What the New PowerToys Monitor Control Actually Does
The latest PowerToys release introduces Power Display, a tool that brings monitor controls directly to your Windows taskbar. Instead of hunting through Windows settings or poking at tiny buttons on the side of your screen, you get an icon in the system tray that exposes your display’s supported controls. At a minimum, you can adjust brightness using a simple slider. Depending on what your monitor exposes to Windows, you may also see sliders for contrast, color temperature, rotation, and even volume for displays with built‑in speakers. If you use multiple monitors, Power Display can show separate sliders so you can quickly tune each screen without opening separate menus. It’s a small change in where the controls live, but it dramatically reduces friction for everyday adjustments, especially if you frequently tweak brightness or switch between work and entertainment setups.
How to Install or Update PowerToys to Get Power Display
To access the new PowerToys monitor control, you first need the latest version of PowerToys on Windows 10 or 11. If you already have PowerToys installed, open it and use the built‑in updater to grab the newest release that includes Power Display. If you are new to PowerToys, you can download it from the Microsoft Store or from the official GitHub page, then run the installer and launch the app. After installation, PowerToys runs in the background and adds its icon to the system tray. From there, you can open the PowerToys Settings window, which lists all available utilities such as Power Display, Grab And Move, Command Palette, Keyboard Manager, and ZoomIt. Make sure you’re on version 0.99.1 or later so the PowerToys new features, including the taskbar-based monitor control, are available on your system.
Enable Power Display and Adjust Settings from the Taskbar
Once PowerToys is installed, open PowerToys Settings and select Power Display from the sidebar. Turn the feature on, then review the available options. You can change its activation shortcut, decide which monitor settings appear (for example, brightness or contrast), and create profiles so your preferred configurations are only a click away. When enabled, Power Display adds an icon to the system tray on the Windows taskbar. Click it to open a compact panel with sliders for every supported setting on each detected monitor. Drag a slider to adjust brightness, tweak contrast, or alter color temperature in real time—no Windows settings pages, no on‑screen display menus. This makes it easy to adjust monitor brightness from the taskbar as your lighting changes throughout the day or when switching between color‑critical work and general browsing.
Other PowerToys New Features That Boost Productivity
Power Display is part of a broader push to make PowerToys an all‑in‑one productivity toolkit. The same update that brought taskbar-based Windows taskbar display settings also introduced Grab And Move, which lets you move or resize any window by holding a modifier key and clicking anywhere inside the window, rather than hunting for the title bar or edges. The Command Palette now supports pinning your most-used commands, speeding up repetitive actions. Keyboard Manager Editor makes editing recorded key mappings simpler, so remapping shortcuts is less of a chore. ZoomIt, a favorite for presenters, can now capture scrolling screenshots, allowing you to grab long pages or extended content in one shot. Together, these enhancements show how PowerToys keeps evolving beyond simple tweaks into a serious suite of tools that streamline everyday workflows on Windows.