Enhance Crop and Lock with Full-Window Reparenting, Pause/Unpause Toggle, and Floating Control Bar

[kimmydotzip]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Extend Crop and Lock to enable a new “pause screen share” workflow, useful for Microsoft Teams and other platforms lacking a native screen sharing pause feature. Specifically:

1. Full-Window Reparenting

   • Allow users to right-click a window to reparent the entire window (no cropping) when selecting the area to reparent.
   • Do not add a PowerToys title bar or border in this mode to preserve native appearance.

2. Pause Functionality

   • Add a “Pause” action that:
     • Freezes the contents of the reparented window as a static image.
     • Detaches the original window so it can be interacted with normally.
   • “Unpause” reattaches the window and resumes live display.

3. Floating Control Bar

   • Add a compact, draggable control bar overlay (outside of the reparented window) that contains:
     • Pause/Unpause toggle
     • “Move Window” toggle (when enabled, allows dragging the reparented view)
     • Optional: “Close” or “Reparent Again” if the source window is lost

4. Window Closure Behavior

   • If the original window is closed:
     • While paused: keep the frozen view visible, but disable unpause
     • While live: close the reparented view automatically

Scenario when this would be used?

Users frequently share windows in Microsoft Teams (and other tools) but lack a “pause” feature like that found in Zoom. This enhancement would allow a user to:

• Share a clean, frozen view of a window.
• Pause the reparented view to make changes or handle sensitive information privately.
• Resume sharing by unpausing, reattaching the live window view.

This is particularly useful for live demos, customer calls, educational settings, and high-stakes presentations.

Supporting information

• Direct user request inspired by missing screen sharing controls in Teams, and other screen sharing apps.
• Mimics the behavior of Zoom’s “Pause Share” but at the OS level.
• Could be extended later with hotkeys or snapshot export for further utility.
• Cleanly integrates and extends the existing Crop and Lock experience and functionality.