microsoft / microsoft/PowerToys

Enhancement: Automatically Trim Leading and Trailing Whitespace in PowerToys Settings Search

Open
#47,990 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Needs-Triage Product-Settings
Dominant language
C
Stars
139k
Forks
8.6k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

Description of the new feature / enhancement

The settings search functionality in PowerToys could be improved by automatically trimming leading and trailing whitespace from user search queries before processing them.

Currently, users may accidentally paste or type values with extra spaces, which can lead to inconsistent or failed search/filter matching.

Example:

" keyboard manager "

should behave the same as:

"keyboard manager"

Scenario when this would be used?

This helps users when:

copying/pasting search terms
accidentally entering spaces
using quick filtering in Settings pages

Supporting information

Suggested implementation:

normalize search input using .trim()
apply normalization before filtering/search execution
maintain existing search behavior otherwise

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the PowerToys Settings search or filtering entry point and read how user queries are processed. Confirm the current behavior with a search containing leading and trailing spaces, then verify that trimmed and already-trimmed queries produce the same results without changing other search behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.