IT House April 8 news, according to Windows Latest, like the preview pane of File Explorer, Quick View is an interesting and useful feature in macOS for quickly previewing files, such as photos or text. While the file explorer preview pane works well after the latest PowerToys update and supports advanced files, MacOS's Quick Look is found to be more compelling because users can preview files at the push of the spacebar.
Microsoft is considering similar features for Windows 11 and Windows 10. This feature is called "Peek" and it will be available through PowerToys. When users work on files on Windows 11 and Windows 10, they can achieve exactly the same convenient quick spacebar preview.
This feature was developed during one of Microsoft's Hack Weeks and should be an internal prototype/experiment. The company loves the idea of a quick file preview feature and integrates it into the internal build of Microsoft PowerToys.
Just like quick view for macOS, users can simply select or highlight a file in File Explorer or on the desktop, and then press Shift + SPACEBAR to preview the contents of the file. For example, if it's an image, you can click Shift + Spacebar to open a quick preview of the media in a small pop-up window.
The user needs to click the key again to close it – or they can click Enter. Unlike third-party tools, the PowerToys Peek feature uses the Microsoft Photos app to present media previews. You can also zoom in or out of the previewed image and edit it in the Microsoft Photos app.
The Shift + Spacebar shortcuts trigger the handy PowerToys Peek feature on Windows, but only work when the app is running in the background, and performance is much better than third-party apps due to the integration of the Photos app.
This is especially useful when browsing folders that contain media files and want to determine that a picture is what the user thinks it is before deleting or doing something else.
PowerToys Peek looks like a smart and useful little piece of software that works perfectly for Windows, will be completely free, and will be ad-free. It's worth noting that the feature is still in the prototype phase and is not ready for consumers to use.