microsoft / microsoft/PowerToys

Hints-style Keyboard Navigation

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#48,942 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Needs-Triage Product-Keyboard Manager
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C
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Description

# Feature Request: Add Vimium/Hints-style Keyboard Navigation

## Summary
First apologies if there is already a request for this and i failed to see it but It would be extremely useful to have built-in keyboard hints for interacting with UI elements, similar to the following tools:

https://github.com/philc/vimium
https://github.com/moverest/wl-kbptr
https://github.com/AlfredoSequeida/hints

Instead of relying on mouse movement or manually cycling through controls, pressing a configurable hotkey would overlay short labels (AA, AS, DQ, etc.) on every clickable element or a grid of labels of where a user wishes to move the mouse/click something.

### Scenario when this would be used?

This would significantly improve accessibility and productivity for users who prefer keyboard-driven workflows. (e.g vim enthusiasts 😉)

### Supporting information

## Benefits

* Faster navigation without touching the mouse.
* Improves accessibility.
* Complements existing keyboard shortcuts rather than replacing them.
* Makes large, complex interfaces much easier to navigate.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are identified. Review the referenced Vimium, wl-kbptr, and hints projects first, then determine the appropriate PowerToys utility and interaction scope for configurable keyboard-triggered labels. Done would require an agreed design for labeling clickable elements or pointer positions, keyboard selection, and accessibility behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
accessibility, desktop, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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