Big Stick

Microsoft provides several tools for Windows 10 that help you work more effectively, find errors faster, and change Windows settings more easily. The two most important collections are the well-known Sysinternals tools and the brand new PowerToys collection. PowerToys dates back to the days of Windows 95 and has been reissued by Microsoft for Windows 10.

The current version of PowerToys is available as an open source project. The source code and tools are available on GitHub [1]. Installation can be done several ways by either downloading the PowerToysSetup.msi installation file [2] or with Chocolatey [3] and the choco install powertoys command. If a new version of the tools is available, you can also update it with the choco upgrade powertoys command. Existing tools will, of course, be updated. Microsoft uses a common launcher to combine PowerToys into a collection. Currently Microsoft provides three PowerToys utilities: FancyZones, Shortcut Guide, and PowerRename.

Further tools are under development, which Microsoft will gradually release, including:

• Maximize to New Desktop Widget
• Process Terminate
• Animated GIF screen recorder

FancyZones is a window manager for positioning windows within complex layouts. Many monitor manufacturers offer such tools to allow the easy positioning of windows, especially when using large, wide-screen displays. The Shortcut Guide tool launches when you press the Windows key for more than one second (Figure 1). The tool then displays available keyboard shortcuts.

PowerRename is a Windows shell extension that launches from file and folder context menus for mass renaming by search and replace and with regular expressions (Figure 2). The Preview area shows in real time how elements will be renamed as the Search and Replace fields are filled. Renaming is handled by an API that connects PowerRename to Windows Explorer. The advantage is that the renaming process can be undone after PowerRename is closed. The tool was originally developed as SmartRename [4].

The Process Terminate tool [5] is in the planning stages and will help users terminate processes more easily, and GIF Maker [6] will help users create GIFs from video clips.

Installation and Set Up

Installing PowerToys requires administrative rights, which naturally plays a role in installation and distribution on a network. The tools always appear as a complete collection, which also requires administrative rights to start. Afterward, PowerToys is available from the tray area of the taskbar. Clicking on the icon brings up the settings page. In the left area are the tools currently available in the collection. The tools can be started not only from the launcher, but from other places in the operating system, as well.

As soon as PowerToys is installed, the tools integrate with Windows 10. PowerRename, for example, is available automatically in the context menus of files and directories, and you can start the other tools with their corresponding shortcut keys. Clicking the PowerToys icon in the taskbar tray lets you access the settings for all tools. From the General Settings item you can enable and disable the individual tools, and you can determine whether the PowerToys dashboard starts on Windows startup and which graphical settings apply. A button for updating PowerToys only takes you to the project's GitHub page and does not (yet) offer a direct update of the tools.

PowerRename

As mentioned earlier, PowerRename is the PowerToys version of SmartRename. This tool lets you rename numerous objects at once. Although it is generally possible to rename files in this way without PowerToys, it is not as flexible. To apply the tool, select multiple objects in Windows Explorer, right-click, and select PowerRename from the context menu.

For example, if you need to change the file names of a large number of files but do not want to make the same change to all files, PowerRename is the perfect tool. When you start the tool, all selected objects are displayed in the window, where you can manually disable individual objects. In the upper area you can enter text at Search for to help find the files to rename. Next, enter the new text for the files to be renamed in the Replace with field. The new names for the files are shown under the Renamed column in the Preview window. The actual renaming will only take place when you click the Rename button.

Because the tool works with the Windows Explorer API, the standard Explorer recovery tools are also available. For example, you can use the Ctrl+Z keyboard shortcut or the Windows Explorer context menu to undo the rename action. The advantage of PowerRename is that the tool is immediately available without the need to customize Windows, so you don't have to deal with feature bloat.

Regular Expressions

To further improve the ability to find and modify text, you can use regular expressions (e.g., when searching with the .* wildcard). If you only want to change words ending with bar, use bar$. PowerRename supports ECMAScript expressions, which are also used in programming.

If you want to find text that starts with exchange, you need to search for ^exchange. If you want to find text that starts with foo and ends with bar, then search for ^foo bar$. For more information about regular expressions and ECMAScript, you can refer to two online tutorials [7] [8].

Better Distribution with FancyZones

PowerToys relies mostly on the configuration of shortcut keys. On the PowerToys dashboard, FancyZones lets you specify to which keyboard shortcuts the tool should respond. By default, the configuration editor for the different zones opens by pressing the Win+` keyboard shortcut; in the Configure the zone editor hotkey field, you can define your own keyboard shortcut by clicking in the field and pressing the new key combination. Clicking the keyboard shortcut then presents a screen with predefined layouts, or you can create your own custom layout.

The lower section provides additional options for controlling the tool, allowing users to specify how Windows should manage and display the windows. Fancy Zones will also be able to use the Maximize to New Desktop widget, once the tool is available, to control the general structure of windows and their distribution across virtual desktops.

The Maximize to New Desktop Widget tool is currently still in planning. The widget displays a popup button when mousing over the Maximize/Restore button in any window. Clicking on it will create a new desktop, send the app to that desktop, and maximize the app there. The tool uses Windows 10 virtual desktop technology to help make it easier to distribute application windows across virtual desktops.

Of course, Windows 10 allows you to distribute applications to different virtual desktops without additional tools. The advantage is, among other things, that the desktops can be controlled with keyboard shortcuts. The Win+Tab keyboard shortcut lets you start the interface for creating virtual desktops. Windows shows you all the open applications there. In this interface, you can now create virtual desktops quickly and easily, even without PowerToys.

Sysinternals and NirSoft Tools

If you plan to use the PowerToys tools in a network, you should also consider the potential offered by the NirSoft and Sysinternals tools. Sysinternals tools have been part of Microsoft for several years, and NirSoft [9] is a constant in the freeware sector when it comes to tools for users and administrators. NirSoft offers programs for monitoring networks and optimizing connections to WiFi networks. One advantage of the NirSoft and Sysinternals tools is that they can be started directly and do not need to be installed, so the tools can be used and removed quickly and easily.

Additionally, you can integrate the tools into NirLauncher (Figure 3). In the free, zero installation NirLauncher [10], NirSoft offers access to all free tools in one interface. General usage corresponds to that of the PowerToys launcher. The free Sysinternals tools from Microsoft are combined in the Sysinternals Suite, which can be integrated into NirLauncher.

The tool is started by calling NirLauncher.exe. The tools are displayed in the launcher, sorted by criteria, helping you find and test the various tools faster. The tools can then be launched by double-clicking. From the menus at the top of the page, you can configure the various settings of NirLauncher and the tools it contains. Choosing Options | Show Description Text lets you display a description in the window when selecting a tool.

Integrating Sysinternals Suite into NirLauncher

Microsoft's Sysinternals are a collection of tools that help you troubleshoot and monitor the performance of PCs and manage networks. To provide all tools at once, Microsoft offers Sysinternals Suite 10 [11], which can be conveniently integrated into NirLauncher, from which you can launch all the NirSoft and Sysinternals tools. All these tools, including the launcher, can be used under Windows 10 without installation.

To integrate the Sysinternals tools into NirLauncher, download and extract the suite and copy the directory with the extracted tools into a separate directory in the NirLauncher folder. Next, integrate the tools with a configuration file from NirSoft. To begin, copy the sysinternals2.nlp [12] file to the same directory as the Sysinternals tools. You can also drag and drop the file into the NirLauncher window. Afterward, you can switch between NirSoft and Sysinternals tools from the Packages menu item in NirLauncher. Alternatively, you can also use the sysinternals4.nlp [13] file, which divides the Sysinternals tools into categories, like the NirSoft tools.

Conclusions

PowerToys in Windows 10 extends the capabilities of workstations, especially for power users. Because the collection is constantly expanding, Microsoft is expected to integrate an increasing number of tools into the portfolio. PowerRename shows that these tools are not just gadgets; in fact, some are extremely useful. The Sysinternals and NirSoft tools are also interesting collections that can help users and administrators solve various problems; together with PowerToys, they offer genuine added value for Windows 10 workstations.