Windows 10 Lock Screen gets these new widgets

A new research reveals several new widgets that you can have on the Windows 10 Lock screen. In addition to weather you are familiar with, it can now show traffic, NBA sports, stocks and currency rates. These must be powered by MSN news.

The new feature is part of the Release Preview update, Windows 10 19045.4235 (KB5035941), released on March 14.

The update itself lists several new features. First of all, it adds Windows Spotlight to the desktop background options. Secondly, it lists weather, sports, traffic, and finance content for the lock screen.

However, both features are "rolling out gradually", so there is a high chance that you won't have them in Windows 10 19045.4235 after installing KB5035941.

Still, enthusiasts quickly managed to find a way to activate the widgets. Traditionally, with help of the ViVeTool open-source app, and the proper ID, you can get the new Lock screen sections without much efforts.

Enable new widgets on the Windows 10 Lock screen

1. Navigate to this GitHub page and download the ViVeTool zip archive.
2. Extract the app to the c:\vivetool folder for your convenience.
3. Now open a new Terminal as administrator. In Terminal, use a PowerShell or Command Prompt tab - both will do.
4. Finally, type: c:\vivetool\vivetool /enable /id:48801541, and hit Enter.
5. Restart the computer, so the Lock screen will now have new widgets.

You are done!

Note: If the new widgets didn't appear, go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen, and enable the weather app in there.

Finally, if you want to get rid of the new additions, you must run the opposite command:

c:\vivetool\vivetool /disable /id:48801541

Don't forget to run it as Administrator, and restart the computer once you see the Successfully set feature configuration message.

That's it.

Thanks to @PhantomOfEarth for sharing their findings!