Microsoft has pushed another new update to PowerToys. The latest update has two new features: crop and lock options. These options serve as a live feed from the app and an interactive scrollable window. PowerToys is a collection of utilities that may become part of Windows 11.
Under the hood, there are new features and improvements to Microsoft PowerToys v0.73.0 to enhance productivity and customisation options further. If you were unaware, this open-source project offers experimental features. It includes toggles for plaintext pasting or the ability to keep an app always on top. You can update PowerToys to the latest version, available on both X64 and Arm64 architectures.
How to Use PowerToys’ Crop and Lock Features
This feature is available on both Windows 11 and Windows 10. There are two different features that you can use: thumbnails and transparency. They focus on the target window. With these shortcut keys, you can crop the section of applications.
- Use the Windows Key + Ctrl + Shift + T shortcut key for thumbnails.
- Use the Windows Key + Ctrl + Shift + R shortcut key for Reparent.
Before proceeding, you must select the window to crop with the selection tool before using the shortcut key.
Thumbnail Use:
It will show whatever you do in a new window, just like a preview. Any changes made to that screen will appear on that screen.
Reparent
Unlike thumbnails, it does not show the live feed in a preview window. While Reparent crops that part of the app screen where you can update in that window. It stays on top of all other apps.
This non-interactive thumbnail crop will keep you updated via a live feed for the area you have selected on the page. However, there could be some compatibility issues with some apps.
There are still a lot of known issues which the company has listed. Apart from Microsoft PowerToys, there are many features like Keyboard Manager, FancyZones, Text Extractor, Quick Accent, Awake, Peek, Mouse Utilities, and many more.