According to the reports, 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 File Explorer’s 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 by pressing the space bar.
Microsoft is considering a similar feature for Windows 11 and Windows 10. This feature is called “Peek” and it will be available through PowerToys. The exact same handy quick spacebar preview is available when users work on files on Windows 11 and Windows 10.
This feature was developed during one of Microsoft’s Hack Weeks and should be an internal prototype/experiment. The company liked the idea of a quick file preview feature and incorporated it into the in-house build of Microsoft PowerToys.
Just like Quick View in macOS, users can simply select or highlight a file in File Explorer or on the desktop, then press Shift + Spacebar to preview the contents of the file. For example, if it’s an image, you can hit Shift + Spacebar to open a quick preview of the media in a small popup.
The user needs to hit the key again to close it – or hit the enter key as well. Unlike third-party tools, the PowerToys Peek feature uses the Microsoft Photos app to present media previews. You can also zoom in or out on the previewed image and edit it in the Microsoft Photos app.
The Shift+Spacebar shortcut triggers the handy PowerToys Peek feature on Windows, but only works when the app is running in the background, and thanks to the integration of the Photos app, performance is much better than third-party apps.
This is especially useful when browsing a folder containing media files and wanting to be sure that a picture is what the user thinks it is before deleting or doing something else. PowerToys Peek looks like a very clever and useful little piece of software for Windows that will be completely free and ad-free. It’s worth noting that the feature is still in the prototype stage and isn’t ready for consumer use.