There are times when you don’t want to view the whole window of a Windows app, but you still want to keep tabs on what it’s doing. In that case, you can crop a small portion of it and focus on that specific part of the window.
If you have installed PowerToys on your computer and updated it recently, you’re able to do just that using the Crop and Lock feature.
How Does Crop and Lock Work in PowerToys?
The Crop and Lock feature in PowerToys lets you crop a small section of an application’s window. Once you do that,PowerToys will keep the window on top, allowing you to view it without constantly losing it when you click on another window.
Here are the types of cropped windows you can create with the Crop and Lock feature:
A simple use case would be if you are downloading something in a program like Steam, and you want to keep track of the progress. You can crop out the section of the window showing the download progress to monitor it in real time.
How to Crop and Lock Apps on Windows With PowerToys
If you haven’t already, make sure you’vedownloaded PowerToys onto your Windows computer. Once you open PowerToys, click onCrop and Lockon the left side menu. Then, enable the feature (if it is not enabled already) by clicking on the toggle next toEnable Crop and Lock.
To create a thumbnail window, pressWin + Ctrl + Shift + T, and if you want to Reparent the window, pressWin + Ctrl + Shift + R. Then, click and drag to select the window section you wish to crop.
Afterward, you should see a smaller window of the app appear on your computer.
Keep in mind that if you choose to Reparent the window, the interactive elements included in that cropped section will be clickable. However, you might encounter some weird behaviors, such as some of the on-screen elements not working when you click them.
Focus on the Part of the Windows You Want
The Crop and Lock feature is an excellent way to view the part of an app’s window that interests you the most. You don’t need to bother resizing the app, and it’s so easy to activate since you just need to press the thumbnail or Reparent shortcut and select the part of the window you want to crop.
