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PowerToys 0.90 Update: What Changed and Which Modules Are Actually Worth Turning On

Review

Four things changed in PowerToys 0.90 that I actually noticed on managed machines. The rest of the release is bug fixes and small polish you won’t see unless you go looking. If you inherited a fleet of office PCs and push PowerToys out through Intune or a login script, here’s what to look at and which modules deserve to stay switched on.

A quick note on what PowerToys is, for anyone whose manager just mentioned it. It’s a free bundle of small utilities from Microsoft for Windows. It isn’t an antivirus or a cleaner. It doesn’t touch drivers or registry backups. It’s a set of little tools that fix specific annoyances Windows has carried for years, and it installs as a single package with each utility toggled on or off independently.

What 0.90 changed

The update mostly tightened modules that people already use daily. Command Palette continued its move toward replacing the old Run dialog with extensions, and the teams keep smoothing the rough edges there. Advanced Paste gained refinements around the paste actions, which is the module I lean on constantly when someone hands me a CSV that needs formatting before it goes into a spreadsheet.

Peek, the preview pane that lets you look at a file without opening the associated app, got stability work. That matters more than it sounds. When a receptionist double-clicks a folder of scanned invoices and waits for a full PDF reader to spin up on an old laptop, Peek showing the first page in place saves a lot of impatience.

There are also the usual fixes across FancyZones and PowerToys Run. I won’t pretend to track every commit. What I care about is whether an update breaks the layout of a user’s snapped windows, and 0.90 did not, at least on the dozen machines I rolled it onto.

The modules I leave on for every user

These earn their place on almost any office machine, technical user or not.

FancyZones. The single most useful thing in the whole package. It lets you define zones on screen and snap windows into them with a drag. For anyone juggling an email client, a browser, and a spreadsheet all day, it turns a messy desktop into something predictable. The default layouts are enough. Don’t overcomplicate it with custom grids for people who won’t remember them.

PowerToys Run. A quick launcher on Alt+Space. Type a few letters, hit enter, app opens. This is the one I install and never mention. Users discover it by accident when they hit the shortcut, and then they ask me why their other PC doesn’t do it.

Text Extractor. Pulls text out of anything on screen using OCR. Someone sends a screenshot of an address or a serial number instead of the actual text, and instead of retyping it you grab it directly. This one quietly saves minutes every week.

Image Resizer. Right-click any photo and resize it to a preset before emailing. Stops the “this attachment is too large” tickets dead. If you’ve ever dealt with IrfanView as the go-to for quick resizing and format conversion, this does the one-job version of that without a separate install, right from the context menu.

Mouse utilities. The find-my-cursor feature that highlights where the pointer is when you shake it. Small, but on a multi-monitor desk it ends a specific kind of confusion fast.

The ones worth turning on selectively

These are good, but they need a reason.

Advanced Paste. Genuinely useful if you or the people you support move data between formats. Paste as plain text, paste as markdown, that sort of thing. Leave it off for users who will never touch it, because it adds a decision to every paste and some people find the extra shortcut confusing.

Keyboard Manager. Remap keys or shortcuts. I use it to fix a laptop with a broken key by remapping it, and to kill the occasional shortcut that clashes with an app. Turn it on for power users, not for everyone. A remapped key that nobody remembers setting is a support call waiting to happen.

Awake. Keeps the machine from sleeping during a long task. Handy for the person running a report overnight. Pointless for the average desk, and mildly risky if someone forgets it’s on and the screen never locks. Use with a timeout.

What I’d skip, or at least hide

PowerToys is not a security tool. It won’t replace anything in the antivirus slot, and it has no business near driver updates or system cleaning. Keep those concerns where they belong.

Hosts File Editor is fine for a lab or a testing machine. Handing it to general staff invites a typo that breaks name resolution and lands on your desk. The registry preview and file locksmith tools are in the same bucket: excellent for the person debugging, unnecessary risk for the person checking email.

Color Picker is harmless but rarely used outside design work. Video Conference Mute is genuinely handy now that half the office lives in Teams calls, so that one I do leave on. It gives a single shortcut to kill camera and mic, which beats fumbling with the app’s own controls mid-meeting.

How I roll it out

Steps that have saved me repeat visits:

  • Install the package, then open settings and switch off every module you don’t need before the user ever sees the machine. A clean set of enabled tiles is easier to support than a wall of options.
  • Pin PowerToys Run and FancyZones as the only two features you explain. Two ideas stick. Ten don’t.
  • Set shortcuts deliberately. Defaults are fine, but a couple collide with app shortcuts in specific departments, so check before you walk away.
  • For FancyZones, apply a single shared layout through policy so the whole floor snaps the same way. Mixed layouts create confusion when people swap desks.

If you manage updates centrally, remember PowerToys ships frequent point releases. Pick a cadence, test on one machine, then push. The 0.90 update behaved well for me, but the pattern of “great module, occasional regression” is real enough that I don’t blanket-deploy a new version the day it lands.

The short version: turn on FancyZones, PowerToys Run, Text Extractor, Image Resizer, and the cursor highlighter for everyone. Add Advanced Paste and Keyboard Manager for the people who’ll use them. Hide the rest. That combination turns a scattershot bundle into a small set of tools that quietly remove friction, and it stops the help desk from fielding questions about features nobody asked for.