PowerToys version 0.27 out with a bunch of improvements and bug fixes

[harlan4096]

Here are the highlights of the update:

• The codebase was upgraded to work with .NET 7.
  
• Quick Accent can now show a description of the selected character.
  
• ColorPicker now supports adding custom formats.
  

 Here are the known issues:

• The Text Extractor utility fails to recognize text in some cases on ARM64 devices running Windows 10.
  
• After installing PowerToys, the new Windows 11 context menu entries for PowerRename and Image Resizer might not appear before a system restart.
  
• There are reports of users who are unable to open the Settings window. This is being caused by incompatibilities with some applications (RTSS RivaTuner Statistics Server is a known examples of this). If you're affected by this, please check the linked issue to verify if any of the presented solutions works for you.
  

And here is your in-depth changelog with improvements and changes for the existing toys:

General

• Downgraded the ModernWPF dependency to 0.9.4 to avoid issues on certain virtualization technologies. (This was a hotfix for 0.64)
  
• Upgraded and fixed the code to work with .NET 7. Thanks @snickler!
  

Always on Top

• Added telemetry for the pinning/unpinning events.
  

Awake

• Added telemetry.
  
• Removed exiting Awake from the tray icon when starting from the runner. Utilities started from the runner should be disabled in the Settings to avoid discrepancies.
  

Color Picker

• Fixed an infinite loop due to a looping UI refresh. (This was a hotfix for 0.64)
  
• Added a feature to allow users to create their own color formats.
  

FancyZones

• Fixed an issue that caused turning off spaces between zones to not apply correctly. (This was a hotfix for 0.64)
  
• Prevent the shift key press from trickling down to the focused window.
  
• Fixed a bug causing FancyZones to try resizing hidden windows.
  
• Fixed the focus layout preview being empty on first run in the editor.
  
• Fixed UI margin in the "Create new layout" dialog.
  
• Fixed window positioning issues when switching between virtual desktops.
  
• Fixed snapping by hotkey in single zone layouts.
  

File explorer add-ons

• Added .log file support to the Monaco preview handler.
  

File Locksmith

• Query system and other users processes when elevated. (This was a hotfix for 0.64)
  
• Icon and UI fixes. (This was a hotfix for 0.64)
  

Group Policy Objects

• Removed a obsolete dependency from the admx file to fix importing on Intune. (This was a hotfix for 0.64)
  

Hosts File Editor

• Added a scrollbar to the additional lines dialog.(This was a hotfix for 0.64)
  
• Updated the plus icon.(This was a hotfix for 0.64)
  
• Prevent the new entry content dialog from overlapping the title bar.
  
• Updated the name for the additional lines feature.
  
• Added a workaround for an issue causing the context menu not opening on right-click.
  

Image Resizer

• Fixed a silent crash when trying to show the tier 1 context menu on Windows 11.
  

PowerToys Run

• Added pinyin support to the search.
  
• Fixed an error in the TimeZone plugin preventing searching for standard time zones.
  
• Added the English abbreviations as fallbacks in the UnitConverter plugin.
  

Quick Accent

• Added mappings for the mu, omicron, upsilon and thorn characters.
  
• Added a setting to exclude apps from activating Quick Accent.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the selector to trigger when leaving the lock screen.
  
• Added the Croatian, Netherlands, Swedish and Welsh character sets.
  
• Added support for more unicode characters.
  
• Shift-space can now navigate backwards in the selector.
  
• Added the Catalan accented characters.
  
• Added the Kurdish accented characters.
  
• Added the Serbian accented characters.
  
• Added the Irish and Scottish accented characters.
  
• Added the description for the currently selected character in the selector.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the selector window to appear blank.
  

Runner

• Fixed a crash on a racing condition accessing the IPC communication with Settings.
  

Settings

• Fixed settings name in the QuickAccent page.
  
• Added a message indicating there's no network available when looking for updates.
  
• Fixed an error causing the backup/restore feature to not find the backup file.
  
• Fixed localization for the "All apps" expression in the keyboard manager page.
  
• UI refactoring, clean-up and bringing in modern controls.
  
• Improved settings/OOBE screens text.
  
• The backup/restore feature also backs up FancyZones layouts.
  

Shortcut Guide

• Added a setting to make the shortcuts and taskbar icons have different configurable response times.
  

Video Conference Mute

• Changed the warning about deprecating Video Conference Mute to saying it's going to go into legacy mode, thanks to community feedback. (This was a hotfix for 0.64)
  

Documentation

• Added the core team to COMMUNITY.md
  

Development

• Fixed some errors in the GitHub issue templates.
  
• Updated the Windows implementation library.
  
• Added Hosts File Editor to the issue templates.
  
• Turned on C++ code analysis and incrementally fixing warnings.
  
• Cleaned up unused dependencies.
  
• Fixed building on the latest MSVC.
  
• Fixed multi-processor build on the latest MSBuild.
  
• Added a message to suggest the feedback hub to the fabric bot triggers.
  
• Optimized every png file with the zopfli algorithm.
  
• Updated the .vsconfig file for a quicker development setup.
  
• Fixed a language typo in the code.
  
• Fixed wrong x86 target in the solution file.
  
• Added a script to fail building when the nuget packages aren't consolidated.
  
• Upgraded the Vanara.Invoke dependencies.
  
• Upgraded and brought back the spell-checker.
  
• Added a new dependencies feed and fixed release CI.
  

You can download PowerToys from the Microsoft Store, winget, or its repository on GitHub.