Windows 11's Experimental 'Peek' Feature Is Straight Out of macOS

pcmag.com:

Microsoft is reportedly experimenting with a new Windows 11 feature that should be awfully familiar to macOS users. It's called Peek, and it's essentially Quick Look for Windows.

Quick Look allows macOS users to preview files—including photos, videos, and documents—by pressing the space bar while the file is selected. This feature can prove useful when you're looking for a specific image, for example, or just need to glance at a spreadsheet.

Windows Latest reports that Peek is headed to PowerToys, an open source project through which Microsoft can release experimental features meant for power users, to let Windows 11 and Windows 10 users experience something like Quick Look for themselves.

"This feature was apparently developed during a hack week at Microsoft and it was supposed to be an internal prototype/experiment," Windows Latest says. "The company liked the idea of a lightning-fast file preview feature and integrated it into internal builds of Microsoft PowerToys."

Peek would reportedly use the built-in Photos app to render images when a Windows user selects an image and hits their chosen keyboard shortcut. (Which is Shift + space bar by default.) Using the keyboard shortcut again, or pressing the Enter key, dismisses the preview.

Quick Look works the same way, but in recent versions of macOS it also offers easy access to basic editing tools, the Share menu, and the ability to open the previewed file in an associated app. Peek, at least in its current iteration, doesn't seem to offer those advanced capabilities.

Windows Latest says that Peek is still a prototype. It's not clear if or when it might be released.

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