The unemployment rate among tech workers leaped almost a full percentage point from December to January, according to an analysis of US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday.
The unemployment rate for tech workers rose from 2.0% to to 2.9%, according to IT industry association CompTIA, even as tech firms boosted employment by a net 6,787 positions in January. Despite the jump, the tech unemployment rate remained significantly below the nation’s overall unemployment rate of 4.0%, which was down from 4.1% the previous month.
Overall hiring slowed in the US, with payroll employment up by 143,000 in January, according to BLS data. The number of unemployed workers nationally remained relatively steady, at 6.8 million.
“[The] jobs report reflects a market that continues to show sluggishness and remains challenging for those looking for new jobs. 2025 is shaping up to be another year of significant changes,” said Ger Koyle, US country manager for global staffing firm ManpowerGroup.
CompTIA
New employer job listings for tech positions increased in January by 51,756 to more than 220,000, according to CompTIA. Active tech job postings in January totaled 476,000, with 8.4% of those jobs AI-related.
There were about 40,000 active AI-related job postings in January, up 1,500 from December. Among all tech roles, 45% of job listings didn’t require a four-year degree. And in some areas, college degrees were even less in demand; 83% of network support specialist listings required no degree; for tech support specialists, that number was 71%; for computer programmers, 57%; for web and digital interface designers, 53%; and for network systems administrators, it was 51%.
“Employers continue to balance the need for foundational tech talent and skills with the push into next-gen fields,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer.
One possible explanation for the increase in tech unemployment even as job postings and hiring increased is that some people might have temporarily paused their job search in December and were more actively looking for work in January, according to Herbert.
“So for BLS purposes, these individuals would not have been counted as unemployed in December when their job search was inactive, but were counted as unemployed in January because they were actively seeking work,” he said.
Herbert highlighted “robust hiring” of personnel in IT services and software development occupations (up 13,700) which offset reductions in telecommunication jobs (down 7,900). Overall, tech occupations throughout the broader economy increased by 228,000.
Kye Mitchell, head of tech recruitment at IT staffing firm Experis North America, said January’s jobs report shows a shift in demand as the generative AI (genAI) race goes from “wow” to “how.”
Elsewhere, executive management positions actually rose 16% from December, and project manager specialists soared by a whopping 587% from last year, which reflects businesses’ need for leadership to drive and implement AI initiatives effectively, according to Mitchell.
CompTIA
Who’s not in the labor force?
Overall in January, 5.5 million people not in the labor force wanted a job, unchanged from the previous month, according to BLS data. The number of workers who wanted a job was steady at 1.6 million, and 592,000 of them were “discouraged” as they felt there were no jobs available for them.
“We’re entering an era where the traditional career ladder in tech has become a career web,” Mitchell said. “The most successful organizations will be those that can offer their technology talent not just competitive compensation, but the opportunity to work at the intersection of AI innovation and business strategy. The challenge isn’t just hiring — it’s creating an environment where top tech talent can continually evolve their skills and impact.”
Traditional tech careers followed a linear path: junior developer to senior, then lead, then architect. Success once meant deep technical expertise, but today’s top professionals thrive by bridging disciplines, according to Mitchell. For example, a cloud engineer now influences business decisions on data governance, sustainability, and costs. AI developers go beyond building models—they collaborate to find impactful use cases and ensure responsible AI deployment.
To thrive in this new environment, technology professionals should focus on developing three key areas:
Technical Foundation with AI Integration * Maintaining core technical expertise while developing practical AI skills * Understanding how to integrate AI tools into existing systems and workflows * Staying current with emerging technologies like large language models and generative AI
Business and Strategic Thinking * Building financial acumen to evaluate technology investments * Understanding industry trends and competitive dynamics * Developing skills in translating technical concepts for business stakeholders
Human-Centric Skills * Leading cross-functional teams and managing stakeholders * Focusing on ethical technology implementation * Developing strong communication and collaboration capabilities
The most successful tech professionals will balance execution with strategy, understanding both the “how” and “why” of their work, Mitchell explained. That means tackling new challenges, learning from business leaders, and expanding into areas like product management and strategy.
“This shift creates vast opportunities for those who combine technical skills with strategic thinking and human insight, driving innovation and shaping the future of tech,” Mitchell said. “What’s particularly notable is how human-centric capabilities have moved from “nice-to-have” to essential. The ability to lead diverse teams, navigate stakeholder relationships, and champion ethical technology implementation has become as important as technical expertise.”
French AI company Mistral has released several updates to its generative AI assistant Le Chat and made it available on Android and iOS. Mistral describes the tool as a comprehensive genAI assistant for both life and work that can be used to access the latest news, plan daily tasks, keep track of projects, upload and summarize documents, and more.
Le Chat is accessed through a chat-like user interface and, according to Mistral, has the fastest inference model in the world. It is also reported to be significantly better at generating images than OpenAI ChatGPT. But Le Chat does not yet have a voice mode.
The AI assistant is available in both a free version and a new paid version that costs $15.49 per month. The paid subscription provides access to the company’s latest AI model, higher user limits, and the ability to opt out of sharing data with Mistral.
Enterprise users now have the option to deploy Le Chat in their own environment with custom models and a customized user interface. That is not yet possible with, for example, ChatGPT Enterprise or Claude Enterprise.
In its limited wisdom, the deeply unpopular UK government has decided to break privacy for the entire world, slamming Apple with a top secret order that demands blanket access to personal data. Apple must create a “back door” to enable surveillance, according to The Washington Post. It’s a deeply dangerous, unaccountable, draconian demand that threatens privacy, free expression, commerce, and will ultimately make no one safe.
What makes this even more insidious is the secrecy around the application of the law. Not only is Apple unable to either confirm or deny that it has been told to create this back door, but the UK Home Office will not do so either. Making this worse, while Apple can appeal the demand, it can only do so in a secret court and must deliver the demanded access even before that appeal is heard.
In other words, the government is demanding access to everybody’s encrypted iCloud backups, you don’t get told the government is doing it, there’s no right of appeal against it and, one more thing — it applies internationally. This would effectively give UK spies access to every iCloud backup that exists globally.
Apple might suspend some UK services
It is thought that Apple could withdraw some of its services from the UK market as a result, as it warned it might when the law was first articulated in 2023. At that time, it called the measure a “serious, direct threat” to security and privacy. It also warned that the global nature of the regulation meant the company could not obey, even if it wanted to, because doing so would force the firm to break other rules, such as those surrounding data privacy.
“End-to-end encryption is a critical capability that protects the privacy of journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats. It also helps everyday citizens defend themselves from surveillance, identity theft, fraud, and data breaches,” the company said.
Even if Apple does withdraw some of its services from the UK, that may not be enough. That’s because the law demands global access, which means UK security agencies can, with few safeguards, demand access to data from anyone. The Post mentioned Advanced Data Protection on iCloud as one service Apple might stop offering to the market, but the regulation seems to imply that if you are a US citizen, the UK (for some insane reason) can still demand access to your encrypted iCloud data.
As I’ve argued forever, and as state-sponsored surveillance attacks such as those by the NSO Group should prove, there really is no such thing as a secure back door. Once any such opening exists, it will proliferate. Apple will be forced to share these keys with governments on a global basis, including less trustworthy or unstable regimes, or those willing to support privatized surveillance-as-a-service firms.
That means it is only a matter of time before all your information becomes an open book to rogue governments, state-sponsored attackers, criminals, and anyone else with a desire to profit from your digital data.
That’s a threat to you, to free speech and democracy, and also a massive attack against the privacy and security essential to maintain digital commerce. Far from making people safer, the UK demand threatens everyone. More to the point, if the deep state is smashing down iCloud’s doors, it will be smashing down digital doorways everywhere. “Breaking encryption for one breaks encryption for all,” warns Privacy International.
Needless to say, those who understand the importance of privacy, encryption, and the internet, are furious at the UK government’s demand.
Rebecca Vincent, the interim director of privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: “We are extremely troubled by reports that the UK government has ordered Apple to create a backdoor that would effectively break encryption for millions of users — an unprecedented attack on privacy rights that has no place in any democracy.
“Big Brother Watch has been ringing alarm bells about the possibility of precisely this scenario since the adoption of the Investigatory Powers Bill in 2016. We all want the government to be able to effectively tackle crime and terrorism, but breaking encryption will not make us safer. Instead, it will erode the fundamental rights and civil liberties of the entire population — and it will not stop with Apple.
“We urge the UK government to immediately rescind this draconian order and cease attempts to employ mass surveillance in lieu of the targeted powers already at their disposal.”
“In doing this, the government [is] attempting to undermine the security of millions of users, which would expose them to higher risks of cybercrime,” said James Baker, platform power program Manager at Open Rights Group. “They are failing in their primary duty to protect British citizens. The government want[s] to be able to access anything and everything, anywhere, any time. Their ambition to undermine basic security is frightening, unaccountable and would make everyone less safe. WhatsApp and other services will be next in their sights.
“They seek to do this in secret, with minimal accountability, and potentially global impacts,” he said. “It is straightforward bullying.”
Index on Censorship warned: “Our message to the UK government: please don’t trade in our privacy under the misguided belief it’ll tackle crime. Encryption is essential to privacy and the right to privacy and free expression go hand-in-hand. They should be protected not eroded.”
“There are plenty of other, better ways to catch those involved in criminal activity than this,” wrote Jemima Steinfeld, CEO of Index on Censorship. “All this will do is make the average person in the UK much less safe online and give a green light to autocratic states to follow-suit.”
This must be opposed
I’m horrified and appalled at the move. I consider it a shameful threat to all forms of digital civil liberty and warn that it will create far more harm than it will resolve. Ultimately, privacy is a human right, not a feature, and the removal of such rights should at least be a matter of public and democratic debate, which it has not been. As it stands, this UK overreach should be opposed not only by civil rights advocates, but by anyone else who uses — or provides — online services of any kind, and certainly by any nation that does protect privacy among its citizens.
The UK must think again or become a digital pariah on the world stage.
Back in the 1990s, Windows power users often availed themselves of a set of small, free software tools from Microsoft collectively known as “PowerToys.” (Read about their history at Wikipedia.) Microsoft abandoned these mini-utilities during the Windows Vista, 7, and 8 years but reintroduced them in May 2019 as an open-source project on GitHub.
In both incarnations, these tools have always sought to help out with everyday tasks, such as resizing images; creating easy-to-use Windows desktop layouts; running programs; or looking up keyboard shortcuts. Handy stuff!
There’s a lot more going on in the current crop of PowerToys than many readers might know about, so it’s a good idea to survey what’s inside that toybox. While some of the original ’90s PowerToys have been re-created and updated for Windows 10 and 11, many others are brand new. Recently, the PowerToys team has even started adding elements of the venerable Sysinternals toolkit (e.g., ZoomIt) into the mix.
Here’s an introduction to the two-dozen-plus PowerToys available today and how to take advantage of these highly useful, compact, and capable tools.
In this article:
Obtaining and installing PowerToys
Using PowerToys
Meet the Windows PowerToys
What’s coming for PowerToys
Obtaining and installing PowerToys
Unlike the ’90s tools, which had to be downloaded and installed individually, there’s now a single PowerToys app that gives users access to all available PowerToys tools in one go. When this app was introduced in 2019, it was available only through GitHub.
It’s still available that way: visit the PowerToys GitHub page, click the Latest release icon at lower right, then download and install the .exe that matches your target PC — x64 or ARM64, per-user or machine-wide. (I recommend machine-wide because it will work for all users on a given PC.)
But a GitHub visit is no longer necessary. Instead you can get the PowerToys app from the Microsoft Store (and take advantage of its auto-update capabilities).
Or you can use the built-in Windows package manager, WinGet, to install (and then update) it at the command line if you prefer. To install the latest version, open an administrative Windows Terminal session (either PowerShell or Command Prompt will work) and type:
Winget install PowerToys
Then, to update PowerToys automatically or directly, type:
Winget upgrade –all –include-unknown #updates all incl PowerToys
Winget upgrade PowerToys #only updates PowerToys
For more information on installing PowerToys, visit the “Installing PowerToys” page at Microsoft Learn.
Once you’ve got PowerToys installed on a PC, you can open the app by searching on PowerToys in the Windows search box or typing PowerToys into the Run box. You’re good to go.
Using PowerToys
By default, PowerToys is a startup item, so it fires off once the Windows desktop appears after boot-up. It becomes part of the Windows runtime that way, and makes its tools available using their keyboard shortcuts any time you need them.
To access PowerToys settings, tools, and info, click its icon in the notification area at the right-hand side of the Windows 10 or 11 taskbar. This brings up a Shortcuts window with access to various PowerToys, and some key buttons, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Click on the PowerToys icon in the taskbar’s notifications area to pop up this menu.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
What you see in this Shortcuts menu is an abbreviated list of PowerToys tools. If you click More, you can access All apps with a scrolling control at the far right.
Look at the buttons at the lower right in Figure 1. The page icon (left) takes you to the Microsoft Learn pages for PowerToys where the whole shebang is described, documented, and depicted. The debug icon (middle) creates a bug report file from PowerToys and deposits it on your desktop. You’re supposed to visit the Issues page at the PowerToys GitHub home, and may use that information as part of a “New issue” filing if you find that necessary.
The real action is from the rightmost icon, which shows the familiar Settings gear. As you might guess, this takes you to PowerToys Settings, where the Dashboard pane (shown in Figure 2) appears by default.
Figure 2: The PowerToys Dashboard presents toggles for all PowerToys and shows their current state. (Partial image: there are too many to show at once!)
Ed Tittel / Foundry
This Dashboard is helpful in showing you the status (on or off) for all PowerToys. Note that the PowerToys are organized into five categories, which appear at the left in Figure 2:
System Tools: Various controls over OS appearance and desktop or app window contents (includes Advanced Paste, Awake, Color Picker, PowerToys Run, Screen Ruler, Shortcut Guide, Text Extractor, and ZoomIt).
Windowing & Layouts: Tools to control how windows on the desktop interact, stack, and get arranged (includes Always On Top, Crop and Lock, FancyZones, and Workspaces).
Input / Output: Tools for mouse and keyboard management and control (includes Keyboard Manager, Mouse utilities, Mouse Without Borders, and Quick Accent).
File Management: A plethora of File Explorer add-ins (context menus, usually) and file controls (includes File Explorer add-ons, File Locksmith, Image Resizer, New+, Peek, and PowerRename).
Advanced: A grab-bag of tools for command line, networking, and registry access aimed at savvy power users (includes Command Not Found, Environment Variables, Hosts File Editor, and Registry Preview).
The “General” item near the top of that left-hand list is also worth getting to know; it’s where you’ll find global info about and general settings for PowerToys (partially shown in Figure 3).
Figure 3: The General settings pane provides version info, an update button, and other PowerToys controls.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
This is the pane where you can see that PowerToys will “Run at startup” by default. You can also guide how PowerToys behaves when run in administrator mode, what it looks and acts like, adjust backup and restore settings, and enable or disable use of experimental features. (The PowerToys team, under the able direction of team lead Clint Rutkas, issues regular previews with experimental or planned features.)
Meet the Windows PowerToys
The initial set of eight PowerToys released in 2019 has now more than tripled, with new tools rolling out steadily. As I wrote this story, the total count was 26 across the categories mentioned earlier. (In the list that follows, I present the PowerToys in alphabetical order, not by category.)
Inside PowerToys, you’ll find a lot to learn, like, play with, and put to good use.
Advanced Paste: Lets you manipulate the format for clipboard content. You can paste whatever you’ve cut as plain text, markdown, or .json using the tool directly, or more simply with direct keystroke sequences. (By default, Win key + Shift + V opens the Advanced Paste tool, and Win key + Ctrl +Alt + V pastes as plain text.) You’ll find additional clipboard controls and key combinations (paste as file, as .txt file, as .png file, and as .html file) as well, as shown in Figure 4. There’s even an AI-based function, but it requires users to supply their own OpenAI key to put it to work.
Figure 4: The Advanced Paste PowerToy includes AI options, clipboard controls, and various key combos for quick use.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
Always On Top: Keeps an open window pinned on the top display layer so that it’s always visible. Once enabled, its shortcut key combo is Win key + Ctrl + T. It plays a brief sound as it pins any window and shows a thick blue border around pinned windows for easy recognition — all configurable in the settings. You can even create an exclusion list to prevent certain apps from responding to this tool. Always on Top works best when you have ample screen real estate; I use it mostly on multi-monitor setups.
Awake: Keeps a PC awake independent of its power and sleep settings. It’s primarily designed to enable completion of long-running tasks that might otherwise be interrupted or paused by sleep kicking in or the display(s) turning off. Figure 5 shows the options available to control how long the PC stays awake.
Figure 5: Awake lets you control wake behavior and keep the display on as well.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
Color Picker: A small widget that lets users obtain codes for colors anywhere in the visible display area(s) in Windows 10 or 11 (HEX, RGB, HSL, CMYK, etc.). Once it’s enabled, press Win key + Shift + C to activate Color Picker, then select a color on your screen. Color Picker copies the color’s code in the format you’ve set (HEX, RGB, HSL, CMYK, etc.) to the clipboard so you can easily paste it into a graphics program, HTML markup, or anyplace else you might need such a color code.
Command Not Found (CNF): A PowerShell (PS) module that snags the PS error code for an unrecognized command, then looks up and offers to install plausible WinGet packages if they’re available. Behind the scenes, this adds an item to the Windows Terminal profile and makes sure PS 7.4 (or higher) is running and that the WinGet Client PowerShell module is installed. The net result is depicted in Figure 6. (Visit CNF’s settings for more info.)
Figure 6: After the error message (red) appears, CNF takes over to suggest possible vim installs.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
Crop and Lock: Lets you create a smaller window in which to display an application (called Reparent mode and triggered by the keyboard shortcut Win key + Ctrl + Shift + R) or show a desktop thumbnail (Thumbnail mode, with shortcut key combo Win key + Ctrl + Shift + T). Either way, position the cursor inside the app window you wish to crop and lock, enter the key combo, and a crosshair (+) cursor will appear. Use that to crop the app window, and there you go (opens a new, smaller-sized window).
Environment Variables: Provides access to a standalone app that lets you see, create, edit, or remove environment variables that Windows uses to control its behavior and to identify and access system resources (e.g., Path, OneDrive, OS, and so forth). The controls are dead simple, and the app provides standard user or administrative access to Profiles, Default, System, and Applied variables in the Windows environment, as shown in Figure 7. It’s much handier than the old Control Panel item, which restricts window size severely.
Figure 7: The Environment Variables app lets you create, edit, and remove variables and profiles in Windows.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
FancyZones: Like Windows’ Snap functionality on steroids, this window manager tool lets you create windows layouts for multiple usage scenarios and multitasking between and among them. Shortcut key combo: Win key + `(grave accent or backtick; it’s on the same key as ~ in US QWERTY layout). See Figure 8 for a glimpse of FancyZones’ easy-to-use controls.
Figure 8: FancyZones makes it easy to set up and use complex window arrangements.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
File Explorer add-ons: Originally released as FE Preview, this PowerToy provides toggles to show miniature SVG files on the File Explorer preview pane, or within thumbnails. This tool also enables previews or thumbnails for Markdown (.md, .mdown, .mkdn, …) files, source code files (.txt, .cpp, .py, .json, .xml, …), geometric code, Portable Document Format (.pdf), and Quite OK image files (.qoi).
File Locksmith: Checks if a file or folder (and sub-contents) is in use and, if so, which processes are using it. To use it, open File Explorer, then hold down the Shift key, right-click a file or folder, and choose Unlock with File Locksmith from the pop-up menu. As shown in Figure 9, a sub-window appears listing the tasks (if any) using the file. If you want to stop the process from running, click End task.
Figure 9: File Locksmith lets you see the process(es) using a file — in this case, the Chrome browser.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
Hosts File Editor: In a typical TCP/IP networking environment, a local file named Hosts predefines domain names and IP addresses to give the IP host/address resolution process a jump start. Indeed, Windows checks this file first before it uses the Domain Name Service (DNS), to turn human-readable domain names (such as Microsoft.com) into machine-usable IP addresses (such as 20.70.246.20, among many others).
The Hosts File Editor PowerToy launches a standalone app that provides guided access to view and edit the Hosts file in Windows. (Be careful! As the app warns, you can bollix up internet access editing this file incorrectly.) For a good overview of the pros, cons, and best uses for a customized hosts file in Windows, see this 2020 LoginRadius blog post “Benefits and usages of Hosts File.”
Image Resizer: Provides drag-and-drop or right-click context menu access (“Resize with Image Resizer”) to resize graphics files, alter graphics file formats, or rename them as desired. This tool not only lets you define your own dimensions for small, medium, large, and phone images, you can add new named image types for more customized captures as well. Figure 10 shows the Image Resizer pop-up control when its entry is selected from the right-click menu.
Figure 10: Image Resizer’s pop-up applet makes it quick and easy to resize image files.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
Keyboard Manager: Provides a toggle that lets users remap keyboard keys to other keys or shortcuts, or remap shortcuts to other shortcuts or keys. Once turned on, you can remap keys on your keyboard, or you can remap existing shortcuts into different ones. To really understand what this tool can do (and why it can sometimes be a real boon), browse the Microsoft Learn article “Keyboard Manager utility.”
Mouse utilities: A collection of mouse tools that includes Find My Mouse (press Ctrl twice fairly quickly), Mouse Highlighter (Win key + H), Mouse Jump (disabled by default, Win key + Shift + D), and Mouse Pointer Crosshairs (disabled by default, Win key + Alt + P). Each comes with an on/off toggle, plus various simple controls. Try them out to see how they work and look. Of all of them, I use Find My Mouse most often: double-click Ctrl and a white circle pops up around the mouse.
Mouse Without Borders (MWB): I remember Mouse Without Borders as an old “Microsoft Garage” project. (Wikipedia says it made its public debut in September 2011.) Simply put, MWB lets you use a single mouse to track its cursor across the screens of multiple Windows devices configured to interact and communicate with one another. Thus, unlike most other PowerToys, MWB requires initial setup and configuration.
First, it must be enabled (it’s off by default). Then a shared key must be generated and used to get the devices talking to each other, after which a layout can be arranged. There are all kinds of controls that come into play: a dozen for behavior, five keyboard shortcuts, and a smattering of advanced settings and troubleshooting tools. Figure 11 shows two of my laptops (P16 and X380, from left to right) set up to permit the cursor to track between them.
Figure 11: MWB lets you arrange systems (two laptops in this case) in line to track the cursor across them.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
New+: Lets you create files and folders from your own personalized template set. You can use it to set up text, Office, and other files with predefined info. For instance, you could create a file with the address block, date placeholder, and recipient placeholder for a business letter; another with layouts and column heads for invoice spreadsheets; and others for commonly needed files for everyday use. The New+ settings let you change the default template location and hide filename extensions and starting characters.
Peek: Another File Explorer extension that provides quick, transient access to file previews. Highlight a file, press Ctrl + spacebar, and a preview window opens. This works especially well for screencaps; as demonstrated in Figure 12, it’s easy to see details captured in a screenshot without actually opening the image file. (Notice the Peek icon up top, a magnifying glass on a file folder.) Peek has very simple controls, too.
Figure 12: Highlight a file, press Ctrl + spacebar, and get the preview.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
PowerRename: Provides a context menu entry (Windows Shell extension) for advanced bulk file renaming in File Explorer using search and replace or regular expression syntax (regex). Regex is an extremely powerful technique, and it’s a good idea to have some knowledge of how it works before you use PowerRename to mess around with real, live files on your PC. Microsoft Learn has a nice regex tutorial for Visual Studio that covers the basics of characters, operators, constructs, and patterns.
Figure 13 shows me renaming some of the image files for this very story: it’s a useful tool.
Figure 13: I highlighted four filenames and Shift-clicked to open this PowerRename window. It’s set up to replace “pt25” with “PowToy25.”
Ed Tittel / Foundry
PowerToys Run: A quick pop-up launcher that works like the Run command window. Shortcut key combo: Alt + spacebar. Note that these keys are adjacent on US QWERTY keyboards for super-quick access and use. It’s faster and easier to access than the Run box, and its search function is likewise lightning fast. Click any item in the search results to launch and go.
Figure 14 shows a generic PowerToys Run box that puts its capabilities on display: run executables; calculate simple equations; search previous inputs, files, folders and programs; and navigate the Registry. The better you know it, the better you’ll like it!
Figure 14: Press Alt + spacebar to get this nifty box offering a variety of instant actions.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
Quick Accent: Longtime windows users know they can use all kinds of Esc and Alt key combos to emit odd and interesting characters from Windows keyboards. Quick Accent provides another way to access accents, fractions, diacritical marks, and other characters using a more visual approach.
As you can see in Figure 15, holding down the 1 key and hitting the left arrow puts lots of 1s down before the accent bar pops up above, with various sub- and superscript options plus fractions with a 1 numerator. Interesting!
Figure 15: The Quick Accent bar appears above the Notepad window: that’s where you pick the character you want.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
This one takes some playing with to get used to but can then be quite handy. When you don’t need the Quick Accent toolbar anymore, you must disable this PowerToy to make it vanish.
Registry Preview: Provides a clean, simple look at the contents of any Windows Registry file. You can launch this app from PowerToys Settings > Registry Preview, or else hold down the Shift key when you click on a .reg file in File Explorer, then select Preview from the resulting pop-up menu. Those who occasionally (or regularly) work on the Registry directly will find this a pleasant, lightweight alternative to RegEdit.exe.
Screen Ruler: Provides a simple, visual way to measure pixels on a Windows display. It also includes horizontal and vertical measurement capability; offers continuous measuring; and provides color, color edge, and edge detection controls (see PowerToys Settings > Screen Ruler for all the details). Its shortcut key combo is Win key + Shift + M.
Figure 16 shows the ruler at work, showing the pixel count between two desktop background elements. As with Quick Accent, you must disable Screen Ruler to turn off the top center ruler toolbar when you don’t wish to see or use it.
Figure 16: A faint red line labeled “345” shows the distance in pixels from the circle to the logo.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
Shortcut Guide: A context-sensitive listing of keyboard shortcuts that shows up in Windows 10 or 11 when shortcut key combo Win key + Shift + / (right-slash) is pressed. If opened on the desktop (as in Figure 17), it shows Windows shortcuts. Opened inside any application, it shows that app’s shortcuts instead. Hit Esc to close the guide. One of my personal favorites, this tool helps me remember more shortcuts than my poor brain can hold.
Figure 17: Combined with the Windows key, these are the basic Windows shortcuts, neatly laid out in Shortcut Guide.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
Text Extractor: Copies text from any portion of the Windows display, including inside images or videos. Microsoft recommends using the relatively new “Text actions” capability inside the Snipping Tool instead of this tool. Indeed, Text Extractor is disabled by default. But when enabled, it responds to the shortcut key combo Win key + Shift + T.
Once you define a rectangular region on screen, Text Extractor parses all text it finds into the clipboard. You can then paste that text into an editor or text input of your choice. I used it to grab the end of the Lenovo logo on my desktop, which you can see pasted into Notepad in Figure 18.
Figure 18: When I trace a rectangle around “novo” (white text on red background), Text Extractor pastes it into Notepad.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
Workspaces: A tool for grouping a set of applications together, with positioning control and unique configuration settings. The shortcut to launch this tool, if enabled, is Win key + Ctrl + ` (grave accent or backtick). Pressing that shortcut opens the Workspaces editor and lets you choose from predefined layouts (called Templates) or create your own unique layout (called Custom).
You can see a custom workspace in Figure 19, which shows Chrome at left, PowerToys above and Edge below in the center, and Copilot to the right.
Figure 19: Workspaces makes it easy to set up and switch among common working scenarios.
Ed Tittel / Foundry
Workspaces is helpful when you run specific work scenarios and need groups of applications to make them fly. (See “The ultimate Windows app launcher” for more info.) Works on both single and multiple monitor setups.
ZoomIt: A longtime favorite among Sysinternals users, PowerToys has brought this nifty screen zoom, annotation, and recording tool under the PowerToys umbrella. It’s a great addition for those who’ve never used it; it’s even more convenient for longtime Sysinternals fans and users (like yours truly, who had the pleasure of writing for Winternals in Austin in the 1990s). The best way to dig into ZoomIt is to read the Microsoft Learn article “ZoomIt utility,” which includes an animated demo that shows you exactly how it works.
This concludes the overview of the current PowerToys lineup as of early February 2025. For more about working with PowerToys, see “10 PowerToys you should use on Windows.”
In the next section, you’ll learn a bit about what the PowerToys team is thinking about and working on, by way of possible new PowerToys.
What’s coming for PowerToys
If you visit the PowerToys roadmap, you’ll see information about what the Microsoft development team currently has in its sights. (Shortcut Guide v2 gets my vote.) But because PowerToys is an open-source effort and takes input from countless volunteers who contribute ideas and code, this doesn’t cover everything that might show up in the toybox.
Given those provisos and qualifications, here’s a short-ish list of what’s up with possible enhancements or new PowerToys:
The in-house team is always working on the PowerToys installer and UI bits and pieces (including the taskbar icon, flyout menu, and more). Right now if you look back at Figure 1 you’ll see that the PowerToys that function as apps (e.g. Color Picker, Environment Variables, FancyZones, Hosts File Editor, PowerToys Run, Text Extractor, Registry Preview, Screen Ruler, Shortcut Guide, and Workspaces) all appear as icons on that flyout menu. As these items come and go, this lineup will change to match.
Each new PowerToys release comes with release notes that include a “What’s New” section. This is a great way to find (and see) what kinds of things are popping up inside the toybox.
PowerToys works well with the WinGet package manager and includes its own update button on the “General” pane in PowerToys Settings. It provides notifications when updates are ready and makes it easy to update. Personally, I tend to catch updates through WinGet because I run it on my Windows systems every other day.
In online forums recently, PowerToys team lead Clint Rutkas has teased adding transcoding capabilities for audio and video files within the Advanced Paste PowerToy.
Given that the Sysinternals tool ZoomIt is now integrated into PowerToys, one has to ponder the possibility that others in that collection may make their way into the toybox, too. Learn more about the outstanding Sysinternals tool set at its Microsoft home page.
Don’t you need some PowerToys?
As somebody who’s used some of these wonderful programs and extensions since the late 1990s, my own opinion on using PowerToys is an emphatic “Yes! May I have another?” But you’ll have to try them out for yourself and see how you like them if you’re not using them already. If you are, hopefully you’ve seen something new or intriguing here that you’ll want to try out. Enjoy!
This story was originally launched in October 2020 and updated in February 2025.
A new Gartner survey of more than 200 C-level executives found 56% are “extremely likely” to quit their current jobs over the next two years — and 27% plan to exit within the next six months. The potential for a mass exodus of executives appears to be the result of burnout, renewed plans to retire and concerns over mental health as the business world struggles with new technologies and challenges.
Artificial intelligence (AI), for example, has upended hiring plans as companies seek to do more with less by depending on AI agents to replace entry-level worker tasks while enabling others to do more with the same resources.
According to Gartner, companies with executives averaging five or more years of tenure outperformed those with less-experienced teams in terms of revenue, customer experience, and other key metrics. High executive turnover can also hamper organizational growth, as younger teams tend to deliver lower performance. In addition, experienced executives are more likely to leave within two years compared to newer hires.
The survey found that many C-suite leaders report an increase in workload compared to two years ago:
58% agreed their organization relies more heavily on their function/business unit
44% agreed they are more stressed by their work responsibilities
On top of that, just 23% of CxOs surveyed reported their HR leaders are effective at managing tension between C-suite members.
Chief HR Officers (CHROs) can build trust with the CEO by ensuring executives understand a CEO’s priorities and engage in open communication, according to Gartner. Sharing what works in building CEO trust with peers can accelerate trust across the C-suite.
As “champions of mental health,” CHROs should help executives identify work stressors, improve work-life balance, and model well-being practices. By openly discussing their own well-being, CHROs can reduce stigma and encourage healthier conversations, according to Alexander Kirss, a Gartner senior principal analyst.
“Many executives are also considering a new role due to a desire for more growth opportunities or anticipate being recruited by a competitor,” Kirss said. “What is important is for CEOs and CHROs to diagnose what the primary sources of executive concern are at their organization so they can develop a targeted executive retention strategy.”
Staffing firm ManpowerGroup’s recent Global Talent Barometer highlighted a workforce in flux: 60% of employees are considering job changes within the next six months. Perhaps more tellingly, 41% of workers feel their current organizations lack sufficient opportunities for career advancement.
For the tech workforce, a ‘historic reshaping’
Kye Mitchell, president of tech workforce staffing firm Experis US, said the tech industry is undergoing “a historic reshaping of the entire technology workforce” even as 51% of IT employers plan to hire this quarter. “What’s particularly interesting is how the convergence of economic caution and AI acceleration is creating distinct hiring trajectories in the market,” she said.
Even as tech unemployment has hit new lows recently, organizations are being more picky in hiring because traditional academic credential often no longer fill tech needs. “As formal education and training in AI skills still lag, it results in a shortage of AI talent that can effectively manage these technologies and demands,” said Kelly Stratman, Ernst & Young’s global ecosystem relationships enablement leader. “The AI talent shortage is most prominent among highly technical roles like data scientists/analysts, machine learning engineers, and software developers.”
The latest survey from staffing firm ManpowerGroup found that 25% of CIOs struggle to recruit and retain skilled talent. While 21% of companies are reducing hiring due to economic factors, 22% are ramping up recruitment to leverage the ongoing AI boom.
When considering new hires, 80% of corporate executives prioritize skills over degrees, with half planning to increase freelance hiring this year, according to a new study from freelancing platform Upwork. The study, released this week, showed “unprecedented growth” in specialized AI skills, which have surged 220% year-over-year. Another problem, however, is the skills needed to keep up with AI’s advances are constantly changing.
“What we’re witnessing isn’t just a talent shortage – it’s a fundamental transformation in how technology roles are structured,” Mitchell said.
Forward-thinking organizations are creating hybrid roles that combine AI skills with business strategy, reimagining technology careers for the AI era, according to Mitchell; 92% of organizations are redesigning technical roles to include AI skills and strategic thinking. Meanwhile, 81% of CIOs are adjusting hiring strategies, focusing on cloud computing and sustainability.
“We’re entering an era where the traditional career ladder in tech has become a career web,” Mitchell said. “The most successful organizations will be those that can offer their technology talent not just competitive compensation, but the opportunity to work at the intersection of AI innovation and business strategy. The challenge isn’t just hiring — it’s creating an environment where top tech talent can continually evolve their skills and impact.”
Google has announced several updates to its Gemini portfolio, including a budget-friendly product, amid growing demand for low-cost AI models driven by the rise of Chinese competitor DeepSeek.
“We’re releasing a new model, Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite, our most cost-efficient model yet, in public preview in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI,” the company said in a blog post.
The trouble with virtual assistants is that they’re just so darn needy.
Specifically, they need to be told exactly what to do. They sit around doing nothing until explicitly directed. They don’t take any initiative. They’re, for lack of a better word, lazy.
Science fiction writers, industry prognosticators, and techno-futurists like me have been predicting and promising for decades that once we get real AI, our computer assistants will do our bidding unbidden.
But…where is it? Where are those go-getter virtual assistants that do things on our behalf without being explicitly directed?
Most of today’s agency or proactivity features are found in enterprise applications, leveraging machine learning, sensor data, and user behavior analysis to act autonomously. For example:
Hospitals affiliated with Johns Hopkins analyze real-time data to predict health crises, alerting staff at least six hours in advance.
A mobile app called MoodTrainer uses location data and behavior monitoring to trigger cognitive behavioral therapy exercises when loneliness or stress patterns emerge.
Tools like MonkeyLearn detect frustration in chat logs, prompting human agents to intervene with empathy-driven solutions.
An IT tool called Workgrid uses AI to monitor network health, automatically resolving connectivity issues or scheduling updates during off-peak hours.
Siemens uses vibration and temperature data from machinery to schedule repairs before breakdowns, which saves money on repairs and costly downtime.
The HR tool Paradox AI scans prospective-employee applications, schedules interviews, and sends follow-ups without recruiter involvement.
The growing emergence of proactive features for enterprise applications is great. But these features benefit organizations more than their employees.
Don’t get me wrong. Agency has existed in mainstream personal assistants for 13 years.
Google launched the Google Now assistant in 2012 as part of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The feature pioneered context-aware assistance by anticipating user needs through email, location, and search history analysis. It provided real-time travel alerts such as flight updates, traffic-optimized commute times, and location-triggered reminders for tasks or reservations. (Google discontinued Google Now in 2019, rolling some of its features into Google Assistant.)
Other assistants offer limited proactivity. Apple’s Siri has AI-driven “Proactive Intelligence” to auto-summarize notifications and suggest context-aware actions. Amazon’s Alexa predicts user intent through “Latent Goals” and autonomously manages smart home devices.
The proactivity features of these assistants go largely unnoticed and unappreciated — nay, unused — simply because their agency is often limited to bland, needless, and less-than-earth-shaking tasks.
Unprompted help is on the way
One of the best-demoed smart glasses products at this year’s CES was Halliday smart glasses.
The $489 glasses (due to ship in March) are different than (and potentially superior to) most competing products in several ways. One is that while the glasses can be used via voice and touch controls, control is expanded and enhanced with an optional ring worn on a finger. (If that idea sounds bonkers, you should know that Apple’s future smart glasses might do the same; at least, Apple has a big pile of patents suggesting that direction.)
Another differentiator is that, instead of projecting visual feedback onto special lenses via a light engine, the electronics instead beam directly into the eye when the user looks up slightly. The company says its approach lowers costs and weight and improves visibility in bright sunlight.
And finally, the glasses don’t have a camera.
“Hooray!” you might be thinking, “No camera means they’re prioritizing privacy, right?” (Wait till you hear what they’re doing with the microphones.)
In general, Halliday glasses can listen to everything all the time. By combining AI analysis of what it hears with location and other data, the glasses can figure out how to offer help in a variety of ways. Halliday calls this subscription-based feature “Proactive AI,” and what it describes is a powerful personal enhancement of the user’s capabilities — if it all works as advertised.
Listening to your conversations, the glasses can “fact check” claims made by the person you’re talking to, showing text that challenges falsehoods. They can interpret idioms, explain cultural references, summarize the content of meetings and list action items. If the other person is speaking a different language than you, the glasses can translate their words into your language. And if music is playing, the glasses can show you the lyrics.
A “Proactive AI” subscription provides other features not triggered by audio, such as walking directions, teleprompter functionality, and conversation starters in social settings.
Halliday isn’t the only company advancing proactivity.
Google makes the call
Google Duplex, announced in 2018 at the Google I/O developers conference, is an AI feature of Google Assistant that can make phone calls to book reservations, schedule appointments, or check business hours.
Recently, Search Labs extended Duplex in a feature called “Ask for me.” It’s an experimental tool that finds out information for you by calling businesses on the phone, conversing with people at those businesses, and then reporting back on what they said. (The current iteration is for users who opted into Google Search Labs. It calls only auto repair shops and nail salons in the United States, but other business types and nations will be added in the future, according to Google.)
The feature appears in search results as an “Ask for Me” card. Users can enter specifics (car type, fingernail matters, etc.); Google AI places a call and uses natural language speech technology to ask questions that will get the users’ answers, and the results are delivered via SMS or email.
The automated voice identifies itself as Google AI, and Google offers businesses the ability to opt-out.
Proactive AI: What could go right?
It’s become a cliché in technology circles that replacing people with AI is bad; enhancing people with AI — partnering with AI — is a better way forward.
AI that acts on our behalf — with our knowledge, but without our explicit advance permission — finding out information by searching or calling, feeding us information as we need it, enabling us to understand and learn from what other people are saying regardless of what language they’re speaking, is a stunning vision for realizing what Reid Hoffman’s calls “Superagency.” In his book of the same name, Hoffman presents an optimistic vision of AI as a transformative force that, when developed inclusively, can empower people by enhancing human ability and potential.
Maybe proactive AI could even help me understand why this vision of the future is coming from a dinky startup rather than Apple, Google or Meta.
Two members of the US House of Representatives want answers from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) over allegations that a “server of unknown nature” was used last month to “access sensitive government data without regard for crucial security and privacy protections.”
In a letter sent Tuesday to Charles Ezell, acting director of the OPM, an independent agency that manages the US federal civil service, Gerald Connolly, ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Shontel Brown, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology and Government Innovation, wrote that on Jan. 24, “millions of federal employees received an email from a new email address, hr@opm.gov, stating that it was a ‘test of a new distribution and response list.’”
It went on to say that “the email address sent several additional tests before sending a mass email to the federal workforce with the subject ‘Fork in the Road’ detailing a potentially illegal resignation offer for federal employees.”
In addition, they wrote, “several days prior to the first test, OPM did not have the capability to email a distribution list of this scale. Acquiring such a capability securely and in compliance with federal cybersecurity, privacy, and procurement laws would likely not have been possible in such a short timeframe.”
Connelly and Brown added that “compounding our concerns, other reports suggest that allies of Elon Musk recently installed at OPM have revoked senior career employee access to OPM computer systems containing extremely sensitive information, including the dates of birth, Social Security numbers, home addresses, pay grades, and appraisals of millions of government workers.”
At best, the letter stated, the Trump administration’s actions at OPM to date “demonstrate gross negligence, severe incompetence, and a chaotic disregard for the security of our public. At worst, we fear that Trump Administration officials know full well that their actions threaten to break our government and put our citizens at risk of foreign adversaries like China and Russia gaining access to our sensitive data.”
Its authors wrote that the lack of security and oversight associated with the new “email system and data management practices threatens to expose federal workers to personalized social engineering or spear phishing attacks to gain access to government systems. For example, it appears the effort to distribute the mass Fork in the Road email may have subverted cybersecurity controls in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) email system, leading to the agency’s 13,000 employees receiving a flood of inappropriate and spam email.”
While the letter requested records and logs, as well as “all emails, documents, and communications relevant planning and execution of the initiative,” it also asked that Ezell present the information to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Feb. 14. To date, no such meeting has been scheduled.
Computerworld reached out to the OPM press office regarding the letter and was told via email, “we do not have a comment on this.” Will McDonald, the communications director for Brown, who represents Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, was also contacted, and he said there has as yet been no response to the letter from OPM.
Potential privacy and security risk
Erik Avakian, security counselor at Info-Tech Research Group said the “recent development regarding OPM and the alleged issues regarding an email server being deployed on the agency network and emails being distributed by the agency to federal employees raise potential security and privacy concerns that, if substantiated, could be out of sync with well-defined cybersecurity best practices and privacy regulations.”
Most important, he said, would be the way in which the system had been deployed onto the federal network, “particularly in light of the many existing US federal government-required processes, procedures, and checks a system would need to undergo before receiving green light approval for such a fast-tracked deployment. There could be fast-track processes in place for such instances.”
However, even in such cases, said Avakian, “any deployment of systems or tools would certainly, as best practice, need to be reviewed for security vulnerabilities, and its architecture checked and hardened, at a minimum, to be aligned with the federal security requirements for systems deployed on the network prior to going live.”
The question would be whether the processes were followed, he said. “In any case, there could be quite a checklist of issues regarding Compliance with Cybersecurity Frameworks, Best Practices, and the Federal Government’s Memo regarding the Implementation of Zero Trust, to name a few, as well as numerous privacy laws.”
Aside from asking Ezell to appear at a briefing, the letter also asked that the OPM provide:
A list of any information technology equipment installed at OPM between January 21, 2025, and January 24, 2025, and used to support the distribution of the “Fork in the Road” emails, including a description of how such equipment was procured.
A list of the individuals who installed and/or accessed the equipment, including whether they were OPM employees at the time of their installation/access of the equipment and, if so, under what authority they were hired; and what background investigation and clearance processes they underwent as part of the hiring process.
What steps were taken to “safeguard the privacy of the millions of federal employees included in those databases and repositories.”
A description of the types of IT assets, software systems, code, or other tools used to collect information.”
Avakian said that in terms of process and procedures, one question raised was whether the deployment of the email system underwent a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) before deployment of such a system on the production network.
If not, “the omission of the PIA could imply non-compliance with established federal cybersecurity practices and privacy laws such as the E-Government Act of 2002, mandating that all US federal agencies conduct PIAs before implementing systems, particularly those that store or handle Personally Identifiable Information (PII). “
The PIA, said Avakian, “would account for and amount to an example of just one of the assessments a system would need to undergo before deployment. While there is the possibility of OPM to submit a retroactive PIA, it would still position OPM’s initial failure to perform this assessment as a significant issue and potential legal hurdle.”
Mass ‘deferred resignation’ offer could cause loss of critical expertise
According to a release, a letter sent by Connolly and other Democratic members of the oversight committee to President Donald Trump on Monday requested “documents and information regarding his ‘deferred resignation’ offer sent en masse to the federal workforce, and urging him to rescind the offer.”
They wrote that it “would precipitate a mass exodus of the most experienced and capable federal employees, leaving our agencies severely understaffed and incapable of fulfilling their responsibilities. The consequence of this brain drain will be felt by every American.”
Committee members argued, “without the expertise and institutional knowledge that so many federal employees bring to their work, our government will be incapable of responding effectively to national emergencies, serving the American public, or even carrying out routine operations. The resignation offer sets the stage for an unparalleled crisis in our government’s ability to deliver for the American people.”
Workday said Wednesday it will lay off 1,750 employees, roughly 8.5% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring plan to invest more heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerate international growth.
The California-based company disclosed the layoffs in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, attributing the decision to its focus on what its leaders call “durable growth.” While details on specific departments affected were not provided in the filing, executives emphasized that artificial intelligence initiatives and overseas markets represent key areas where the company will continue hiring.
“Companies everywhere are reimagining how work gets done, and the increasing demand for AI has the potential to drive a new era of growth for Workday,” Carl Eschenbach, CEO of Workday, said in a memo to employees included with the filing.
Concern about customer support
Some industry observers are concerned about how Workday’s layoffs affect customer support. John Yensen, who leads the managed IT services firm Revotech Networks, said he believes customers will likely face disruptions to their support and service soon.
“AI could help offset this by automating routine inquires and streamlining the customer service process, but the largest concern, as in all similar cases, is whether AI support will able to handle and improve the level of service that enterprise clients expect and have become accustomed to,” he said.
Timothy DeStefano, associate professor of research at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, suggested that the outcome will largely depend on the company’s approach to the restructuring.
“One way to try to prevent layoffs from affecting the level and quality of customer support is to avoid eliminating positions that are customer-facing or critical to customer engagement,” DeStefano said. “It may also be helpful for the business to cross-train employees so that the remaining workers can handle multiple roles during the transition.”
Workday did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Strategy suggests a ‘careful realignment of resources’
Workday’s leadership has pointed to artificial intelligence as a central reason for the reallocation of resources. While the AI transition presents challenges, DeStefano noted that the investment could pay off: “Making investments in technology, particularly AI, is not cheap, but an accumulation of empirical evidence suggests that, if done correctly, performance improvements and efficiency gains can be achieved. However, it takes time and restructuring to implement new technologies, and thus, there may be some hiccups along the way.”
International expansion is another priority for Workday, which plans to seize the growing demand for cloud-based HR solutions outside the United States. DeStefano noted that the company is taking a three-pronged approach to ensure financial stability: “cost reductions, market expansion overseas, and investing in tools designed to enhance decision-making and improve efficiency. This is particularly relevant given the increasing competition within the market, increased consolidation through firm acquisitions, and the potential for slower demand due to higher interest rates.”
While specific regional targets weren’t disclosed, DeStefano observed that the company’s strategy suggests a careful realignment of resources. “Based on their statements, they have decided to close certain locations while opening new ones. This suggests that the geographical reorganization is designed to restructure their regional footprint to keep pace with evolving consumer demand across their markets,” he said. “Additionally, while the company is laying off employees, they are not enacting a hiring freeze. Instead, they have stated that they will add workers to critical locations and roles within the company, along with making AI investments, to maintain and enhance its applications for consumers throughout the transition and in the long run.”
Workday faces intense competition in HR software from both established firms and startups, according to Janice Quek, an analyst at investment research firm CFRA.
“However, the AI opportunity is clear, and the company will need to innovate in order to remain competitive in the enterprise software space,” Quek said. “On that front, it has released several AI products, including AI agents, that will unlock capacity for its users, with more solutions in the pipeline. We expect [Workday] to also leverage AI internally to alleviate talent gaps, streamline workflows, and automate their operational processes and services to smooth its transition and enhance its own execution.”
If you get stressed out when surfing the web, Norwegian browser company Opera has something for you: a new browser for Windows and Mac designed to help you relax.
Opera Air offers a minimalist design and scheduled breaks for breathing exercises, neck training and meditation, among other things. The new browser can also play a combination of soothing sounds and music, Techcrunch reports.
The company explained its thinking about Opera Air in a YouTube video:
Opera already offers a number of alternatives to its “regular” browser, including the AI-enhanced Opera One and Opera GX, which is aimed at gamers.
