PowerToys, a multi-utility tool for Windows, includes Advanced Paste which, among other things, lets you easily extract audio from video using just a keyboard shortcut. It works like a charm.
While you might not need it daily, there are definitely times when extracting audio from a video comes in handy. For example, you found a great background sound you’d like as a ringtone, or maybe you need a specific sound bite for a personal video editing project. Whatever your reason, the Advanced Paste tool in PowerToys makes this task easy.
In this quick and straightforward tutorial, I will show you how to use the PowerToys Advanced Paste feature to extract audio from any video in Windows 11 and Windows 10. Let’s get started.
Before You Begin
- This tutorial assumes you’ve already installed PowerToys. If not, download it from the official GitHub page and install it. Alternatively, run
winget install --id Microsoft.PowerToyscommand in Terminal/PowerShell.
Extract Audio Using PowerToys
- Open the PowerToys app.
- Go to the “System Tools” > “Advanced Paste” page.
- Turn ON the “Enable Advanced Paste” toggle.
- Close the PowerToys window.
- Open the File Explorer by pressing “Windows key + E”.
- Find the video from which you want to extract the audio.
- Select the video file and press “Ctrl + C” shortcut.
- Press the “Windows key + Shift + V” shortcut.
- Select the “Transcode to .mp3” option.
- With that, PowerToys will extract the audio and save it in the same directory.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
Before you can extract audio, we need to make sure the Advanced Paste feature in PowerToys is enabled and configured correctly. To do that, open PowerToys by clicking its icon on the taskbar.
Note: If you don’t see the PowerToys icon, open the app by searching for it in the Start menu. If you still don’t see it, it might be hidden. Click the “Up” arrow on the taskbar to see hidden icons.
In the PowerToys window, go to the “System Tools” > “Advanced Paste” page from the sidebar. On the right page, turn ON the “Enable Advanced Paste” toggle. This enables the Advanced Paste tool.
Next, scroll down and ensure that the “Transcode audio/video” toggle is enabled.
Now, open File Explorer by pressing the “Windows key + E” shortcut. Find the video file from which you want to extract audio and press “Ctrl + C“.
In the same directory, press the “Windows key + Shift + V” shortcut to open the “Advanced Paste” dialog. Here, select the “Transcode to .mp3” option.
As soon as you do that, the tool starts the extraction process. Depending on the video file size and duration, it might take some time. For instance, my video file is around 3.5 GB and 2 hours long, so it around 1 minute to extract the audio.
Once extracted, the audio file is automatically saved to the same directory or in whichever directory is opened at the time of pressing the Advanced Paste shortcut.
That is all. It is that simple to extract audio using the PowerToys Advanced Paste feature. If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.
Good to know: How to convert MP3 to OPUS format
