Microsoft PowerToys latest update adds impressive new clipboard and mouse tools
what you need to know
- The latest update for PowerToys is here and version 0.68.0 brings some powerful new features to the clipboard and mouse.
- The new clipboard utility can automatically paste formatted text as plain text.
- Multi-monitor and ultrawide users now have the ability to move the mouse over long distances with ease.
Microsoft’s finest PowerToys for Windows 10 and 11 have released another update and, as always, some interesting new things for us to play with.
Among the many fixes and improvements included in version 0.68.0, two new utilities have been added. The first is a clipboard tool that makes it easy to paste text without formatting, while the other, mouse jump, is perfect for multi-monitor and ultrawide users.
Windows already has ways built in to allow pasting as plain text and removing any formatting, but the beauty of the PowerToys implementation is that you can set your own custom shortcut for it.
The other new utility added to PowerToys with this latest update is Mouse Jump. This allows you to move your mouse pointer over long distances. Before panic sets in, this is triggered with just a shortcut to tell the system you want to do it. But when it’s enabled, you can easily jump across different displays or even across your ultrawide monitor.
PowerToys v 0.68.0 changelog
There’s a lot packed into this update, with a significant number of fixes and improvements on top of the new features. Here are the highlights:
- New utility: Paste as Plain Text allows you to paste the text content of your clipboard without formatting. Note: The formatted text on the clipboard is replaced with the unformatted text.
- New utility: Mouse Jump allows you to quickly move the mouse cursor large distances on a single screen or across multiple screens.
- Add new GPO policies for automatic update downloads and toast notifications.
- Support for MSC and CPL files in the “Run Command” results of the PowerToys Run Program plugin.
- Added support for log2 and log10 in PowerToys Run Calculator plugin.
- Added experimentation to PowerToy’s first run experience. Currently there is a “Welcome” page and a variant with direct instructions on how to use some utilities. We’d like to see if showing the use of PowerToys directly leads to more people using the features 🙂
Aside from that, a personal favorite is that Steam shortcuts (steam://open/) have been added to PowerToys Run. I use this feature almost exclusively to launch things on my PC, so the additional Steam integration is certainly welcome.
Check out the full changelog in the PowerToys GitHub repo. You can also get the latest version from there via the Microsoft Store (opens in new tab) or via the Windows Package Manager.