Microsoft’s Windows 11 OS, to be released in October 2021, has widgets that are designed to be accessible information tools that reside on the taskbar menu in much the same way as apps live on the home screens of smartphones. These widgets perform functions, such as displaying the time, weather, news & stock market prices. Additionally, many of these widgets can be personalized to deliver curated Content.
All Windows 11 widgets are developed in-house so users can be confident that they don’t pose any security risk, which was a problem with Windows’ gadgets that were built by 3rd party developers (widgets are similar to gadgets; these were discontinued by Microsoft about 10 years ago & were a feature on Windows 7).
In order to access widgets, all one has to do is to simply click on the widget icon on the taskbar, then scroll down & click the “Add Widgets” button. A “Widget Settings” window will open that allows you to add widgets to the menu. Users can add the widgets they want to include from this menu by clicking on the ones they prefer.
The cool thing is that users can customize both the look & the Content of these widgets to display personalized information. For instance the News widgets, such as entertainment, sports & current affairs feeds can be set up to reflect local points of interest & curated Content based on personal interests. Customization is achieved by clicking on the small three-dot icon in the top-right corner of each widget, where you can select the size – choose between small, medium or large, & input personalized settings if the widget supports it – for instance, to personalize a news feed, click on the “Personalize Your News Feed” option & follow the prompts to update the feed.
Notable widgets that do a bit more than display News feeds include the Photos Widget, which iterates through photos & images saved to a Microsoft account & the ToDo list, which allows users to display their upcoming tasks on screen. Another easy to use & useful feature is the Bing search bar on the widgets panel, which lets users search the Net directly from their widget panel.
Deleting a widget is as easy as adding it – click on the three-dot icon for the widget & select “Remove Widget”, the widget is then deleted from the display panel.
Currently, the widgets’ panel is still in the testing phase; Microsoft may change the appearance & the diversity of options for the new OS. It may allow third party developers to build widgets, or it may build in-house items to add to the variety. Whichever option Microsoft eventually follows, users can be assured that it will be vigilant when it comes to security & keeping their users safe so that they avoid the debacle they experienced over their insecure gadgets.
Image credit: Microsoft
