Microsoft has released PowerToys 0.89.0, emphasizing enhancements in features, stability, accessibility, and automation. The update features enhancements to installer hashes, Advanced Paste, FancyZones, Image Resizer, and Settings. The update features support for media transcoding, resolves crashes following the .NET 9 update, and enhances screen reader functionality. The UI automation framework has undergone enhancements across various modules, and additional tests have been implemented to encompass manual checks.

The release also resolves issues related to Windows 11 updates, updates to .NET packages, and compatibility with VS17.3 and later for C++23. The update also resolves issues with PowerToys Run, including crashes related to thumbnail loading following the .NET 9 update, the interference of PowerLauncher.exe with other MSI installers when creating shortcuts, and improvements in dark mode detection. The update additionally resolves issues related to list separator handling in the Calculator and enhances angle unit conversions in the PowerToys Run calculator.

Quick Accent has been incorporated into the IPA, VK_OEM_5 character set, and Greek character set. The display of icons for packaged applications on ARM64 in workspaces has been corrected, and the issue with ZoomIt has been resolved. The documentation has been revised to conform to the most recent code structure.

The development process has involved stabilizing the pipeline on ARM64 and forked builds, implementing fuzz testing for HostUILib, enhancing the UI-Test automation framework, and optimizing the Logger function to ensure AOT compatibility.

Here is the announcement:

PowerToys Release v0.89.0

In the  v0.89 release cycle, we focused on new features, stability, accessibility and automation.

Installer Hashes

Description	Filename	sha256 hash
Per user - x64	PowerToysUserSetup-0.89.0-x64.exe	B4F130CC96F321024A257499247F6FF6DA56612215ED3882E868AAE26C689E33
Per user - ARM64	PowerToysUserSetup-0.89.0-arm64.exe	F69B00F4E520EB09FA0D1D1669E21910C5225FE7A2EEDC0FA7C283B201A5F9C6
Machine wide - x64	PowerToysSetup-0.89.0-x64.exe	E18AC8F9023E341CF7DAD35367FB9DDDB6565D83D8155DBCDDB40AE8A24AE731
Machine wide - ARM64	PowerToysSetup-0.89.0-arm64.exe	17DEADEC601D6061D7AF4F487595CC36D9191813003CC2ECE381017F0EC71FBB

This is our preferred method.

Highlights

• Enhanced Advanced Paste by adding media transcoding support to convert different video and audio file formats! Thanks  @snickler for your help!
• Fixed crashes when loading thumbnails after the .NET 9 update and resolved PowerLauncher.exe blocking other MSI installers from creating shortcuts!
• Fixed accessibility issues across FancyZones, Image Resizer, and Settings to improve screen reader support and clarity!
• Enhanced UI automation framework across modules and added new tests to cover manual checks, with more improvements coming!

General

• Fixed an issue where updating PowerToys on Windows 11 did not properly update context menu entries, impacting New+, PowerRename, Image Resizer, and File Locksmith.
• Updated .NET Packages from 9.0.1 to 9.0.2. Thanks  @snickler for this.
• Enabled compatibility with VS17.3 and later, for C++23. Thanks  @LNKLEO for this.

Advanced Paste

• Added media transcoding support to convert different video and audio file formats, improved UI layouts, refined clipboard handling, and integrated Semantic Kernel for smarter pasting. Thanks  @snickler for your help!

FancyZones

• Fixed accessibility by improving the text for monitors, ensuring clearer naming and help text for screen readers.

Image Resizer

• Fixed issues with Width and Height fields in Image Resizer's Custom preset, ensuring empty values no longer cause errors, settings save correctly, and auto-scaling behaves as expected. Thanks  @daverayment!
• Fixed accessibility by ensuring screen readers announce selected image dimensions in the combo-box for better navigation.

Monaco Preview

• Fixed open link in default browser rather than Microsoft Edge. Thanks  @OldUser101!

Mouse Highlighter

• Fixed a highlight released on an Administrator window will start fading, instead of staying on the screen indefinitely until the mouse button is pressed again on an unelevated window.

Mouse Without Borders

• Fixed an issue in service mode where copy-paste and drag-drop file transfers didn’t work, ensuring seamless file operations.
• Enabled GPO for enable/disable for Mouse Without Borders in Service Mode. Thanks  @htcfreek for review and comments!
• Fixed code maintainability by refactoring the oversized 'Common' class in Mouse Without Borders into smaller, focused classes for better structure and clarity. Thanks  @mikeclayton and thanks  @htcfreek for review!

PowerRename

• Supported negative value as Start value in regular expression, e.g. ${start=-1314}
• Enhanced RegEx help by adding $, ^, quantifiers, and common patterns for better usability. Thanks  @PesBandi and thanks  @htcfreek for review.

PowerToys Run

• Fixed crashes when loading thumbnails after the .NET 9 update by disabling CETCompat.
• Fixed PowerLauncher.exe blocking other MSI installers creating shortcuts. Thanks  @OneBlue!
• Fixed Run’s dark mode detection to work reliably, preventing issues with incorrect theme detection and ensuring a smoother user experience. Thanks  @daverayment!
• Fixed list separator handling in Calculator, allowing functions with multiple arguments to work correctly across different locales. For example pow(2;3) would be replaced with pow(2,3). Thanks  @PesBandi and thanks  @htcfreek for review!
• Fixed angle unit conversions in the PowerToys Run calculator, allowing quick conversions between radians, degrees, and gradians. Thanks  @OldUser101!

Quick Accent

• Added ǎ, ǒ and ǔ to the IPA character set. Thanks  @PesBandi!
• Added ` (backtick) and ~ (tilde) to the VK_OEM_5 character set. Thanks  @xanatos!
• Added ς (final sigma) to the Greek character set. Thanks  @IamSmeagol!

Settings

• Enabled GPO for the "run at startup" setting. Thanks  @htcfreek for review and comments!
• Fixed accessibility issue by allowing screen readers to announce the group name for secondary links in Settings pages, instead of reading link descriptions without context.
• Fixed an issue where the Color Picker shortcut was not displaying correctly in the Dashboard.

Workspaces

• Fixed if a window was last placed on a disconnected monitor, it launches minimized and repositions within the main monitor's visible area when restored, instead of remaining off-screen and invisible.
• Fixed on ARM64 to correctly display icons for packaged apps by resolving path mismatches.

ZoomIt

• Fixed warning C4706 and related error C2220 during build. Thanks  @xanatos!

Documentation

• Fixed runner-ipc.md doc on the broken link. Thanks  @daverayment!
• Fixed the new plugin checklist by updating the target framework, removing duplicates, and improving statement organization. Thanks  @hlaueriksson!
• Updated runner documentation to align with the latest code structure.

Development

• Stabilized pipeline on ARM64 and forked build.
• Added fuzz testing for HostUILib, added as part of pipeline for OneFuzz.
• Fixed and improved UI-Test automation framework, and added new test cases for the FancyZones and Hosts module.
• Optimized Logger function as AOT compatible, improving performance by 18%.
• Made Common.UI and Setting.UI to be AOT compatible.

Release Release v0.89.0 · microsoft/PowerToys