Utilities articles

The latest PowerToys update brings new tools like Power Display for multi-monitor brightness control and Grab and Move for simpler window handling, along with refinements to modules like Command Palette and Keyboard Manager.

While Microsoft rethinks where they've failed with Windows 11, many users rely on tools like Open Shell, Start11, StartAllBack, and ExplorerPatcher to take back control of the UI. Open Shell remains a free favorite with a customizable Windows 7-style menu, while Start11 and StartAllBack offer more polished tweaks for modern systems. ExplorerPatcher rounds things out as another powerful free option.

YUMI remains a reliable pick for building multi-boot USB drives, especially if you like having control over how your media is set up. The latest release introduces a handy new preparation menu: users can now reserve unformatted space and choose the target filesystem upfront, making it easier to fine-tune a USB stick for specific use cases or future expansion.

HWMonitor tracks essential system metrics such as CPU and GPU temperatures, voltages, fan speeds, and power usage. It offers a quick snapshot of hardware behavior, making it useful for routine monitoring and basic troubleshooting.

OCCT 15 delivers a major update with a new storage test modeled after CrystalDiskMark, plus enhanced GPU diagnostics through an improved 3D adaptive test that detects errors more precisely and adds a coil-whine detection feature.

HWMonitor provides real-time data about your system's components, including CPU and GPU temperatures, fan speeds, voltages, and power usage. It's a popular choice for diagnostics, overclocking, and checking system stability. See more recommendations in our Essential Apps feature.

Bulk Rename Utility lets you rename multiple files and folders at once using rules and filters. It offers options like adding or removing text, numbering files, replacing characters, or even renaming based on metadata such as dates, image EXIF data, or music tags.

FanControl lets you create custom fan curves and temperature sensors on Windows. It supports dynamic speed control for case, GPU, and some PSU fans, and includes a plugin system for third-party sensors. Check out more in our Essential Apps feature.

The latest AIDA64 update enhances accessibility with improved text scaling and SensorPanel upgrades, including new gauges and display options. It also adds early support for AMD Zen 6 and Intel Wildcat Lake CPUs, PCIe 7.0, and updated details for new AMD, Intel, and Nvidia GPUs.

If you're a tech-savvy Windows user who often works across macOS environments, TransMac is one of those rare utilities that earns its keep. It unlock access to Mac-formatted drives (HFS+, APFS) directly from Windows, letting you create macOS bootable USBs, DMG files, or recovering data from otherwise unreadable Apple drives.

CPU-Z version 2.15 adds support for Ryzen AI Max, Ryzen AI series and Radeon RX 9070 GPUs. It also includes support for Nvidia's RTX 5070 Ti and 5070, new GPU compute unit details in the Graphics tab and a new Validation Statistics page.

DLSS Updater automatically scans your installed games and updates them to the latest Nvidia DLSS DLL version available. It supports games installed via Steam, Epic store, Ubisoft, GOG, EA and Battle.net.

The Nvidia app unites Control Panel and GeForce Experience functionality. The latest beta features one-click overclocking, support for AV1 SDR and HDR encoding, and the ability to record gameplay at 120 FPS.

HWiNFO 8.00 introduces a new OSD feature, enabling users to monitor FPS along with system statistics including CPU and GPU temperatures, RAM usage, and more.

AIDA64 Extreme 7.20 features a revamped UI with a configurable toolbar, three new dark modes, and enhanced sensor monitoring for RTX 3000 and RTX 4000 GPUs, among other improvements.

ReShade is a free program designed to enhance the graphics of games and videos. The latest version introduces APIs for ray tracing and mesh shading, creating even more immersive environments.

CoreDirector allows you to control which processes and applications run on P-cores and which run on E-cores. CoreDirector is a free application, compatible with any 12th-gen Intel CPU and above.

PowerToys keep getting improvements with the addition of "Crop And Lock," a tool that allows you to crop an application window to a smaller size and continue working. Other utilities like FancyZones, Keyboard Manager, and Peek have been updated, too.

PowerToys introduces "Mouse without Borders" which allows you to control multiple computers with one mouse and keyboard, share the clipboard and files. Peek, a file preview utility, has also been added.

Screen Ruler, Quick Accent and the anticipated Text Extractor to copy text from an image using OCR are the new utilities found on Microsoft PowerToys version 0.62.0. Free to download here.