Some of the best PowerToys tools for Windows 11 are getting important new features

One of the very first apps that I install on each clean Windows 11 installation is PowerToys. This rich set of utilities for Windows 10 and 11 improves the stock user experience, and I strongly believe that some of those things should be available on the system level. Some of my favorite ones are Peek and Light Switch. The first lets you quickly preview files by simply pressing Spacebar, and the second one automates theme switching in Windows. Both of them may soon get very useful upgrades.

Starting with Peek, a proposed pull request on GitHub suggests adding two features: the ability to keep Peek always on top and remove its icon from the taskbar for a more minimal experience. Both features are suggested as optional toggles, so those who prefer things the other way could revert to the original experience.

Moving to Light Switch, in its current form, it can only switch modes in Windows and apps. It lets you enable dark mode at sunset (or custom hours) and revert to light mode at sunrise. Before Microsoft introduced Light Switch with a PowerToys update, I used a wonderful app called Auto Dark Mode, which, in addition to theme switching, lets you select custom wallpapers for each mode. The same capability could make its way to PowerToys soon.

A user on GitHub proposed adding wallpaper support to PowerToys Light Switch. You should be able to select a different background for each mode, select its fit, and even apply wallpapers to each virtual desktop (it is an experimental feature in its current form). The author also wants to add the ability to adjust the system accent color for even more customization.

Unfortunately, for now, none of these pull requests have been approved by core contributors, so the work might still be rejected. Still, given the open-source nature of PowerToys, efforts like these are worth spreading the word about so that more devs can join and users can share their feedback. What is already confirmed, though, is a bunch of customization for the PowerToys Command Palette and a new monitor utility.

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Posted Sunday 11 January 2026 at 6:02 pm AEST (my time).

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