PowerToys/doc/devdocs/modules/launcher/plugins/windowssettings.md

Windows Settings Plugin

The Windows settings Plugin allows users to search the Windows settings.

Special functions (differ from the regular functions)

• Support modern Windows settings (Windows 10+)

• Support legacy Windows settings (Windows 7, 8.1)

• Support extra programs for setting (like ODBC)

• Support search by the area of the setting (like Privacy)

• Support search for alternative names of a setting

How to add a new Windows Setting or change one

All Windows settings are located in WindowsSettings.json in root folder of the project. The WindowsSettings.json use a JSON schema file that make it easier to edit it.

Key	Optional	Value type	String prefix
Name	No	String
Type	No	String	App
Command	No	String
Areas	Yes	List with strings	Area
AltNames	Yes	List with strings
Note	Yes	String	Note
IntroducedInBuild	Yes	Integer
DeprecatedInBuild	Yes	Integer
ShowAsFirstResult	Yes	Boolean

A minimum entry for the WindowsSettings.json looks like:

  {
    "Name": "mySetting",
    "Type": "AppSettingsApp",
    "Command": "ms-settings:mySetting"
  }

A full entry for the WindowsSettings.json looks like:

  {
    "Name": "mySetting",
    "Type": "AppSettingsApp",
    "Command": "ms-settings:mySetting",
    "Areas": [ "AreaMySettingArea" ],
    "AltNames": [ "NiceSetting" ],
    "Note": "NoteMySettingNote",
    "IntroducedInBuild" : 1903,
    "DeprecatedInBuild" : 2004,
    "ShowAsFirstResult" : true
  }

Remarks

• The Command for modern Windows settings should start with ms-settings:
• The Command for legacy Windows settings should start with control
• The integer value for IntroducedInBuild and DeprecatedInBuild must be in range of 0 to 4294967295
• The strings for Name, AltNames, Areas, Type and Note must not contain whitespace(s) or special characters (#, €, $, etc.)
• The strings for Name, AltNames, Areas, Type and Note are used as ids for the resource file under Properties\Resources.resx
• When you add new strings make sure you have added all translations for it.
• If a result has mmc.exe as command and the note property is filled, the note is shown in the sub title too. (This is for special MMC results where we don't have a .msc file.)

Scores

There are three different score types with different start values.

Score type	Start value
First result score	10500
High score	10000
Medium score	5000
Low score	1000

Each score will decreased by one when a condition match.

Priority	Condition	Score type
1.	Settings name starts with the search value	High score
2.	Settings name contain the search value	Medium score
3.	Setting has no area	Low score
4.	One area of the settings starts with the search value	Low score
5.	Setting has no alternative name	Low score
6.	One alternative name of the settings starts with the search value	Medium score
x.	no condition match	Low score

Remarks

• For each score condition we check if the property "ShowAsFirstResult" of the setting is true. If yes we use the firstResultScore instead of condition`s score.

Important for developers

General

• The assembly name is cached into _assemblyName (to avoid to many calls of Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly())

Microsoft.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.WindowsSettings project

Important plugin values (meta-data)

Name	Value
ActionKeyword	$
ExecuteFileName	Microsoft.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.WindowsSettings.dll
ID	5043CECEE6A748679CBE02D27D83747A

Interfaces used by this plugin

The plugin use only these interfaces (all inside the Main.cs):

• Wox.Plugin.IPlugin
• Wox.Plugin.IContextMenu
• Wox.Plugin.IPluginI18n

Program files

File	Content
Classes\WindowsSetting.cs	A class that represent one Windows setting
Classes\WindowsSettings.cs	A wrapper class that only contains a list with Windows settings (see 1)
Helper\ContextMenuHelper.cs	All functions to build the context menu (for each result entry)
Helper\JsonSettingsListHelper.cs	All functions to load the windows settings from a JSON file
Helper\ResultHelper.cs	All functions to convert internal results into WOX results
Helper\TranslationHelper.cs	All functions to translate the result in the surface language
Helper\UnsupportedSettingsHelper.cs	All functions to filter not supported Windows settings out
Helper\WindowsSettingsPathHelper.cs	All functions to build the area paths
Images\WindowsSettings.dark.png	Symbol for the results for the dark theme
Images\WindowsSettings.light.png	Symbol for the results for the light theme
Properties\Resources.Designer.resx	File that contain all translatable keys
Properties\Resources.resx	File that contain all translatable strings in the neutral language
Main.cs	Main class, the only place that implement the WOX interfaces
plugin.json	All meta-data for this plugin

1. We need this extra wrapper class to make it possible that the JSON file can have and use a JSON schema file. Because the JSON file must have a object as root type, instead of a array.

Important project values (*.csproj)

Name	Value
TargetFramework	net6.0-windows (.NET 5) or net6.0-windows10.0.19041.0 (OS version specific)
Platforms	x64
Output	..\..\..\..\..\x64\Debug\modules\launcher\Plugins\Microsoft.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.WindowsSettings\
RootNamespace	Microsoft.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.WindowsSettings
AssemblyName	Microsoft.PowerToys.Run.Plugin.WindowsSettings

Project dependencies

Projects

• Wox.Infrastructure
• Wox.Plugin