Windows 11 is likely to get support for third-party widgets pretty soon. The widget panel is one of the major innovations in Windows 11. But its current set of features is very limited. It only supports widgets made by Microsoft. Currently, the panel can only display the weather forecast, traffic information, as well as the Outlook calendar, photos and to-do list from Microsoft To-Do. However, the situation may change soon.
The developer "FireCube" posted a number of screenshots on his Twitter, the reveal that third-party widgets are coming to the Microsoft Store. Apparently, they will be different types of widgets, including widgets based on web apps. The process of publishing widgets to the Store will be the same as publishing apps.
Microsoft has created Widgets as an extentable plarform. The software giant explained in the announcement that Widgets are the open platform for developers.
At the same time, it is hard to predict whether third-party developers are interested in creating their own widgets for Windows 11. In the end, the availability of third-party widgets will define how useful Widgets can be.
To access Widgets in Windows 11, you can use the Win + W keyboard shortcut, or a button in the taskbar. It is worth mentioning that in Insider builds, Microsoft was testing a new layout for the taskbar with Widgets adding a weather forecast, similar to how News and Interests look in Windows 10.
If you find no use for Widgets, you will be happy to learn that Microsoft allows removing them with winget.
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