Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman revealed on Friday that his activist investment firm has bought up approximately $2 billion worth of shares of Uber — sending the ride-share company’s stock surging.
Uber shares were trading at more than 9% higher at around 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday after Ackman wrote on X that his company, Pershing Square Capital Management, has a stake in the app that amounts to around 1% of its $161.13 billion market capitalization.
“Beginning in early January, we began acquiring a position in @Uber. Today, we own 30.3 million shares,” Ackman wrote on X on Friday.
Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager, revealed that he has amassed a $2 billion stake in ride-share giant Uber. Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesAngel investor and actor Edward Norton first learned of Uber through his relationship with company co-founder Travis Kalanick (pictured). EPA
In his X post on Friday, Ackman alluded to Uber’s chaotic management under its controversial co-founder Travis Kalanick and praised the current chief executive officer, Dara Khosrowshahi.
“While a great business, Uber suffered from erratic management,” the billionaire hedge fund manager wrote.
“Since he joined the company in 2017, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has done a superb job in transforming the company into a highly profitable and cash-generative growth machine,” according to Ackman.
“We believe that Uber is one of the best managed and highest quality businesses in the world,” Ackman wrote. “Remarkably, it can still be purchased at a massive discount to its intrinsic value.”
Ackman wrote that “this favorable combination of attributes is extremely rare, particularly for a large cap company.”
“We will have more to share about our thinking on the company shortly.”
Under Khosrowshahi’s watch, Uber went public in May 2019 with one of the largest IPOs in history, but its stock initially struggled, debuting at $45 per share and falling below its IPO price for an extended period due to concerns over profitability.
Ackman said he was introduced to the app by Hollywood actor Edward Norton. WireImageAckman praised Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who has led the company since Kalanick’s departure in 2017. Getty Images
Since then, Uber has rebounded, becoming consistently profitable — with its stock recently surging past $75 as investors gain confidence in its long-term growth.
Ackman said that he first became intrigued with Uber when actor Edward Norton, an angel investor and one of the first to scoop up shares of the company, showed him the app.
Norton, the star of hit films such as “Fight Club,” “Primal Fear” and “The 25th Hour,” was friendly with Kalanick, which earned the actor the distinction of being the first-ever Uber passenger in Los Angeles.
Shares of Uber surged by more than 9% after Ackman announced his position on Friday. Google FinanceAs of Friday, Uber boasted a $161.13 billion market capitalization. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
“As someone who’s had a long-standing antipathy and occasional physical battle with New York cab drivers, I begged him to bring it to New York City. Begged him.”
The Post has sought comment from Norton and Uber.
Kalanick co-founded Uber in 2009 and helped turn it into a global ride-hailing giant, but his aggressive leadership style led to rapid expansion and controversy.
His tenure was marked by scandals, including reports of a toxic workplace culture, regulatory battles and the mishandling of a high-profile sexual harassment case — which led to investor pressure for his resignation in 2017.
Despite his exit, Kalanick is credited for playing a key role in revolutionizing transportation, and Uber remains one of the most influential tech companies in the world.
Are many Tren de Aragua members moonlighting as maids in the Hamptons?
If not, then how can East Hampton Village Police Chief Jeffrey Erickson assure his constituents that he won’t help Immigration and Customs Enforcement deport their cleaning ladies?
East Hampton Village Police Chief Jeffrey Erickson said local law enforcement officers do not have authority to enforce federal law, and won’t hold onto undocumented immigrants if given an ICE detainer. News 12 Long Island
Under President Trump, ICE has been arresting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes like rape, murder and assault yet were inexplicably allowed to stay in the country.
Besides being common sense, it’s enormously popular with the American public.
So to paint Trump as the bad guy, Democrats have to lie about what he’s doing.
In Chicago, they claimed ICE had raided a school (it hadn’t). Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey said he had to protect an illegal migrant from raids (he didn’t).
The Hamptons’ “We will protect your domestic workers!” is simply more posturing.
No one is rounding up migrant workers who haven’t broken laws, as even East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo admits.
“I haven’t seen an ICE agent in this town in I can’t tell you how long,” he said.
Yet the East Hampton Town Board feels the need to hold a two-hour public hearing to discuss what isn’t going to happen, and virtue-signal about how they are paladins of righteousness.
“I want to assure everyone that this is the beginning of a conversation. It’s not a one-and-done statement, ‘Okay, we did our job, let’s move on,’” said Councilwoman Cate Rogers. “We’re invested. We’re your neighbors, and we’re with you.”
What a spectacle. Limousine liberals in multimillion-dollar second homes assuring the housekeeper they’re paying illegally under the table that they will protect them from immigration enforcement, so long as it isn’t Art Basel or Davos that week.
How dare Trump try to punish the workers we exploit. That’s our job!
Tax-efficient Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) have saved investors and savers a boatload of cash down the years. Latest projections show that users of products like Cash ISAs and Stocks and Shares ISAs likely enjoyed a stunning £6.7bn of tax relief in the 2023-2024 tax year alone.
I own both a Cash ISA and Stocks and Shares ISA. I own a Lifetime ISA, too. But the majority of my money is tied up in my shares-based ISA, given the superior returns that equity investing tends to generate.
For investors building a portfolio from scratch, here’s a top share from the FTSE 100 to consider buying today.
A top trust
Investment trusts can be great stocks to buy when starting out on on investing journey. These financial vehicles invest in a portfolio of assets, which allows investors to diversify without having to purchase lots of stocks straight away.
Of the hundreds of trusts to choose from today, I’d consider parking cash in the F&C Investment Trust (LSE:FCIT). This is the oldest trust in the world, dating all the way back to 1868.
Its holdings span more than 400 companies across the globe and a range of sectors. Around two-thirds is in North American equities, and roughly another 19% and 6% in European and Japanese shares, respectively.
This focus on developed markets helps provide the trust with stability over the long term. However, with 8% of the trust invested in emerging markets, it also gives investors exposure to faster-growing economies.
Tech exposure
Another reason I think F&C Investment Trust is worth serious consideration is its high weighting of US technology stocks. The so-called Magnificent Seven shares (namely Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla) have significant long-term growth potential as global digitalisation grows.
On the downside, fresh developments with DeepSeek could work against the trust, given its substantial tech exposure. Chinese progress in artificial intelligence (AI) could pose various dangers, from reducing microchip demand to providing direct competition to US systems.
But on balance, the outlook for the US tech sector (and consequently F&C’s investment trust) remain extremely robust in my opinion. After all, these companies are market leaders across a variety of growth segments, from quantum computing and autonomous cars to cybersecurity and cloud computing.
Trading at a discount
Through a combination of share price gains and dividends, the F&C Investment Trust has delivered a healthy 10.1% average annual return since the beginning 2020.
To put that into context, the broader FTSE 100 has delivered a corresponding return of 7.3%. Past performance isn’t a guarantee of similar returns in the future. But I’m confident the trust will keep delivering better returns than the Footsie given its broad global composition and large weighting of growth stocks.
At £11.80 per share, the trust also currently trades at an 8% discount to its net asset value (NAV) per share. For new ISA investors looking to limit risk, I think it demands a very close look.
I like to get a second opinion when buying UK shares, even an artificial one. So I called in AI chatbot ChatGPT.
I asked it to create a balanced retirement portfolio of five FTSE 100 stocks. I had to substitute two of my robot buddy’s choices, because I’ve covered both a lot lately. I’ve highlighted my stock substitutions below.
As my robot buddy said, “when it comes to building wealth over 50, a sensible strategy involves balancing growth potential with steady dividend income”. Who needs Warren Buffett when I’ve got blinding computer insights like?
My mechanoid mate started by tipping Legal & General Group, a stock I love and own. On being pressed, it switched to insurer Prudential (LSE: PRU), which I don’t.
Prudential has underperformed
Prudential has made a much-applauded transition from Europe to Asia, hoping to tap into the huge and growing Asian middle class. So far, it hasn’t paid off.
The Prudential share price has plunged 20% over one year and 50% over five. China’s economic troubles have hit investor appetite, while higher interest rates and market volatility squeeze insurers generally.
The shares look good value with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 9.5 times. The yield is a disappointing 2.7%, way short of Legal & General’s 8%. ChatGPT was right to pick that first. I’d do the same.
One day Prudential could rally hard, but I’ve been saying that for a long time now.
I also asked ChatGPT to find a substitute for its next pick, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. Unsurprisingly, it picked rival GSK.
GSK has been trailing AstraZeneca for years, but in my view looks better value today. It yields almost 4%, roughly double Astra’s income. And it’s incomparably cheaper, with a P/E of around nine times against AstraZeneca’s hefty P/E of 65 times.
I didn’t have any issues with ChatGPT’s third pick, consumer giant Unilever. “As the owner of household brands like Dove, Persil and Ben & Jerry’s, it enjoys steady demand regardless of economic cycles”, ChatGPT drooled.
The yield is modest at 3.1% but Unilever typically hikes shareholder payouts by 5% every year. The shares are up 18% in 12 months. It’s sprawling, ill-focused operations need banging into shape, but it still looks like a solid long-term buy and hold to me.
Investing for income and growth
I certainly can’t argue against AI’s final two picks – utility giant National Grid and cigarette maker British American Tobacco (except on moral grounds in the latter case).
As a regulated utility, National Grid enjoys predictable income streams, ChatGPT tells me, with an attractive 5.8% trailing yield. The shares look good value with a P/E below 12. My worry is that National Grid has to invest heavily in the energy transition. That’s driving up debt and could one day squeeze dividends.
British American Tobacco is under constant regulatory attack and operates in a declining market. Yet it boasts top brands like Dunhill, LuckyStrike and Vuse, while “pricing power and brand strength allows it to maintain high profit margins”, ChatGPT enthuses.
The trading yield is 7% with the shares up 40% in a year. It’s also cheap with a P/E below nine.
Any investor considering these stock should ensure they work well with existing holdings. They should also take a long-term view. Even over 50, there’s still a long way to go.
NEW ORLEANS — Antonio Gates always dreamed of being in the Hall of Fame.
The basketball Hall of Fame, that is.
The Chargers’ legendary tight end instead took his “plan B” and manifested another dream, being selected for the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Thursday in a four-man class that also included Jared Allen, Sterling Sharpe and Eric Allen.
Gates spent his entire 16-year career with the Chargers, becoming an icon at his position with an NFL-leading 116 touchdown catches. After he transitioned from college basketball at Kent State, the undrafted free agent and former power forward became the Chargers’ franchise leader in receptions, yards receiving, and touchdown catches.
“It’s really so hard to describe in words,” Gates said during one of his numerous interviews after the announcement. “The thing I come up with most is it’s just an amazing feeling. I’m so happy. It’s like a world of weight off my shoulders. I finally made it. I finally reached the pinnacle of sports.”
Gates was introduced in New Orleans’ Saenger Theatre by his former Chargers teammate and fellow Hall of Famer, LaDainian Tomlinson. Other Hall of Famers wrapped Gates in bear hugs as he strode across the stage. Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis grasped Gates’ face with a wide grin.
The four-person class was the smallest in 20 years. Former Rams wide receiver Torry Holt and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning were among the finalists who did not make the cut.
Holt, who was a finalist for the sixth consecutive year, had 920 catches for 13,382 yards and 74 touchdowns during his 11-year career, 10 seasons comingwith the Rams. He was a key component to the “Greatest Show on Turf,” helping the Rams to a victory in Super Bowl XXXIV as a rookie. His Rams teammates Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and Isaac Bruce are enshrined in Canton, Ohio.
“Every year when this time comes, you look at the stats and I’m dumbfounded that he still doesn’t have a gold jacket,” Warner said on the red carpet before the event. “Being next to other Hall of Famers and still doing what he did … if you’re sharing the ball with those guys and you have that kind of production and consistently, year in and year out, go to championship games, win championship games, for all of us it’s overdue.”
Last year Gates was confident he would get the call as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Other players assured him he would. When it didn’t come, he was surprised at how much it hurt.
It felt as if no one recognized just how hard he worked to go from mid-major college basketball star to eight-time Pro Bowl player.
Gates transferred to Kent State after Nick Saban, then the football coach at Michigan State, discouraged him from playing both sports for the Spartans. Gates helped the Golden Flashes reach the Elite Eight as a junior. He was an Associated Press All-American honorable mention as a senior, averaging 20.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, but the stands still were full of NFL scouts. They had gotten a tip from Saban that one of the best football players in the country was on the basketball court.
Even now, Gates’ friends and family from Detroit still consider him more of a basketball player.
“Every year, I wanted to just constantly prove I’m one of the best athletes on this planet, regardless of what sport it was,” Gates said. “It was just that little person in your head, like they didn’t believe you were good enough. The NBA, the Lakers didn’t want to draft you. It helped me flourish to becoming the all-time reception leader, the all-time touchdown leader for the Chargers, essentially, and getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.”
After retiring in 2018, Gates has remained connected with the Chargers as the team’s legends ambassador.
When he saw Dean Spanos in the press tent before sitting for a news conference, Gates, wearing a red and blue plaid blazer with navy slacks, wrapped the Chargers owner in a hug.
“Finally,” he said.
Staff writer Gary Klein contributed to this report.
The Lakers have long wrestled with a problem complicated by competing interests. On one hand, they have a star in LeBron James, who is creeping closer toward retirement. On the other, they have a future to worry about, one in which James is gone and they would need to navigate a rebuild.
But at this year’s NBA trade deadline, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said the moment and the circumstances were right for the Lakers to take their swings. They traded away their two best remaining draft picks, a future Hall of Famer and their two best young guards in a series of deals that netted them Luka Doncic and Mark Williams.
“I think we’ve said all along we were willing to use our picks if the right opportunity came,” Pelinka said Thursday. “And I think we feel like we have two top five, top 10 players in the world on our team right now. And just saw this as an opportunity to give those two players all the resources they need to make a playoff run.”
James is energized by the prospect of playing with Doncic, who likely will debut Monday.
“I can’t wait. Everything I do on the floor, he just has the ability to do it, or even do it better. That’s how great he is,” James said. “Even at his young age of 25, he’s such a unique player, special player, generational talent. So I’ll be super appreciative to be able to share the floor with him and then watch him do his thing. So it’ll be good.”
In Williams, the Lakers found a center the team believes caters to the style that Doncic told Pelinka he likes to play.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Go get this.’ That was not the spirit of the discussions. More like ‘Stylistically, some of the bigs I had in Dallas were really effective, sort of to how I play and how I make my reads.’ And I said, ‘Hey, I’ll do my best for the deadline to see if something like that’s available. If not, it’s something we’ll attack this summer,’” Pelinka said of his talk with Doncic. “I think I said at my press conference a few days ago that the market for bigs was dry. But this opportunity came to us. Maybe it’s in some sense like the L.A. housing market. Not every house is listed. And sometimes you become aware of something that’s available that’s not on the market.
“And when you see the perfect house, you’re willing to go get it, even if you have to be aggressive to do it. I think that’s how we looked at the Mark Williams opportunity when we opened up discussions with Charlotte.”
The Lakers said they expect Williams, who has had a number of injuries with the Hornets, to be fine physically, though the team will still put him through a physical.
“We vetted the injuries he’s had and we’re not concerned about those,” Pelinka said.
Pelinka said that the timing matched with the opportunity for Williams was too good to wait on.
“He’s got great hands, catches the ball above the rim, can finish, gives us a defensive paint presence,” Pelinka said. “There’s a lot of teams in the West that have formidable size that are around the standings with us, Memphis and Houston and OKC. And we just felt like we needed to address that, and we felt like we got the perfect guy.”
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Get ready to impress with One-Pan Marry Me Tortellini! This 20–minute dish is made with cheese tortellini simmered in a rich sun-dried tomato cream sauce. It’s infused with garlic, fresh spinach, and parmesan. You’ll fall in love with every bite!
Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
Total Comfort Food: Marry Me Tortellini is a dish so rich, creamy, and flavorful that it just might inspire a proposal!
One-Pan Wonder: Everything cooks in a single pan, making cleanup a breeze. This is one of the best busy weeknight dinners!
Restaurant-Quality at Home: This is a meal that feels fancy but is super quick and simple to make. It’s perfect for date night or a cozy family dinner. Serve it with my favorite Caesar salad and rolls for a complete meal!
Simple and Stunning!
This Marry Me tortellini is not only easy to throw together, but it is also an absolute show stopper! I almost didn’t want to eat it because it looked so beautiful in my pan! The reason it is so easy to throw together is because almost all of the ingredients are ready to go! Very minimal prep work is required. It all simmers in one pan, making cleanup a breeze! This delicious dish would be perfect for a fancy occasion or a simple week night dinner!
Ingredients For Marry Me Tortellini
How to Make One-Pan Marry Me Tortellini
So much flavor in this recipe, and you only need one pan and 20 minutes! Simply cook the sundried tomatoes and garlic, and add the remaining ingredients. Let the tortellini simmer, and allow the flavors to come together! Let’s get started!
Sauté: Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add 2 tbsp oil from the jarred sun-dried tomatoes, the chopped sun-dried tomatoes, and minced garlic. Cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
Stir in the Flour and Seasonings: Add the all-purpose flour, Italian seasoning, and paprika. Stir into the tomato mixture to create a roux.
Simmer Broth: Whisk in the chicken broth and bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer the sauce for 3-5 minutes until it starts to thicken.
Stir in the Tortellini: Add the pasta and stir to coat it in the sauce. Simmer for 3-5 minutes.
Finish and Serve: Turn off the heat and add heavy cream, chopped fresh spinach, and grated parmesan cheese. Stir and heat until the spinach wilts. Season to taste with salt and black pepper, if needed. Garnish Marry me tortellini with red pepper flakes, and enjoy!
Tortellini Tips and Variations
Here are some ideas for making this one-pan Marry Me tortellini recipe your own. It’s really easy to change up!
Can I add protein? If you’re looking to add protein to this recipe, try adding chicken, sausage, or bacon! Any of those options would be tasty!
What if I don’t like spinach? Use chopped fresh basil in place of the spinach if you prefer. I love the added pop of color and nutrition that the spinach or basil adds to this dish.
What kind of tortellini should I use? We love cheese tortellini, but you can use spinach or sausage tortellini as well. I prefer refrigerated tortellini over frozen, but frozen will also work. For frozen, add a few minutes to the cooking time when you add it to the pan.
Leftover One-Pan Marry Me Tortellini
I hope you have leftover one-pan Marry Me tortellini because it makes the best lunch the next day! The only problem is that everyone will be fighting over them.
Fridge: Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. I don’t recommend freezing the leftovers.
Reheat: Heat individual potions in the microwave until warmed through. If the tortellini has absorbed too much liquid, add a splash of heavy cream or milk before warming.
More Delicious ‘Marry Me’ Recipes
These are called ‘Marry Me’ for good reason! The bold, cozy flavors are so good it will be love at first bite! Check it out! Let me know which one you want to try!
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil from the jarred sun-dried tomatoes, 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, and 2 teaspoons minced garlic. Cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
Add 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, and 1 teaspoon paprika. Stir into the tomato mixture to create a roux.
Whisk in the 2 cups chicken broth and bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer the sauce for 3-5 minutes until it starts to thicken.
Add 1 (18-ounce) package refrigerated cheese tortellini and stir to coat them in the sauce. Simmer for 3-5 minutes to cook the tortellini.
Turn off the heat and add 1 cup heavy cream, 2 cups chopped fresh spinach, ½ cup grated parmesan cheese. Stir and heat until the spinach wilts.
Season to taste with salt and pepper, if needed. Garnish with red pepper flakes,, and enjoy!
Former vice president Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff were spotted at a Los Angeles Lakers game Thursday night — with many quick to boast that “nobody even cared” she was there.
Footage circulating on social media showed the ex-veep showing up to the arena with very little fanfare as she and her hubby hiked up the stairs to their non-courtside seats.
“Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff arrive at the Lakers game. Pretty much nobody cared,” one person howled on X.
Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff attended the Lakers game on Thursday to little fanfare. Getty ImagesLeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers controls the ball against Stephen Curry and Brandin Podziemski of the Golden State Warriors on February 06, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Getty Images“Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff arrive at the Lakers game. Pretty much nobody cared,” one person howled on X. AP
“Just goes to show you how unpopular Kamala really is and how all the hoopla while she campaigned was completely fake.”
The Democratic presidential candidate could be seen smiling and waving at some in the crowd but the clips showed only a handful of people turning around to catch a glimpse of her.
Others on social media were also quick to poke fun at the couple’s lack of VIP courtside seating.
Harris was seen smiling and waving at some in the crowd, with only a handful of people turning around. NBAE via Getty Images
“Kamala Harris is at the Lakers Warriors game in like row 58. Should’ve saved some of that money,” one person posted on X alongside a video of themselves sitting rows far ahead of her.
The couple ended up sitting in front of a broadcast booth to watch the Lakers take on the Golden State Warriors.
Kate Moss poses in Donna Karan’s spring-summer 2025 campaign. Photo: Craig McDean / Donna Karan
Kate Moss is back, and she’s bringing relaxed elegance to Donna Karan’s spring-summer 2025 campaign. The images, lensed by Craig McDean, embrace a warm, minimalist aesthetic with sun-kissed golden tones.
Donna Karan Spring/Summer 2025 Campaign
Donna Karan features a bodycon dress in its spring-summer 2025 campaign. Photo: Craig McDean / Donna Karan
This season, the collection centers on elevated wardrobe staples. Flowing dresses, sleek tailoring, and soft draping define the silhouettes. Meanwhile, a neutral palette of ivory, champagne, and sand creates a sense of quiet luxury.
Kate Moss suits up in Donna Karan’s spring 2025 ad. Photo: Craig McDean / Donna Karan
Stylist Jessica Diehl curates the looks with a mix of structured pieces and fluid, feminine designs, balancing power dressing with sensuality. Moss, exuding her signature confidence, wears standout pieces like a halter-neck gown with gold hardware, a shimmering slip dress adorned with embellishments, and a tailored suit.
Supermodel Kate Moss wears a white dress for the Donna Karan spring 2025 campaign. Photo: Craig McDean / Donna Karan
Accessories remain understated, with sculptural gold cuffs and minimalist heels complementing the clean lines. The campaign follows Moss’s recent appearance in Isabel Marant’s spring ads, reinforcing her enduring influence in fashion.
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.
