PowerToys 0.102 New Features: Mouse Button Lock, CursorHide, and More
PowerToys 0.102 is Microsoft’s latest update to its open-source Windows utility suite, and it is the most mouse-focused release in a while: two brand-new mouse tools, Mouse Button Lock and CursorHide, headline a release that also adds a quick-access shelf to Command Palette, voice dictation for ZoomIt snips, and a set of command-line tools for scripting PowerToys from the terminal. It is a no-cost update for Windows 11 and Windows 10 (version 2004 or later), it installs over your existing PowerToys setup with your shortcuts and settings carried over, and every new tool is opt-in — nothing changes on your PC until you switch it on. This guide walks through each new feature, how to turn it on, and who actually benefits from it.
What Is New in PowerToys 0.102?
Microsoft announced PowerToys 0.102 on the Windows Command Line blog, framing it as a release built around the mouse, the launcher, and automation. The two new utilities get the headlines, but the release touches nearly every corner of the suite: Keyboard Manager gains tap-alone key remaps, Color Picker and Text Extractor move to the WinUI 3 framework, and Peek, FancyZones, Screen Ruler, and several smaller tools all pick up refinements. One practical note before you install: the build you want is 0.102.3001.0, a stable hotfix released October 27 that supersedes the original 0.102.2933.0 build with crash fixes for File Locksmith and Quick Accent. If you install from the built-in updater or the release page now, you get the hotfix build automatically.
Here is the release at a glance — the details and setup steps for each item follow below.
| New in 0.102 | What it does | Who it helps most |
|---|---|---|
| Mouse Button Lock | Keeps a mouse button treated as held after a press-and-release, until any button is clicked | Long drags, selections, gaming, accessibility |
| CursorHide | Hides the pointer while you type, after inactivity, or both | Writers, presenters, anyone distracted by a hovering cursor |
| Command Palette shelf | Pins up to nine commands below the search box in compact mode | Keyboard-first users with a daily command set |
| ZoomIt snip dictation | Transcribes spoken descriptions on-device while you capture a snip | Presenters, trainers, support and documentation work |
| Command-line tools | Script Advanced Paste, Light Switch, Settings, Peek, and PowerDisplay from a terminal | IT admins, power users, automated setups |
| Keyboard Manager tap-alone remaps | Tapping a key alone triggers one action; the key still works normally in shortcuts | Custom keyboard layouts and one-key workflows |
How Do I Update to PowerToys 0.102?
If PowerToys is already installed, the fastest path is the built-in updater: open PowerToys Settings, go to General, and check for updates. If you are installing for the first time, Microsoft offers two official routes — the Microsoft Store listing or the installer from the PowerToys releases page on GitHub, where per-user and machine-wide installers are published for both x64 and ARM64 PCs. The full PowerToys overview on Microsoft Learn covers system requirements: a 64-bit processor and Windows 11 or Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041) or later.
A word of caution from the release notes: Mouse Button Lock and CursorHide are both opt-in, so after updating, nothing about your mouse behavior changes until you enable them in Settings. That is by design — Microsoft ships new utilities switched off so an update never surprises you mid-task. Also note that PowerToys must be running in the background for any of its shortcuts to work, so keep the “run at startup” option on if you rely on these tools daily.
How Does Mouse Button Lock Work?
Mouse Button Lock solves a small but genuinely tiring problem: holding a mouse button down through a long drag or selection. With the utility enabled, you press and hold a button for a moment, then let go — Windows keeps treating it as held, so you can continue dragging or selecting until you click any button. Microsoft’s announcement names three groups who benefit most: gamers, people working in professional apps that demand extensive dragging and selection, and users who find it difficult to hold a mouse button down for extended periods. In my reading of the release notes, the accessibility case is the strongest one — it turns a physically demanding action into a press, release, and click.
- Open PowerToys Settings and select Mouse Button Lock in the left-hand list.
- Switch the utility on, then choose which buttons it applies to — left, right, and middle are all supported.
- Tune the hold time (how long you press before the lock engages) and the drag threshold (how far the pointer may drift while holding before the lock cancels) to suit your hand and mouse.
- Test it in a low-stakes spot first: press and hold on a file in File Explorer, release, move the pointer, then click to drop.
Two differences from Windows’ built-in ClickLock are worth knowing. First, ClickLock only locks the primary button; Mouse Button Lock covers the left, right, and middle buttons. Second, ClickLock lives in the legacy mouse settings, while Mouse Button Lock sits alongside the rest of your PowerToys setup, so it travels with your PowerToys configuration. There are limits, though: Microsoft’s documentation notes the lock may not work in games that use raw or exclusive mouse input, and it does not work over windows of apps running as administrator unless PowerToys itself runs as administrator. If a lock ever behaves oddly, a single click on any button releases it immediately — that is the built-in escape hatch.
How Do I Hide the Mouse Pointer While Typing?
CursorHide is the second new utility, and it does exactly what its name promises: it hides the mouse pointer while you type, after a period of inactivity, or both, and shows it again the moment you move the mouse. If you have ever been distracted by a cursor parked in the middle of a document or a presentation slide, this is the fix. It is the renamed and refreshed version of the earlier Auto Hide Cursor feature, with new behavior controls in Settings.
- Open PowerToys Settings and select CursorHide.
- Switch it on and pick your trigger: hide while typing, hide after inactivity, or both.
- If you choose inactivity, set the delay — the pointer then disappears after your chosen pause and returns on any mouse movement, click, or scroll.
One sensible detail: small, accidental mouse movements are ignored, so a mouse that jitters slightly on the desk will not keep popping the cursor back. Apps that draw their own cursor may keep showing it regardless — that is an app-level behavior PowerToys cannot override. For writers and presenters, CursorHide pairs naturally with the typing flow: the pointer gets out of the way while words are flowing and returns the instant you reach for the mouse.
What Is the Command Palette Quick-Access Shelf?
Command Palette is PowerToys’ keyboard-first launcher — the successor to PowerToys Run — and 0.102 gives it an optional quick-access shelf. Turn it on in Settings, then Appearance, then Compact mode, and up to nine of your pinned commands appear below the search box while the palette is collapsed. Press Alt plus a number key from 1 to 9 to launch a pinned command instantly, or Alt plus Shift plus the number to select one without running it. You can drag pins to reorder them, right-click for more actions, and optionally show recent commands and apps alongside your pins.
The shelf is only one part of a larger Command Palette update in this release. Settings search now uses fuzzy search across options, extensions, commands, aliases, and assigned shortcuts, then jumps straight to the match. A keyboard-first dock lets you press Win plus Alt plus J to focus the dock and move between its items without the mouse. You can also choose Command Palette as your Copilot key app in Windows Settings and press the key again to toggle the palette, pin several dock clocks with different time zones, and pick a separate app language for the palette. If you live in the launcher the way I do — app launches, quick calculations, file jumps — the shelf turns your nine most-used commands into single keystrokes.
How Do I Dictate a ZoomIt Snip?
ZoomIt is PowerToys’ screen zoom and annotation tool, popular with presenters and trainers, and 0.102 adds Snip with dictation. Turn the option on in the ZoomIt settings, then press Space while you drag out a snip and describe what you are capturing out loud. ZoomIt transcribes your speech on your device — nothing is sent to the cloud for transcription — and a single paste delivers both the screenshot and your text. Dictation uses the microphone selected under Record in the ZoomIt settings, so check that selection first if your words are not being picked up.
The practical payoff is for anyone who writes documentation, answers support tickets, or records training material: instead of capturing a screenshot and then typing an explanation of it, you speak the explanation while you capture, and the paste carries both. ZoomIt also gains smooth zoom transitions in this release, better audio pacing in recordings, and a fix for silent recordings on multichannel and spatial-audio devices.
What Can I Automate With the New Command-Line Tools?
For scripters and IT admins, 0.102 quietly opens up a large part of PowerToys to the terminal. The new command-line tools cover Advanced Paste (run built-in and custom actions without opening the UI, using files, standard input and output, or the clipboard), Light Switch (check status, set or toggle the theme, and manage schedules, with JSON output), Settings (see which utilities are enabled and turn them on or off even while PowerToys is not running), Peek (preview multiple files and folders from the command line), and PowerDisplay (JSON Lines output so results and errors are easy to consume from scripts). FancyZones, Image Resizer, File Locksmith, and PowerDisplay commands now also work from any terminal folder, since they are on your PATH.
The Settings command is the sleeper here: being able to enable or disable utilities while PowerToys is not running makes scripted deployments and troubleshooting far simpler — you can fix a misbehaving utility from a remote terminal instead of walking someone through the Settings UI. IT admins also get DSC v3 support for deploying and exporting Keyboard Manager remapping profiles, which pairs with the new tap-alone remaps below.
What Else Changed in PowerToys 0.102?
- Keyboard Manager tap-alone remaps: tapping a key by itself can now trigger a different action, while the key keeps working normally inside shortcuts and mouse combinations. Large remapping lists are easier to manage with search, modifier and app filters, and bulk deletion, plus a searchable key picker that covers media keys and keys your keyboard does not have.
- Color Picker and Text Extractor move to WinUI 3: Color Picker gains a new overlay, editor, and magnifier, while your existing shortcuts and settings carry over untouched.
- FancyZones: scroll the mouse wheel while dragging a window to switch layouts, with an optional indicator showing the selected layout name.
- Peek: read-only SQLite previews, file and subfolder counts with scanning progress for folders, a plain-text fallback, and Alt plus Left or Right navigation between files.
- Screen Ruler: measurement in device-independent pixels to account for each monitor’s scaling, with improved edge detection.
- Smaller fixes: a File Explorer memory leak in New+, a Settings memory leak when switching pages, a confirmation prompt in Workspaces before launching an unverified app as administrator, and an interactive animated welcome scene in Settings.
If you already use PowerToys’ older utilities, this release is also a reminder of how broad the suite has become. PowerRename — the bulk-rename tool built into File Explorer’s right-click menu — remains one of its most practical utilities; if you have never used it, our guide to batch renaming files in Windows 11 covers the same job with and without PowerToys, so you can compare approaches.
Is PowerToys 0.102 Worth Updating To?
Yes — with one honest caveat: this is a refinement release, not a reinvention. If you already run PowerToys, updating is a clear win: the two new mouse tools are opt-in and genuinely useful, the Command Palette shelf is a small change that pays off every day for launcher users, and the hotfix build resolves the early crash reports. If you have never installed PowerToys, 0.102 is a good moment to start, because the suite now covers the mouse, the keyboard, window management, and automation in one maintained package from Microsoft itself. The one group who should wait is anyone whose workflow depends on a utility behaving exactly as it did before — check the release notes for your specific tools first, and remember that new utilities ship switched off, so you can update now and enable the new features on your own schedule.
Troubleshooting PowerToys 0.102
The new utilities do not appear in Settings. Confirm you are on build 0.102 or later — open Settings, then General, and check the version. If the updater says you are current on an older build, install from the GitHub releases page instead; the Microsoft Store listing can lag behind the direct release.
Mouse Button Lock does nothing in a game. Games using raw or exclusive mouse input bypass the lock. Try it in the specific game you have in mind before relying on it, and remember that admin windows need PowerToys itself running as administrator.
PowerToys shortcuts stop working. PowerToys must be running in the background. Check the system tray icon, and make sure “run at startup” is enabled in General settings so a reboot does not silently disable your whole setup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to the questions readers ask most about this release.
Yes. PowerToys is open-source software from Microsoft, and updating from an earlier version to 0.102 costs nothing. You can install it from the Microsoft Store or from the official GitHub releases page, and all of the utilities in this guide are included with no subscription or in-app purchase.
Open PowerToys Settings, go to General, and check for updates. If you are installing for the first time, use the Microsoft Store listing or the installer from the PowerToys releases page on GitHub, choosing the per-user or machine-wide build for your processor type, x64 or ARM64.
It depends on the game. Mouse Button Lock works in most desktop apps and many games, but Microsoft notes it may not work in games that use raw or exclusive mouse input. Test it in the game you have in mind before counting on it, and remember that a single click on any button releases the lock instantly.
Essentially, yes, with a new name and refreshed controls. CursorHide is the renamed version of Auto Hide Cursor in PowerToys Settings. It hides the pointer while you type, after a period of inactivity, or both, and shows it again as soon as you move the mouse, click, or scroll.
No. PowerToys 0.102 runs on Windows 11 and on Windows 10 version 2004 or later, on any 64-bit PC. None of the new features in this release require a neural processing unit or Copilot+ hardware — those requirements apply to Windows features like Recall, not to PowerToys.
Install the latest stable build, 0.102.3001.0. It is a hotfix released October 27 that supersedes the original 0.102.2933.0 build with crash fixes for File Locksmith and Quick Accent. Installing from the built-in updater or the releases page now gives you the hotfix build automatically.
