PowerToys 0.68.0 is out with two new utilities: Paste as Plain Text and Mouse Jump

PowerToys logo against a green and black background

It is update time for those using PowerToys on Windows 10 and 11. Version 0.68.0 is now available for download with numerous fixes, improvements, and a couple of new utilities. The highlight of this release are two new PowerToys, Paste as Plain Text which allows pasting the text contents of your clipboard without formatting, and Mouse Jump, which allows you to quickly move the mouse pointer over long distances on multiple or single screens.

There's also a good number of fixes included in this release too which are included below.

Here are the highlights of the update:

Highlights

New utility: Paste as Plain Text allows pasting the text contents of your clipboard without formatting. Note: the formatted text in the clipboard is replaced with the unformatted text. Thanks @carlos-zamora!

New utility: Mouse Jump allows to quickly move the mouse pointer long distances on a single screen or across multiple screens. Thanks @mikeclayton!

Add new GPO policies for automatic update downloads and update toast notifications. Thanks @htcfreek!

Support MSC and CPL files in "Run command" results of PowerToys Run Program plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!

Add support for log2 and log10 in PowerToys Run Calculator plugin. Thanks @RickLuiken!

Added experimentation to PowerToys first run experience. There are current page which says "welcome" and a variant with direct instructions on how to use some of the utilities. We want to see if directly showing how to use PowerToys leads to more people using the features :)

There are no known issues in this release.

And here is your in-depth changelog with improvements and changes for the existing toys:

General

Improve metered network detection in runner. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Update PowerToys logo used by installer. Thanks @ChaseKnowlden!

Add new GPO policies for automatic update downloads and update toast notifications. Thanks @htcfreek!

Update copyright year to 2023. Thanks @ChaseKnowlden!

FancyZones

Refactored and improved code quality.

Fix crashing on moving window between monitors with Win + arrows. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

Fix issue causing window attributes to not be reset properly. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

Fix issue causing window to not be adjusted when layout is changed. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

Fix issue causing window not to be unsnapped on drag started. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

Fix issue causing layouts not to be applied to new virtual desktops. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

Fix issues causing windows not to be restored correctly to their last known zone.

File explorer add-ons

Add Developer files previewer option to set max file size and fix styling issue. Thanks @Aaron-Junker!

Improve Developer files previewer exception handling and printing of error messages.

Fix crash when generating PDF and Gcode file thumbnails. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

Hosts file editor

Improve hosts file loading. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Improved duplicate hosts finding. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Keyboard Manager

Fix typo in Keyboard Manager Editor. Thanks @ChristianLW!

Mouse Utils

Resolve grammatical error in Mouse Highlighter description. Thanks @WordlessSafe1!

New utility: Mouse Jump allows to quickly move the mouse pointer long distances on single or across screens. Thanks @mikeclayton!

Paste as Plain Text

New utility: Paste as Plain Text allows pasting the text contents of your clipboard without formatting. Note: the formatted text in the clipboard is replaced with the unformatted text. Thanks @carlos-zamora!

PowerToys Run

Show Steam (steam://open/) shortcuts in the Program plugin.

Localize paths of Program plugin results. Thanks @htcfreek!

Improved stability of the code used to get the localized names and paths. Thanks @htcfreek!

Support MSC and CPL files in "Run command" results of Program plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!

Added missing MSC and CPL settings to the results of Windows Settings plugin. Thanks @htcfreek!

System plugin: Setting for separate "Open/Empty Recycle bin" results or single result with context menu. (This was implemented based on user feedback for a change in the last build.) Thanks @htcfreek!

Add support for log2 and log10 in Calculator plugin. Thanks @RickLuiken!

Removed the TimeZone plugin.

Fix the crash when loading thumbnail for PDF files. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

Shortcut Guide

Added: Dismiss Shortcut Guide with mouse click. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Quick Accent

Added Lithuanian characters. Thanks @saulens22!

Added additional (Chinese) characters. Thanks @ChaseKnowlden!

Settings

Add missing flyout borders on Windows 10. Thanks @davidegiacometti!

Add experimentation for oobe landing page. Thanks @chenss3!

Show icons of user-installed PowerToys Run plugins. Thanks @al2me6!

Fixed crash when clicking Browse for backup and restore location while running elevated.

Respect taskbar position when showing system tray flyout. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

Show correct Hosts module image. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)

Development

Turned on C++ code analysis and incrementally fixing warnings.

Centralize .NET NuGet packages versions. Thanks @snickler!

Separate PowerToys installer logs and MSI logs to different files.

Added new GPO rules to the reporting tool.

Move PowerToys registry entries back to HKLM to fix context menu entries not working on some configurations. (This was a hotfix for 0.67)