We absolutely love PowerToys here at BetaNews, and we are far from being alone. Microsoft’s collection of utilities for Windows has legions of fans who eagerly await new releases and updates.
With an incredibly busy team of developers working on the project, PowerToys is a fast-moving piece of software that evolves at a greater pace than most. There are many popular modules included in the PowerToys utility suite, with Command Palette being one of the most loved. And if a recent proposal on GitHub moves forward, it is about to get a serious enhancement.
One of PowerToys’ key developers, Niels Laute, has put forward an idea for a new feature called Command Palette Dock. While not, it would seem, a completely new module, it is a major upgrade or enhancement to the Command Palette tool. The idea is simple: this is a dock that provides easy access to various Command Platte extensions.
In a post to the PowerToys GitHub repository, Lautes describe the features:
The Command Palette Dock is a new optional UI surface that provides persistent, quick access to selected Command Palette extensions, and work in tandem with the Command Palette launcher.
The dock can be enabled from Command Palette settings and pinned to any edge of the screen. You’d be able to pin your favorite extensions to the dock for instant access, without opening Command Palette or interrupting your workflow. The goal is have a your favorite powertoys/tools one click away and can help with things like monitoring your system resources without opening task manager.All existing extensions would just work without any code changes. When an extension is activated from the dock, its UI is rendered in a flyout, using the exact same extension UI already provided today in the launcher.
If the dock isn’t useful for you, it can simply be disabled and Command Palette continues to function exactly as it does now.
Flexibility is key to Command Palette Dock, and the idea is that it be made highly customizable so it is as useful as possible to as many people as possible. Laute explains:
The dock is designed to be highly configurable. It can be positioned on the top, left, right, or bottom edge of the screen, and extensions can be pinned to three distinct regions of the dock: start, center, and end. Users can also customize the visual appearance, including background, styling, and theme behavior, similar to the main Command Palette shell. An edit mode allows extensions to be dragged, reordered, and moved freely between dock regions.
As this is merely a proposed idea at the moment, it is hard to say when – or, indeed, if – Command Palette Dock could make an appearance in PowerToys. At the moment, feedback and input is being sought, so if you have an opinion – be that as a potential user, or as a developer – head over to GitHub to find out more and get in touch.
