Although now is when Microsoft PowerToys have become fashionable, these tools date from the era of Windows 95. Although it is also true that the new ones have nothing to do with the ones we could use 25 years ago
The PTs are a set of tools designed by Microsoft itself so that more advanced users can work with the system more comfortably and improve their productivity. Microsoft is constantly thinking of new tools that can be useful for users, and we can already know what the new addition will be: Awake.
The first version of the new Microsoft PowerToys reached users in 2019 with just two tools: Shortcut Guide and FancyZones. However, right now it has a total of 8 very useful tools that help us to be able to use Windows more easily and simply:
- Color selector: tool that allows us to select any color that we see on the screen and obtain its hexadecimal code.
- FancyZones: allows you to divide the screen into several zones to place any window within them and improve productivity.
- Plugin to view SVG and MD from the file explorer.
- Photo editor: allows batch processing and resizing of images from the context menu.
- Key mapping: allows you to change the assignment of any key on the PC to modify its operation. It also allows us to create new keyboard shortcuts.
- Mass file renamer: allows us to rename multiple files at once.
- Run, a simple and fast alternative to the Windows search engine to launch programs.
- Guide to Windows keyboard shortcuts to be able to consult them at any time.
In addition to these tools, we cannot forget about «Video Conference Mute«, a tool that does not finish arriving that tries to allow us to mute the microphone or the webcam with a keyboard shortcut in seconds. And, in addition, the new Awake tool that, very soon, will reach all users.
How Awake works
Awake, formerly known as Espresso, is a tool whose purpose is very simple: to prevent the computer from suspending when we are not using it. This tool, like all the others, we can activate or deactivate it through its switch, and it will allow us to configure its operation.
In addition to activating the PC itself, we will also be able to choose if we want the screen to pay automatically or not, and even choose if we want the PC to be always active or if we want it to only be for a certain time. In this way, for example, if we go to bed and it takes 1 hour for a download or file copy to complete, we can configure Awake for that time so that, once it is finished, the PC will automatically suspend itself.
At the moment this tool is not available yet, but it should arrive with the next PowerToys update, although we do not know when it will arrive.
Date update on 2021-06-24. Date published on 2021-06-24. Category: Computer class Author: Oscar olg Fuente: softzone