How to resize images on Windows 10 with PowerToys

Sometimes you have a photo that’s too large for an email attachment or where you’d like to use it. While you can export images into smaller sizes using many editors, Microsoft’s PowerToys has a simple tool that lets you resize images in bulk that integrates directly with the File Explorer. With just a few clicks, you can resize images to a set of preset sizes or any custom size that you’d like. There are also encoding options and several other options you can select to create images. PowerToys is currently in beta, but it has a collection of handy little tools that make managing images easier.

Products used in this guide

• Handy little toys: PowerToys (Free at GitHub)

Getting PowerToys

PowerToys is currently in beta and distributed in GitHub. To get PowerToys, you just need to go to the app’s releases page and download the latest version.

1. Go to the Releases page on GitHub for PowerToys.
2. Click the most recent release within assets to download PowerToys. For example, “PowerToysSetup-0.16.1-x64.msi”.
3. Click on the downloaded file.
4. Click Next twice (read through the license before clicking next the second time).
5. Tick the boxes to indicate if you want PowerToys to start at launch and if you want to create a shortcut for PowerToys.
6. Click Install.
7. Click Yes to verify the download.
8. Click Finish. At this point, you can also have a box ticked to launch PowerToys.

PowerToys is now running on your PC. If you opted to have it launch at startup, it would run in the background on your PC, and you don’t have to think about it.

How to rename files

Once PowerToys is running on your PC, you can use it within the File Explorer.

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Select the images you want to resize.
3. Right-click over your selection.
4. Select Resize pictures.
5. Select the size that you’d like to create.
6. Pick your additional options using the checkboxes within the Image Resizer.
7. Select Resize.

At the bottom of the Image Resizer, there are options to “Make pictures smaller but not larger,” “Resize the original picture (don’t create copies),” and “Ignore the orientation of pictures.” You can choose to turn each option on or off by checking or unchecking its corresponding box. If you click Settings at the bottom of the Image Resizer, you can also change the default sizes, change your encoding preference, and change naming parameters. The Image Resizer within PowerToys is very minimal, so there aren’t a lot of options or sections to dig through.