PowerToys OCR Windows

Microsoft today announced the release of PowerToys v0.62.0 update. This update comes with three new utilities: Screen Ruler, Text Extractor and Quick Accent utilities. Read about them below.

Screen Ruler: Screen ruler allows you to quickly measure pixels on your screen based on image edge detection. Just press Win+Shift+T to activate.

Text Extractor: Text Extractor is a convenient way to copy text from anywhere on your screen.

Quick Accent: Quick Accent is an alternative way to type accented characters, useful for when a keyboard doesn’t support that specific accent with a quick key combo.

Find the full change log of this update below:

General

  • Added a new utility: Screen Ruler.
  • Added a new utility: Quick Accent.
  • Added a new utility: Text Extractor.
  • Upgraded the Windows App SDK runtimes to 1.1.4.

Always on Top

  • Fixed a bug causing the border to linger when closing an Outlook popup window.

Color Picker

  • Fixed the HSB color format to correctly track HSV instead of HSL.
  • Fixed an issue where the zoom factor wasn’t reset when reopening the zoom window.

FancyZones

  • Removed the button to open Settings from the FancyZones Editor, as it was opening behind the overlay.
  • Changed the Highlight distance control to a slider in the FancyZones Editor, to address accessibility issues with screen readers.
  • Fixed an issue where the FancyZones Editor would duplicate or edit the wrong layout.
  • Fixed an issue that caused canvas layout width/height to be changed without even opening the layout in FancyZones Editor.

File explorer add-ons

  • Quality of life improvements to Developer Files preview, including a progress bar while loading, performance improvements, an improved dark mode, and logs. Thanks @Aaron-Junker!
  • Fixed possible WebView related vulnerabilities in the SVG and Markdown handlers.
  • Fixed some race conditions in Developer Files preview causing the loading bar to hang.
  • Added localization support to the Developer Files preview messages.
  • It’s now possible to configure default color for Stl Thumbnails. Thanks @pedrolamas!
  • Added an option to format JSON and XML files before rendering. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

PowerRename

  • Fixed an issue that was generating a silent crash when the context menu was triggered when not selecting any file or folder. (This was a hotfix for 0.61)
  • Improved performance when loading a big number of files.
  • Fixed a specific case in which PowerRename tried to rename a file to an empty string.
  • The UI now shows when a file can’t be renamed due to its name being too long or containing invalid characters.

PowerToys Run

  • Added a fix to the VSCodeWorkspaces plugin to better support portable installations.
  • The Folder plugin now expands %HOMEPATH% correctly.
  • Fixed a case where a previous result was being activated when searching for new results. Added a setting to better control input throttling.
  • Added support for port numbers in the URI plugin.
  • Fixed query errors when the search delay option was turned off.
  • New History plugin to search for old search results.
  • Changed the default TimeDate activation keyword to ), as queries starting by ( are expected as Calculator global queries, and added information in Settings so users know that some activation keywords may conflict with normal usage of some plugins when trying to do a global query.
  • The Unit Converter plugin updated its UnitsNet dependency and now supports plural units.
  • Improved the validation logic in the Calculator plugin.

Runner

  • Improved: Clean up old install folders and logs at startup.

Settings

  • Image and phrasing adjustments.
  • Icon and image updates for the new utilities.

Shortcut Guide

  • Fixed the Narrator shortcut to include the newly added Control key.