PowerToys 0.102.3001.0 / 0.103.3012.0 Preview

PowerToys is Microsoft's own free toolbox for the jobs Windows still does not handle well.

It is open source, developed in public on GitHub, and every tool inside it can be switched off on its own.

Version 0.102.3001.0 landed on 27 October 2026 with two new mouse tools and a long list of fixes.

What Is New in PowerToys 0.102

The headline additions are two small mouse utilities. Both are off by default, so you turn them on in Settings only if you want them.

• Mouse Button Lock - click and release once and Windows treats the button as still held down, until you click again. Handy for dragging files a long way, selecting long text or stretching a window across two screens.
• CursorHide - hides the mouse pointer while you type or after a pause you choose, and brings it back as soon as you move the mouse.
• Command Palette gets a quick-access shelf for pinned favourites, plus a search box inside its own settings.
• ZoomIt can now turn what you say into text while you take a snip, and the speech is processed on your PC, not in the cloud.
• FancyZones lets you switch layouts with the mouse wheel while you drag a window.
• Keyboard Manager adds remaps that fire when you tap a key on its own, plus search and bulk delete for long remap lists.

Color Picker and Text Extractor also move to the newer Windows 11 look, and Peek can now preview SQLite database files. Our PowerToys 0.102 news piece shows the two mouse tools in action.

What PowerToys Actually Does

It is not one program but a collection of separate tools that share one settings window. Four of them do most of the heavy lifting.

• FancyZones - design your own window layouts and snap windows into them. This is the reason most ultrawide and multi-monitor users install the suite.
• PowerRename - rename hundreds of files at once with search and replace, with a live preview before anything changes.
• Keyboard Manager - remap single keys or whole shortcuts across Windows.
• Command Palette - the newer launcher for apps, files and quick searches. The older PowerToys Run is still included if you prefer it.

Around those sit the smaller ones: Color Picker, Image Resizer, Text Extractor for copying text out of a screenshot, File Locksmith for finding which program has a file locked, and Peek for previewing a file without opening it.

Peek pairs well with Media Preview if you also want proper video thumbnails in File Explorer. New to the suite? Our What is the Use of PowerToys? guide walks through every tool.

Which Installer to Pick

There are four installers, and the choice takes ten seconds. Pick x64 for almost every PC, or ARM64 for Snapdragon laptops and other Arm machines.

• Per-user - installs for your account only and needs no administrator rights. The easy choice on a work laptop.
• Machine-wide - installs for every account on the PC and needs admin rights.

Once installed, PowerToys checks for updates by itself. Its Settings also has an update channel switch: Stable for tested releases, Insider if you want the frequent preview builds and do not mind the odd bug.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

If your PC is for browsing, email and video calls, PowerToys is harmless but pointless. The snap layouts already built into Windows will cover you.

It also does nothing at all for media playback, which catches people out on a codec site. For a video that will not play, you want K-Lite Codec Pack or a player with its own decoders, like VLC Media Player.

Our free Codec Finder tells you which decoder a stubborn file needs, and the Web Player tests a file in your browser with nothing to install.

Where PowerToys earns its place is on a desktop where you juggle many windows, rename files in bulk or hunt through the Start menu all day.

Before You Install

• Windows 11, or Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041) or later.
• A 64-bit PC, x64 or ARM64 - there is no 32-bit version.
• The Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime, which setup installs for you if it is missing.
• Admin rights only if you choose the machine-wide installer.

It sits quietly in the system tray, and tools you never enable never run. You can see the interface on the screenshots page first.

Tools That Pair Well With It

Text Extractor and ZoomIt cover quick grabs, but for full screen recording and annotated captures, ShareX or the simpler Greenshot go further.

If you script your media work, Command Palette is a quick way to start FFmpeg or yt-dlp jobs without opening a terminal first.

Setting up a new Windows 11 PC? FlyOobe trims the first-run setup and the apps that come with it, and PowerToys is a good next install.

Quick questions

More small Windows helpers live in Other Tools.

Download PowerToys 0.102.2933.0 and see how it fits your setup, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.