New Microsoft PowerToys Dev preview version 0.103.3006.0 for Windows 11

UPDATE 10/29:



PowerToys 0.103.3006.0 is a development preview from main, containing changes since v0.102.3001. This prerelease is intended for testing ahead of the next stable release.

Highlights​

• Workspaces: List and launch saved workspaces from the command line, with JSON output for automation.
• Command Palette: Browse extension pages in a dedicated dock flyout with navigation, search, details, and command controls.
• Command Palette: Customize the dock with Mica and Mica Alt materials.
• Command Palette: Keep Performance Monitor charts at the correct speed when viewing a metric in multiple places, with shorter GPU labels.
• Command Palette: Continue invoking commands after an extension stops running.
• Command Palette: Get more balanced app and command search results without unnecessary extension-name boosts.
• Command Palette: Keep an auto-hidden dock hidden when only its window stacking order changes.
• Mouse Without Borders: Improve reconnect completion, settings-save ordering, and computer-layout synchronization.
• General: Fix PowerToys remaining running after Quit by completing module shutdown before runtime teardown.

Command Palette​

• Added a dedicated dock flyout for browsing extension pages, with its own navigation, search, details, and command controls in #51092.
• Fixed Performance Monitor history running at double speed when a metric appears in both the dock and a page, and shortened overly long GPU labels in #51206.
• Fixed command invocation becoming stuck after selecting an item from an extension that has stopped running, so other commands remain usable in #51443.
• Added Mica and Mica Alt dock materials with live switching and a saved selection independent of the main window in #51470 by @iamDeenko.
• Fixed auto-hidden docks being revealed when Command Palette only needed to update their position in the window stack in #51556 by @jiripolasek.
• Replaced the live host-log page with an Open logs folder command and wrote messages directly to log files instead of retaining the live list in memory in #51575 by @jiripolasek.
• Improved search ranking so matching extension names no longer give commands an unnecessary advantage over relevant apps in #51588.
• Added experimental Windows-key-only activation, disabled by default: set CMDPAL_ENABLE_WIN_HOTKEY=1 before launching Command Palette, then enable the Windows-key option in its settings in #51598.

General​

• Corrected preview release comparisons across branches so equivalent cherry-picks and promotion merges are not reported as new or removed changes in #50132.
• Updated System.CommandLine to 2.0.12 while preserving existing command-line help, errors, and exit-code behavior in #51323.
• Updated the README release artwork and roadmap for the next PowerToys development cycle in #51396.
• Preserved the Light Switch unit-test project identity so opening the solution no longer rewrites its project file in #51402 by @jiripolasek.
• Clarified contributor guidance requiring human-written pull request descriptions, with AI-generated summaries confined to labeled, collapsed sections in #51457.
• Updated Command Palette code ownership and the core-team roster to reflect current maintainers in #51469.
• Standardized preview releases on three-component tags and branch-specific titles while retaining four-component installer versions in #51582.
• Advanced the main-branch development release train to 0.103, ahead of the stable release in #51603.
• Enabled official builds to populate the dependency feed when validating SDK and package upgrades in #51631.
• Fixed PowerToys hanging after Quit by completing module shutdown before runtime teardown, and restored the shared Universal C Runtime configuration in #51433.

Mouse Without Borders​

• Improved pairing and reconnect completion, prevented older settings saves from overwriting newer snapshots, kept the computer layout synchronized, and added two-endpoint UI regression coverage in #51041.

Settings​

• Improved persisted collection handling across Settings, including Mouse Without Borders and PowerDisplay, while preserving JSON formats and normalizing explicit null collections in #50738 by @matthudson.

Workspaces​

• Added command-line listing and synchronous launching of saved workspaces by name or ID, with JSON output and per-application results for automation in #51114.

Development​

• Improved Command Palette extension-object equality and hashing without making calls into extension processes in #51505 by @jiripolasek.
• Separated Command Palette fallback-command handling from regular top-level commands to simplify maintenance and future improvements in #51527.
• Updated Command Palette collection checks to satisfy the CA1860 analyzer without changing their behavior in #51619.
• Enabled warnings-as-errors across module UI-test projects and updated test templates to keep new suites consistent in #51283.
• Stabilized Keyboard Manager UI tests by waiting for Calculator's persistent window before checking keyboard focus in #51373.
• Expanded Shortcut Guide coverage for search, key-label conversion, models, activation, and settings in #49953 by @noraa-junker.
• Fixed Shortcut Guide packaging warnings by treating shortcut manifests as plain content rather than localized resource qualifiers in #51476.
• Added Window Hopper UI tests for cycling through an application's windows, overlay behavior, and configuration in #51552.

Differences from the previous preview​

The comparison baseline is the published stable release v0.102.3001, not an earlier preview. This build switches to the main development lineage. Two baseline-only PR identities are not carried into that lineage:

• #50903, the 0.102 release merge, included stable-specific conflict resolutions. Publication review required: stable deliberately removed PowerDisplay's Copy monitor diagnostics feature, but this development preview contains it. This is a branch difference, not a newly added PR in the list above.
• #51326, a stable-only SDK-job pin to .NET 10.0.112, was subsequently reverted on stable. The SDK-job file is identical between this preview and the baseline; the missing PR identity does not represent an effective SDK configuration change.

Changes needing final review​

There are no newly added commits without PR attribution. The branch comparison also retains these seven baseline-only commits without independent PR attribution for release-owner review; their absence should not be read as seven confirmed feature removals:

• 1ab685ee07a1: Merge 0.98.1 hotfixes into stable.
• da5448b1698e: fix merge mixup for hotfix 0.98.1.
• 38dfc55a2dab: Merge branch 'main' into stable.
• 0a510119c847: Remove duplicate PowerDisplay model classes after merge from main.
• d22589bcf6d5: Revert "Add copy monitor diagnostics button to Power Display".
• ef2d7537d507: Revert warning escalation on stable.
• 4ce35264c2e4: Revert the SDK-job pin to .NET 10.0.112.

See also: