Become a Windows 11 Wizard with PowerToys Run
When I’m running trainings for new staff, I’ll pose the question:
If you could have the ability to cast any one spell in the Harry Potter universe, what would it be?
I’ve heard lots of answers to this question. People say how great it would be to use the imperious curse to get unwitting assistants to do their bidding. Or how they’d go around blasting foes with stupefy. But here’s my pick:
Accio: The summoning spell
If you can name an object, Accio will bring it to you. Harry famously uses it in book 4 to summon his broom (“Accio firebolt!”) while he’s facing off against a dragon, but the spell goes hilariously under-used through most of the other books. I mean, think about it: how unbelievably useful would this be?
Feeling hungry in the morning? “Accio breakfast burrito and black coffee!”
Waiting for your luggage to show up on the carousel? “Accio missing bag!”
You’d never wait for anything again. You’d probably never get out of your chair again; everything just comes to you.
While Accio in the real world isn’t yet a thing, you can gain this same ability on your computer using PowerToys Run.
And today, I’ll show you how to use it.
Getting Started
To start wielding the might of PowerToys Run, you’ll need to first install the PowerToys collection of apps for Windows. You can take a look at my earlier post about this, or you can just go install it from the Microsoft Store.
Once you have the app installed and running, double-click the PowerToys icon in your system tray…
…then select PowerToys Run from the left-hand sidebar to view the settings.
I think most of the defaults are fine to start with, but you should at least make sure that PowerToys Run is enabled.
You also might want to customize the Activation Shortcut, the keyboard combination that’s equivalent to yelling out “Accio!”. The default keyboard shortcut is Alt + Space, but if you’re coming from a Mac, you might want to change it to something like 🪟 + Space, (which is closer to the Command + Space shortcut MacOS uses to launch Spotlight).
Launching Apps
Your main use case for PowerToys Run is probably going to be launching apps. You can do this simply by hitting the activation shortcut and typing the name of the app you want. “Accio, Microsoft Paint!”
You’ll get a list of options that match your search. To navigate the list, use the up and down arrow keys. To launch the app you want, press Enter.
As you’ll learn below, PowerToys Run can perform all kinds of searches and tasks. If you want to restrict your search to just apps, type a period (.) before your app’s name.
Once you have your app selected, you can also use the left and right arrow keys to:
- Run the app as an administrator
- Run the app as a different user
- Open the app’s folder
- Navigate to the app’s folder in the command prompt
File Search
You can also use PowerToys Run to open files and folders on your computer. You can directly search for your file or folder by hitting the activation shortcut, then typing what you want.
Or you can tell PT Run to only search for files and folders by prepending your search with a question mark:
Note that you’ll often see a warning about your search index being incomplete.
You can disable this in the PowerToys Run settings, under the Windows Search panel.
Math
You can use PT Run to do quick calculations without launching the calculator app. For simple equations, you can just type them in:
Or, if you prefer, PowerToys will enter ‘Math Mode’ if you start by typing the equals sign (=). You don’t need to do this every time, but it’s important if your math problem has multiple steps.
Settings Menu
Need to change your screen brightness, pair some Bluetooth headphones, or start a focus session? PT Run is quicker than opening the settings menu, even if you already know the keyboard shortcut 🪟+i.
To launch a specific settings panel, start by typing the dollar sign ($):
System Commands
PT run will also perform system actions on your behalf. Some of these are quicker with keyboard shortcuts, but for many, PT Run is the quickest way to go. Here’s the menu:
- Shutdown
- Restart
- Lock
- Sign Out
- Hibernate
- Recycle Bin
- MAC Address (shows your computer’s MAC address)
- IP Address (ditto)
Open a Website from Anywhere
To open a website tab in your default browser, start your command with two forward-slashes (//), then add the URL:
Want to do a web search instead? Start your command with two question marks and PT Run will use your default search engine, in your default browser to do it:
Other Features
PowerToys Run can actually do a lot more than what I’m sharing here, but these are the features that I actually think are useful.
If you want to learn more, check out Microsoft’s documentation or this article to learn how to use PT Run to run PowerShell commands, check the time in another time zone, find registry entries, look at Windows services, and convert measurements.
“Why Not Just Use Windows Search?”
I’ve used the Windows Start Menu as my application launcher for years, and yeah, it works. But there are quite a few advantages to using PowerToys Run instead.
First, and most importantly, PowerToys Run just does more. It will launch websites, it will do calculations, it will perform system commands; Windows Search won’t do any of these.
While Windows Search can do web searches, it will only ever use Bing and you can’t pick a different search engine (though it is possible to at least disable Bing search in the registry). Also, Windows Search will only launch your results in the Edge browser, while PowerToys Run uses your default browser instead.
Finally, I like that PowerToys Run is more friendly to multi-monitor displays. While the Windows Start Menu will always open on your main display when you tap the Windows key, PT Run will launch where ever your mouse is.
Final Thoughts
You might be sick of reading articles, posts, and hacks all encouraging you to use your keyboard more. “20 Amazing Excel Keyboard Shortcuts That Will Save You From An Untimely Death”, or whatever. But if you’re not yet one of the converted, here’s the thing: the keyboardists are right.
The keyboard is just faster.
It’s a faster, better way to get things done compared with using a mouse, trackpad, touchscreen, or even voice commands.
I like PowerToys Run because you don’t need to go out and memorize a gazillion key combinations. Instead, just learn your Activation Shortcut (alt + Space is the default, remember?) and get used to Accio-ing your way around.
