Microsoft’s PowerToys app will soon include a new feature called Peek.
If you’re acquainted with macOS, you’re probably aware of the Quick Look feature, which allows you to rapidly preview files with a single click. PowerToys Peek is essentially a Windows version of Quick Look, and you may enable these previews through a keyboard shortcut of your choice.
The Peek tool for PowerToys was released on Reddit by Reddit user MSFT-SAM, who worked on the project with a few employees during a Microsoft hack week. It works by selecting a file in File Explorer and then using a key combination of your choosing (the default appears to be Shift + Spacebar) to launch a preview window displaying the file’s contents. Although it is just used for photos in the video uploaded by the user, it might wind up being used for other sorts of files as well.
While you may argue that the Windows File Explorer already has a Preview pane, this takes up valuable space on the main window and is always present. With this type of rapid preview option, you may preview files without interfering with the rest of the UI. Additionally, these previews may be far larger.
Peek in PowerToys is a little different than Quick Look in macOS. On Apple’s platform, previewing a file is as simple as pressing the space bar while it is chosen; however, with this PowerToys implementation, you must use a combination of two keys, as PowerToys does not provide single-key shortcuts.
It is possible that the functionality will not make it into a future release of PowerToys. According to the Reddit user, this is an early prototype made in less than a week, but the PowerToys team will almost certainly fill it up with other file formats and choices before it makes an official release. The most recent version of PowerToys was published a little over a week ago, and it was mostly a bug patch release.
Peek is only one of the several features added to Windows by PowerToys. It has recently introduced features such as Find My Mouse, which highlights your mouse pointer, and Always on Top, which forces one app window to remain on top of all others.
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