How to Install Microsoft PowerToys Silently with winget

PowerToys is Microsoft's official "stuff that should be in Windows but isn't" suite — window snapping, color picker, fancy paste, file explorer extensions, and 20+ other utilities. Here's the silent install for fresh-machine setup and team standardisation.

TL;DR

Open Terminal as Administrator:

winget install --id Microsoft.PowerToys -e --silent --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements

PowerToys installs to C:\Program Files\PowerToys. ~30 seconds. Admin required.

What gets installed

Field	Value
Package ID	`Microsoft.PowerToys`
Publisher	Microsoft Corporation
Installer type	Burn (WiX bootstrapper)
License	MIT
Latest version	0.99.1
Minimum OS	Windows 10 build 17134
Homepage	github.com/microsoft/PowerToys
Default install path	`C:\Program Files\PowerToys`

PowerToys is open source under MIT licence — refreshingly liberal for a Microsoft product. Everything's on GitHub, including the installer itself.

What you get out of the box

PowerToys is really 20+ apps in one installer:

Module	What it does
FancyZones	Window snapping into custom grid layouts
PowerRename	Bulk rename files with regex
Keyboard Manager	Remap keys and shortcuts globally
PowerToys Run	Spotlight-like launcher (Alt+Space)
Color Picker	System-wide color picker (Ctrl+Win+C)
Image Resizer	Right-click → resize images
PowerToys Awake	Keep PC awake without changing power settings
Mouse utilities	Find My Mouse, Mouse Highlighter, Mouse Jump
PowerOCR	Extract text from any region (Win+Shift+T)
Hosts file editor	Edit /etc/hosts equivalent with UI
Registry Preview	Visualise .reg files before applying
File Locksmith	Find what's locking a file
Crop and Lock	Crop part of a window into its own
Advanced Paste	Paste as plain text, Markdown, JSON
Quick Accent	Hold key for accents (é, ñ, ü)
Workspaces	Save and restore app layouts
New+	Right-click → new file from templates
Command Palette	Like VS Code's, for the desktop

Most of these can be individually enabled/disabled in the PowerToys settings.

Per-user install (no admin)

PowerToys supports per-user install — useful on restricted machines:

winget install --id Microsoft.PowerToys -e --scope user --silent

Installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\PowerToys. Some advanced features (like the Run launcher's global hotkey) work fine in per-user mode. Things that need a system service (rare) may not.

Pre-configure modules

PowerToys settings live in:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\PowerToys\settings.json

You can drop a pre-configured settings.json before first launch:

$settingsPath = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\PowerToys\settings.json"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path (Split-Path $settingsPath) -Force | Out-Null
@'
{
  "general": {
    "startup": true,
    "enabled": {
      "FancyZones": true,
      "PowerToys Run": true,
      "Keyboard Manager": true,
      "ColorPicker": true,
      "ImageResizer": true,
      "Awake": false,
      "Mouse utilities": true,
      "AdvancedPaste": true
    }
  }
}
'@ | Out-File -Encoding utf8 $settingsPath

Tweak enabled.<Module> to opt in/out of modules for your team baseline.

Specify version

winget install --id Microsoft.PowerToys -e --version 0.98.0 --silent

List versions:

winget show --id Microsoft.PowerToys --versions

PowerToys ships frequently (sometimes weekly) and rarely breaks. Pinning is usually unnecessary, but available if needed.

Microsoft Store variant

PowerToys is also on the Microsoft Store:

winget install --id XP89DCGQ3K6VLD -e --source msstore

The Store variant is sandboxed (UWP-wrapped Win32) and auto-updates via Store. Slight feature differences — Store version has stricter system access. For most users the GitHub release (default) is the better choice.

Verify

& "C:\Program Files\PowerToys\PowerToys.exe" -h

Or just check via winget:

winget list --id Microsoft.PowerToys

After install, PowerToys runs in the system tray. Right-click the tray icon → Settings to configure modules.

Upgrade silently

winget upgrade --id Microsoft.PowerToys -e --silent --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements

PowerToys has an in-app updater that's quite good — it shows you what's new before applying. Disable if you want winget-only management:

Settings → General → "Automatically download updates" off.

Uninstall silently

winget uninstall --id Microsoft.PowerToys --silent --disable-interactivity

To also wipe settings and per-module data:

winget uninstall --id Microsoft.PowerToys --silent
Remove-Item "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\PowerToys" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

In a dev / power-user setup script

# Install PowerToys + supporting dev tools
$apps = @(
  "Microsoft.PowerToys",
  "Microsoft.WindowsTerminal",
  "Microsoft.PowerShell",
  "voidtools.Everything",
  "AntibodySoftware.WizTree"
)

foreach ($id in $apps) {
  winget install --id $id -e --silent `
    --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements
}

Walk away. Come back to a workstation that no longer feels stock-Windows.

Common errors

"PowerToys is already installed" — winget detects existing install. Force-overlay:

winget install --id Microsoft.PowerToys -e --silent --force

0x80073D02 — PowerToys is in use — PowerToys runs in the system tray. Exit via tray icon → Quit, then retry:

Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.Name -like "*PowerToys*" } | Stop-Process -Force
winget upgrade --id Microsoft.PowerToys

See package in use fix.

WiX Burn bootstrapper hangs — happens occasionally. Wait 2 minutes, then if still stuck see stuck/hanging fix.

Modules not enabled after install — by default, PowerToys enables most modules but a few are opt-in. Open Settings → General to flip them on.