Microsoft PowerToys updated to WebView 2 with update to v0.58.0

Microsoft PowertoysSource: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

Microsoft is rolling out an update for PowerToys that brings the app to version 0.58.0. The update doesn’t introduce any significant new features, but it improves the app in several ways by upgrading to new tools and technologies.

PowerToys now uses WinUI 3 for its settings section rather than the older XAML Islands. The app also uses .NET 6 instead of .NET Core 3.1 and replaces WebBrowser controls with WebView 2.

First released in 2020, WebView 2 uses the newer Chromium-based Edge as a rendering engine. Moving to WebView 2 allows apps to benefit from Edge receiving updates.

Here are the highlights from PowerToys 0.58:

  • Most of the work for running natively on ARM64 has been included in the repo. Thanks @snickler!
  • Uses of the obsolete WebBrowser control were replaced with WebView 2.
  • All uses of .NET Core 3.1 were removed. PowerToys now runs on .NET 6.
  • Settings no longer runs on XAML Islands and is now running on WinUI 3, fixing many bugs related to XAML islands.

The developers behind PowerToys often share extensive changelogs. That’s the case again with version 0.58.0. The devs even listed fixes to spelling errors within code and thanked the person that spotted the errors. You can read through the changelog on GitHub.


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PowerToys

PowerToys is a collection of utilities aimed at power users on Windows. The latest update improves the app by moving to newer tools and technologies, such as WebView 2.

Free at GitHub

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