Microsoft PowerToys 0.49.0 adds new Find My Mouse tool and VCM is back

PowerToys is Microsoft's open-source project that offers a collection of nifty tools that people can use to customize the Windows 10 or 11 UI and experience to their liking. As we know, depending upon feedback and general stability, some of the utilities also make their way to the OS. A prominent example of this is Snap Layouts and Span Groups in Windows 11 which borrow heavily from the FanzyZones tool in PowerToys.

A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft released PowerToys version 0.47.1 to address some bugs and provide stability updates. Today, the company has rolled out version 0.49.0 which primarily centers around modernizing PowerRename's UI, adding a brand new mouse utility. Perhaps notably, the Video Conference Mute is also merged back into the stable releases.

What's new

With the new mouse utility, PowerToys introduces functionality to quickly find your mouse position by double pressing the left ctrl 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.

Changelog

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](https://github.com/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!

If you are using PowerToys in Windows 11, you can grab it in the Microsoft Store. For others in Windows 10, you can open the app and click on "Check for updates" under the updates section on the General tab. Those who would like to try PowerToys for the first time can grab the version 0.49.0 installer from the app's GitHub page.

Microsoft PowerToys 0.49.0 adds new Find My Mouse tool and VCM is back