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Dev Documentation

Rules

  • Follow the pattern of what you already see in the code.
  • Coding style.
  • Try to package new ideas/components into libraries that have nicely defined interfaces.
  • Package new ideas into classes or refactor existing ideas into a class as you extend.
  • When adding new classes/methods/changing existing code: add new unit tests or update the existing tests.

Github Workflow

  • Before starting to work on a fix/feature, make sure there is an open issue to track the work.
  • Add the In progress label to the issue, if not already present also add a Cost-Small/Medium/Large estimate and make sure all appropriate labels are set.
  • If you are a community contributor, you will not be able to add labels to the issue, in that case just add a comment saying that you started to work on the issue and try to give an estimate for the delivery date.
  • If the work item has a medium/large cost, using the markdown task list, list each sub item and update the list with a check mark after completing each sub item.
  • When opening a PR, follow the PR template.
  • When the PR is approved, let the owner of the PR merge it. For community contributions the reviewer that approved the PR can also merge it.
  • Use the Squash and merge option to merge a PR, if you don't want to squash it because there are logically different commits, use Rebase and merge.
  • We don't close issues automatically when referenced in a PR, so after the PR is merged:
    • mark the issue(s), that the PR solved, with the Resolution-Fix-Committed label, remove the In progress label and if the issue is assigned to a project, move the item to the Done status.
    • don't close the issue if it's a bug in the current released version since users tend to not search for closed issues, we will close the resolved issues when a new version is released.
    • if it's not a code fix that effects the end user, the issue can be closed (for example a fix in the build or a code refactoring and so on).

Repository Overview

General project organization:

The doc folder

Documentation for the project.

The Wiki

The Wiki contains the current specs for the project.

The installer folder

Contains the source code of the PowerToys installer.

The src folder

Contains the source code of the PowerToys runner and of all of the PowerToys modules. This is where most of the magic happens.

The tools folder

Various tools used by PowerToys. Includes the Visual Studio 2019 project template for new PowerToys.

Compiling PowerToys

Prerequisites for Compiling PowerToys

  1. Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803) or newer
  2. Visual Studio Community/Professional/Enterprise 2019
  3. Run the command below in cmd/terminal to install all the workloads and components for VS.
cd "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019"
SET targetFolder="\"
IF EXIST Preview\NUL (SET targetFolder=Preview)
IF EXIST Enterprise\NUL (SET targetFolder=Enterprise)
IF EXIST Professional\NUL (SET targetFolder=Professional)
IF EXIST Community\NUL (SET targetFolder=Community)

ECHO %targetFolder%

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vs_installer.exe" ^
modify --installpath "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\%targetFolder%" ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.ManagedDesktop ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.Universal ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.17134 ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.ComponentGroup.UWP.VC ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Runtimes.x86.x64.Spectre ^
--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATL.Spectre

Compiling Source Code

  • Open powertoys.sln in Visual Studio, in the Solutions Configuration drop-down menu select Release or Debug, from the Build menu choose Build Solution.
  • The PowerToys binaries will be in your repo under x64\Release.
  • If you want to copy the PowerToys.exe binary to a different location, you'll also need to copy the modules and the svgs folders.

Building the Installers

Our installer is two parts, an EXE and an MSI. The EXE contains the MSI and handles more complex install logic.

  • The EXE installs all prerequisites and installs PowerToys via the MSI. Also has additional features, such as silent installation flags
  • The MSI installs PowerToys.

Prerequisites Building the Installer (.MSI)

  1. Install the WiX Toolset Visual Studio 2019 Extension.
  2. Install the WiX Toolset build tools.

Compiling Installer (.MSI)

  • From the installer folder open PowerToysSetup.sln in Visual Studio, in the Solutions Configuration drop-down menu select Release, from the Build menu choose Build Solution.
  • The resulting PowerToysSetup.msi installer will be available in the installer\PowerToysSetup\x64\Release\ folder.

Compiling Bootstrapper Installer (.EXE)

  • MSI Installer needs to be built in release mode
  • Build PowerToysBootstrapper solution (installer\PowerToysBootstrapper\)

Supported arguments for EXE installer:

Head over to the wiki to get the full list of supported installer arguments.

Debugging

The following configuration issue only applies if the user is a member of the Administrators group.

Some PowerToys modules require being run with the highest permission level if the current user is a member of the Administrators group. The highest permission level is required to be able to perform some actions when an elevated application (e.g. Task Manager) is in the foreground or is the target of an action. Without elevated privileges some PowerToys modules will still work but with some limitations:

  • The FancyZones module will be not be able to move an elevated window to a zone.
  • The Shortcut Guide module will not appear if the foreground window belongs to an elevated application.

To run and debug PowerToys from Visual Studio when the user is a member of the Administrators group, Visual Studio has to be started with elevated privileges. If you want to avoid running Visual Studio with elevated privileges and don't mind the limitations described above, you can do the following: open the runner project properties and navigate to the Linker -> Manifest File settings, edit the UAC Execution Level property and change it from highestAvailable (level='highestAvailable') to asInvoker (/level='asInvoker'), save the changes.

How to create new PowerToys

See the instructions on how to install the PowerToys Module project template.
Specifications for the PowerToys settings API.

Implementation details

Runner

The PowerToys Runner contains the project for the PowerToys.exe executable. It's responsible for:

  • Loading the individual PowerToys modules.
  • Passing registered events to the PowerToys.
  • Showing a system tray icon to manage the PowerToys.
  • Bridging between the PowerToys modules and the Settings editor.

Image of the tray icon

Interface

Definition of the interface used by the runner to manage the PowerToys. All PowerToys must implement this interface.

Common

The common lib, as the name suggests, contains code shared by multiple PowerToys components and modules, e.g. json parsing and IPC primitives.

Settings

WebView project for editing the PowerToys settings.

The html portion of the project that is shown in the WebView is contained in settings-html. Instructions on how build a new version and update this project are in the Web project for the Settings UI.

While developing, it's possible to connect the WebView to the development server running in localhost by setting the _DEBUG_WITH_LOCALHOST flag to 1 and following the instructions near it in ./main.cpp.

Settings-web

This project generates the web UI shown in the PowerToys Settings. It's a ReactJS project created using Fluent UI.

Current modules

FancyZones

The FancyZones PowerToy that allows users to create custom zones on the screen, to which the windows will snap when moved.

PowerRename

PowerRename is a Windows Shell Context Menu Extension for advanced bulk renaming using simple search and replace or more powerful regular expression matching.

Shortcut Guide

The Windows Shortcut Guide, displayed when the WinKey is held for some time.

Options

This module has a setting to serve as an example for each of the currently implemented settings property:

  • BoolToggle property
  • IntSpinner property
  • String property
  • ColorPicker property
  • CustomAction property

Image of the Options