Microsoft moved the PowerToys command palette to Windows 11’s Run dialog, and it now loads in 94 ms

We love PowerToys here at XDA, to the point where we often ask why Microsoft hasn’t yet added the full suite in Windows 11 as official tools. I’m not exaggerating when I say that using Windows 11 without PowerToys means you’re missing out on some very cool features and tools, and you should really give it a try to see what you’re missing.

Well, it turns out that Microsoft is now adding a PowerToys feature into Windows 11 proper. The Command Palette (aka “CmdPal”) has been such a useful tool in PowerToys that Microsoft decided it deserved a place on its operating system as well.

Windows 11’s new Run dialog uses PowerToys command palette code under the hood

This is a great moment for everyone who worked on Command Palette

Credit: Microsoft

As announced on Microsoft DevBlogs, a new Windows 11 Run dialog will be available soon. It’s actually been in the works for a few years now and has a pretty interesting history. Basically, Microsoft really liked the look of PowerToys Run, so they created mockups for a new Run tool inspired by it. This then inspired them to create the command palette for PowerToys as part of a hackathon. Now this same code is introduced in Windows 11:

CmdPal is of course much more than just a run dialog box. But the same code that powers CmdPal in PowerToys is now part of the new Run Dialog. In fact, the run command provider in CmdPal is the exact same code as the new Run Dialog! Anyone who has ever contributed to CmdPal has contributed to creating a part of Windows.

The new Run dialog is a bit faster than the old one, loading in just 94ms compared to the current dialog’s 103ms. It is therefore both powerful and quick to charge; exactly what you want from a Run tool. It’s available now on the Windows Insider Experimental Channel, with a general release hopefully coming soon.