gentle Change substitute

Gentle Change is the freshman of the PowerToys module lineup, having solely been launched by Microsoft again in October of final yr. While it works well for automating Home windows 11’s mild and darkish theme switching based mostly on time of day, it nonetheless lacks some key configuration choices discovered within the wonderful third-party Auto Darkish Mode app.

Critically, Auto Darkish Mode gives the choice to configure bespoke desktop wallpapers for each mild mode and darkish mode, which works a great distance in making the characteristic feel and appear seamless. There’s an opportunity that related functonality will arrive in Gentle Change in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later (there is a proposed pull request over on GitHub), however, in the interim, Auto Darkish Mode will get the job performed and not using a fuss.

Listary

A Command Palette substitute

There are all kinds of third-party Home windows functions specializing in file search and knowledge indexing. In truth, I’ve previously compiled a list of a number of the greatest choices out there for Home windows 11, and I keep in mind struggling to select solely 5 favorites from the bunch. In comparison with the default Home windows Search expertise, you possibly can’t go fallacious with any variety of options, together with Microsoft’s very personal Command Pallette utility inside PowerToys.

Command Pallette is a well-rounded possibility for followers of macOS-style Highlight Search, however I’ve personally grown reliant on Listary, a basic search launcher that is lightning quick, visually nice, and completely correct in surfacing question outcomes. Along with a fundamental search bar UI, Listary gives an in-beta File Search Window expertise with superior filters, wealthy previews, and one of the user-friendly designs I’ve ever come throughout.

QuickLook

A Peek substitute

Preview is one in every of my all-time favourite macOS options, making the contents of photographs, paperwork, movies, and different recordsdata extremely glanceable through a easy hit of the area key. Unsurprisingly, makes an attempt have been made to port related performance over to Home windows, together with by Microsoft within the type of its Peek module for PowerToys.

QuickLook is a free third-party different to Peek that I have been counting on for a while for all-things preview-related. The app works equally to macOS Preview, with transient panes of data showing and disappearing from the display screen based mostly on related keyboard shortcuts. QuickLook is handy, highly effective, and light-weight all on the similar time, making it an excellent standalone different to Peek for Home windows 11.

Run by FireCube

A PowerToys Run substitute

Late final yr, Microsoft started quietly testing a full Run dialogue redesign (via phantomofearth on X) for Home windows 11. Constructed utilizing trendy design ideas, this new person interface actually seems to be nicer than the basic model, however it’s nonetheless additionally at the moment missing numerous capabilities like a browse button or a movable window. After all, Microsoft additionally gives a extra superior Run expertise courtesy of PowerToys Run, which arguably beats the pants off of each out-of-box Run dialogue choices inside Home windows 11.

Personally, I spring for one thing else totally for my fast command-line toolkit wants: the free third-party Run by FireCube software. Other than providing a sexy design and a few distinctive visible aptitude by means of its GlowUI design language, Run by FireCube faucets into OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 large language model (LLM) for pure language queries (as long as you’ve got a sound OpenAI key). The app’s window can also be totally movable, and it could possibly show as much as 30 latest instructions at a time for comfort.

Windhawk

An alternative to PowerToys as an entire

Windhawk is not a single-purpose software program software. Fairly, it is a full-blown customization market for the Home windows platform and its accompanying packages. As a free and open-source (FOSS) package deal, Windhawk plugs into an unlimited variety of community-developed ‘mods,’ every of which alters the system in a method or one other. For instance, you need to use the app to bring back the long-lost Aero Peek characteristic from the Home windows 10 days, or to add a GPU usage ticker to the taskbar’s system tray space.

Fairly than being a alternative for PowerToys, Windhawk provides an distinctive quantity of worth to Home windows 11 as a supplementary software. Each take completely different approaches to how they current and implement OS tweaks, and so each provide their very own units of distinctive strengths and weaknesses. When paired collectively, then, the 2 packages work in tandem to supply most platform flexibility.