Microsoft PowerToys — The Complete Guide: Free Windows Utilities That Save Time in an Engineering Office
Microsoft PowerToys is Microsoft’s official open-source utility pack for Windows. It does not replace any engineering program, but it shortens many small actions around them: copying text out of an image, a quick measurement on screen, arranging the windows of a design program, a spreadsheet and a report across two monitors.
Microsoft PowerToys
Microsoft
A set of Windows utilities — on-screen OCR, screen ruler, bulk rename, window layouts and colour picker.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Text extraction from the screen (OCR) — select an area and get text, even from a picture of a table.
- On-screen ruler — measure pixel distances between elements.
- Bulk rename — hundreds of files at once, with regular expressions.
- FancyZones — fixed window layouts for large and multiple monitors.
- More tools — which process is locking a file, image resizing from the right-click menu and a colour picker.
Uses in the office
Bulk rename puts site photos and sheets in order by project prefix. The tool that shows which process is locking a file saves the guesswork when a DWG file or a spreadsheet refuses to be deleted. Some of the tools need a recent version of Windows.
Related tools
To automate repetitive actions — AutoHotkey. For advanced screenshots — ShareX. To convert images from the right-click menu — File Converter.
AutoHotkey
AutoHotkey
Automate repetitive tasks in Windows — hotkeys, macros for CAD and office programs, and text expansion.
Get it from the vendorShareX
ShareX team
Screenshots and screen recording for Windows — annotate with arrows and labels, and extract text with OCR.
Get it from the vendorFile Converter
Adrien Allard
Convert and compress images, video and audio straight from the Windows right-click menu, without opening an app.
Get it from the vendorText Grab
Joseph Finney
A Windows screen-OCR tool — copies text and tables from screenshots, images and windows, all locally.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
PowerToys is one install that upgrades Windows for everyday engineering work. MIT licence, free for any use.