New homepage / activation experience in Settings

[crutkas]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

PowerToys is an incubation system for testing new work. Some features are on be default, others off. Most of the time, we will default them to on. This, from time to time, leads to unexpected results when someone quickly invokes find my mouse or other utilities.

My proposal is to have a more upfront system in both first time run / upgrade as well as the 1st page in settings to show crisply,

1. if a utility is on
2. Invoke shortcut
3. Shortcut to the utility's settings

When new utilities come in, this line would also be added to the top of the upgraded dialog as well.

Scenario when this would be used?

Getting new users and upgrade paths crisply aware of new things and defaults

Concept

This is a very conceptual and quick-and-dirty comp of what a new homepage experience could look like:

• It would have a list of all modules that can be quickly turned on or off.
• When turned on, a module card would appear on the 'dashboard' area that could provide:
  • name + icon
  • main activation shortcuts (if any)
  • ability to launch the module (if applicable)

[CrossBread]

This seems like a great "quick win" solution. It's similar to what Windows already does with Accessibility Features like Sticky Keys.

JetBrains IDEs also do something similar with potentially confusing shortcuts like Ctrl+Y (commonly Redo on windows but was Delete Line by default in the IDE) where the first time they are invoked, they ask you which action you were expecting to happen and if you want to update the keymap to that action going forward.

[Cris--]

Shortcut for the dashboard with all active modules + shortcuts would be awesome! Often i forgot a shortcut for a module so i need a fast way for an overview.

[bagarwa]

One change suggestion in the concept UI mockup -

Don't display active and inactive sections side by side. I won't be using the inactive modules, and they'll just be occupying the space unnecessarily.

Divide the Home page into two sections - Active at the top and Inactive below that. That way, I'll be able to see more number of active modules, possibly without needing to scroll.

[gigi2006]

How can Image reziser, active and inactive at the same time?

[tejasraman]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

PowerToys is an incubation system for testing new work. Some features are on be default, others off. Most of the time, we will default them to on. This, from time to time, leads to unexpected results when someone quickly invokes find my mouse or other utilities.

My proposal is to have a more upfront system in both first time run / upgrade as well as the 1st page in settings to show crisply,

1. if a utility is on
2. Invoke shortcut
3. Shortcut to the utility's settings

When new utilities come in, this line would also be added to the top of the upgraded dialog as well.

Scenario when this would be used?

Getting new users and upgrade paths crisply aware of new things and defaults

Concept

This is a very conceptual and quick-and-dirty comp of what a new homepage experience could look like:

• It would have a list of all modules that can be quickly turned on or off.
• When turned on, a module card would appear on the 'dashboard' area that could provide:
  • name + icon
  • main activation shortcuts (if any)
  • ability to launch the module (if applicable)

Love it! Maybe you could add keyboard shortcuts to the systray too? Would be useful as I forget the shortcuts sometimes.

[SamChaps]

In opposition to @bagarwa, I think having the Inactive quickly in sight provide users visibility to enable powertoys modules. A one click enabling might increase usage because of the ease to do it. Perhaps having that section being collapsible (and persisted) could be a good compromise.

[crutkas]

How can Image reziser, active and inactive at the same time?

@gigi2006 This is a visual comp (image) we created to conceptually show the idea and quickly gather feedback. It is not functional code.

[theRTC204]

I really like this. I also like this inactive panel on the side - one of the motivations for the change is exposure to features that aren't enabled by default, so tucking them away at the bottom as was suggested previously negates that entirely, making the list no more useful than the modules sub sections that already exist on the left.

Love the idea of shortcut keys being quickly visible. I didn't even know there was a shortcut for the Fanzy Zones editor until this mockup 😅.

[moo1210]

It may make sense to give modules categories to be sorted and displayed on the home page perhaps. More modules keep coming, it's no longer just a few modules within PowerToys. It's getting pretty cluttered.

[Droyk]

Scenario when this would be used?
Getting new users and upgrade paths crisply aware of new things and defaults

@crutkas, the mockup lacks a clear indication of updates and new additions of modules since the last installed version. Lazy users like me often find checking the changelog cumbersome, leading to ignorance, as suggested in #21122. It would be convenient to include small icons or indicators alongside updated and new modules, facilitating quick tracking module-by-module checks.

Additionally, as suggested in #21122, a brief walkthrough since the last installed version would be pretty darn amazing! For those who don't need it, adding a quick-simple on/off switch on the homepage would suffice.

[crutkas]

@Droyk #21122 is out of scope for this feature.

[jaimecbernardo]

The work associated with this issue has been released as part of the 0.75 sprint. Please update PowerToys to the latest. https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases