Windows Search is one Windows feature that I can never recommend to anyone. It’s painfully slow, inaccurate, and recommends everything under the sun except what you need. I’ve mostly tried to replace Windows Search with Listary, which I can’t recommend enough because of how fast it can find your files.
However, if you already use PowerToys, you might have something even better than Windows Search already installed. Command Palette is a PowerToys app that does what I always wanted Windows Search to do. It can find files, apps, and settings, and do it all without you ever leaving your keyboard.
Command Palette is what Windows Search should have been
A keyboard-first launcher that finds everything instantly
Command Palette is, at its core, an app launcher. Much like Flow Launcher, Listary, and Raycast, which is now also available for Windows, Command Palette is a keyboard-first launcher that you can activate with a shortcut and then start typing. If you don’t have PowerToys yet, download it from the Microsoft Store, launch the app, then under System Tools, select Command Palette and toggle the Enable Command Palette switch.
By default, you can press Win + Alt + Space to open the launcher. Once it’s open, start typing. If you want to launch Obsidian, type “Obsidian” and press Enter. But what makes it better than Windows Search is how well it handles partial matches. Type “obs” and choose Obsidian from the list. The next time you type “obs,” it remembers and correctly suggests the same app as the first result. Windows Search, on the other hand, would probably show you a Bing result about obsidian rocks.
The file search is also fast. Type a filename and results appear almost instantly. So, no more random web suggestions mixed in with your actual files.
Command Palette can do more than search
Bookmarks, previews, and quick actions make it a real tool
Finding apps and files is useful, but Command Palette can do a whole lot more. You can save any file path or URL as a bookmark, which turns it into a named command you can open like an app. I’ve bookmarked my Downloads folder and a few project directories so I can get to them in two keystrokes instead of clicking through File Explorer.
Each search result also comes with actions attached. The bottom bar shows options like Open link and Copy URL, and pressing Ctrl + K opens a menu with every available action for the selected item. So you can copy a file path or open a folder without ever launching the file itself.
There’s also a preview pane on the right side of the palette. Select a result, and you can see its details in a Markdown pane without leaving the palette window. This is useful when you’re looking through a list of files and need to confirm which one you want before opening it. You can even keep typing to filter results further, and the filtering is fast.
You can also pin any command to the palette’s main screen, so it’s there the moment you open it. If there’s a folder or a tool you open ten times a day, pinning it saves even those few seconds of typing.
The Dock puts your favorite commands on screen
A toolbar for the commands you use every day
Command Palette now comes with a Dock, a toolbar that stays anchored to the edge of your screen and holds the commands you use most. It’s off by default, but you can turn it on from settings and toggle Enable Dock. You can park it on the top, bottom, left, or right edge, and set it to auto-hide if you don’t want it on screen all the time.
The Dock is split into three regions, Start, Center, and End, much like a taskbar. The lightning icon on the left opens Command Palette with a click, so you don’t always need the keyboard shortcut. Pinning something is easy: right-click any command in the palette and select Pin to Dock. For more control, right-click an empty spot on the Dock, choose Edit Dock, click the + button in the region you want, pick a command, and hit Save. You can also drag items around to reorder them.
Dock can also show live information. The built-in performance bands display CPU, memory, GPU, disk, network, and battery stats, which saves you a trip to Task Manager for a quick check. More importantly, if you have more than one monitor, each screen gets its own Dock with its own set of pinned items.
It won’t replace your taskbar, though. The Dock doesn’t show your open windows, so you still need the taskbar to switch between apps. As my colleague found when she moved half her taskbar to the PowerToys Dock, it works best as a partner to the taskbar, handling quick stats and daily apps while the taskbar handles everything else.
Extensions to enhance the functionality
Add GitHub, Mastodon, and more without leaving the palette
If you are still not impressed, the extensions support might change your mind. Command Palette lets you install extensions to add additional functionality. It does come with a few extensions installed out of the box (you can see them in Settings > Extensions), but more can be found on the Microsoft Store or Winget. To install extensions, type extensions, then choose Microsoft Store or Winget as your source.
For instance, SteamPal lets you search for and launch Steam games directly from Command Palette. Other useful extensions include Virtual Desktop to switch between virtual desktops, EverythingExt lets you integrate Everything Search with Command Palette, Git repositories to quickly find your local git repositories, and Temp Cleaner, as the name suggests, lets you clean up your temp folder directly from the Command Palette.
Extensions are also customizable. The GitHub extension, for instance, has a “Saved GitHub queries” command. You can apply filters on GitHub, copy the URL from your browser’s address bar, paste it into a new query, give it a name, and pin it to the top level. You can even assign that saved query its own hotkey and alias, just like any other command.
Since the whole project is open source, anyone can build an extension and share it. So, if you don’t find something you need, you can create one yourself.
Command Palette should be the default launcher for Windows
Microsoft is reportedly experimenting with Command Palette as an integrated feature for Windows 11. While it’s still in testing, if done right, it can fix one of my long-standing gripes with Windows Search. For now, Command Palette via PowerToys works just as well as a native app with a keyboard shortcut, and I don’t find myself reaching for Windows Search anymore.