Microsoft will make Windows more flexible for power users with the return of PowerToys. These utilities are designed to let experts of the operating system customize and improve their productivity.

There are two PowerToys available to preview on Friday. The first is a Windows shortcut guide that will display an overlay of the keyboard shortcuts for whatever window is currently active. FancyZone is the second utility, and it lets users customize the layout of their windows. These custom layouts can then be saved, or if preferred, there's a set of default options to choose from.

Originally released for Windows 95, PowerToys let users tweak features in the OS like quickly changing the screen resolution or opening Windows Explorer from any folder. Over the years, several of these utilities became standard in other versions of Windows.

Microsoft says it has more PowerToys in its backlog and expects to hear from the development community on creating new ones.

c|net