Flow Launcher vs Microsoft PowerToys

Flow Launcher

• Windows users who want a keyboard launcher at no cost
• People who already use Everything or Windows Search and want it in a launcher
• Tinkerers who install or write their own plugins

Microsoft PowerToys

• Windows users who want window layouts, a launcher and key remapping from one free install
• Developers and power users who work mostly from the keyboard
• People who prefer open-source tools published by the maker of the operating system

Flow Launcher

• Windows only; the download section says it supports Windows 10 and later.
• On first install, Windows may raise a security warning because the code is not signed, according to the README.
• Integrations such as Spotify, Steam and Obsidian come from community-made plugins and not from the core app.
• Help comes through GitHub, Discord and Reddit, and the project is funded by sponsors.

Microsoft PowerToys

• Windows only: it needs Windows 11 or Windows 10 version 2004 or newer on a 64-bit x64 or ARM64 processor.
• Paste with AI is off by default and needs a model provider; online providers require your own API key and may charge for usage.
• Keyboard Manager remaps apply only while PowerToys is running, do not work on the log-in screen and cannot differ between keyboards.
• FancyZones cannot snap some listed apps, and apps running elevated need PowerToys to run as administrator.

Flow Launcher

App and file search

Search for and launch apps, and find files or file contents using Everything or the Windows index, from a window opened with a customizable hotkey.

Web searches and bookmarks

Run a web search with your chosen search engine, open URLs and find bookmarks from different browsers.

System and shell commands

Shut down, restart, sleep or lock the PC, search Windows and Control Panel settings, and run batch or PowerShell commands as Administrator or another user.

Plugin Store

Install community plugins from the Plugin Store in Settings or by typing pm install. Plugins can be written in C#, F#, Python, JavaScript or TypeScript.

Dialog Jump

Search for a file or folder and jump an Open or Save As dialog to its path. Alt+G points the dialog at the folder open in the active file manager.

Preview panel and themes

F1 toggles a preview panel that can show media files as large images. Themes, window size, animation and sound can be changed, or you can build your own theme.

Microsoft PowerToys

FancyZones

A window manager for custom zone layouts. Hold Shift while dragging a window to snap it into a zone, or let Win+arrow keys move windows between zones. Layouts are built in a grid or canvas editor.

Command Palette

A launcher opened with Win+Alt+Space that starts apps, runs commands, searches files and the web, calculates and switches windows. Community extensions install from a built-in Extension Gallery.

Keyboard Manager

Remaps single keys and shortcuts, globally or for one app, and can map a key or shortcut to a text sequence, an app launch or a URI.

Advanced Paste

Pastes clipboard content as plain text, Markdown, JSON or a file, extracts text from images with local OCR, and can transform text through an optional AI provider that you configure.

File Explorer tools

PowerRename renames files in bulk with search and replace or regular expressions, Image Resizer resizes images from the right-click menu, and File Locksmith shows which processes are using a file.

Screen and text tools

Color Picker samples colors anywhere on screen, Text Extractor copies on-screen text with OCR, Screen Ruler measures pixels, and ZoomIt zooms, annotates and records the screen for presentations.

Flow Launcher

• Flow Launcher$0

  The complete launcher as an installer or portable ZIP, or through winget, Scoop or Chocolatey. Sponsorship is optional.

Microsoft PowerToys

• PowerToys$0

  All utilities, installed from GitHub, the Microsoft Store or WinGet. Free and open source under the MIT license.