Published Jun 14, 2026, 5:30 PM EDT Judy is an author at XDA with over a decade of experience writing about digital media. She's written for some of the largest names such as MakeUseOf, Android Central, Android Police. She always has an Windows computer handy and is always looking into upgrading. When she's not writing about tech, she's watching Return of the Jedi or playing with her Yorkie. For years, the way I would grab text was embarrassing. I would get a screenshot or spot a picture with text I wanted to search for and type it out in Google search. Then I found PowerToys Text Extractor, a free OCR tool buried inside Microsoft PowerToys , and I knew I wasn’t going back to the clunky ways of copying text. It lets me copy text from images, videos, and even apps that block selection on Windows. I can’t remember the last time I retyped something, and going back honestly feels ridiculous.…