How To Use Widgets On Your Windows 11 Computer

Microsoft really flipped the script with Windows 11 back in October 2021. It brought a bunch of new content and features in tow, and new ones are being added all the time. Among the more well-known changes like Android apps, the rounded design, and the centered taskbar, Microsoft also added widgets to Windows 11.

Widgets, in any form, are wildly useful tools. They give you at-a-glance insight into what’s going on in certain apps and they quickly let you perform certain actions. While this is true, they’re not really useful if you don’t know how to use them. So here’s how to use widgets on your Windows 11 computer.

First, enable widgets on your Windows 11 computer

It’s likely that Windows 11 has your widgets enabled by default; however, there’s a chance that they won’t. If you don’t see your widgets on the left side of your taskbar, then right-click your taskbar. In the taskbar settings, you should see the option to enable your widgets. When you do so, you should see it pop up as a weather report.

 

 How to personalize your widgets

The widgets panel is split into two sections. The first section has your actual widgets and the second one has your news feed. When you dig into your widgets, you’ll see a selection of pre-selected widgets populating the top section. They consist of the basics: weather, photos from One Drive, stock market news, current events, and sports.

To customize your widgets, click the three-dot menus on the top of the widgets for a drop-down menu. The menu lets you change the size of the widget (just small, medium, and large), adjust settings, and remove it altogether.

Since the widgets are all rectangular and square in shape, they can be easily arranged in a grid pattern. Click the top of them to drag them into whatever arrangement you like.

 

How to customize your newsfeed

If you don’t want to be bombarded by a torrent of headlines when you open your widgets panel, you’re out of luck. There’s no way that you can disable the news feed. The best thing you can do is customize it so that it shows more of the stuff that you’re interested in.

Firstly, if there are any publications you don’t want to see, click on the “X” on the top right of the card and select the hide option. You won’t see any more articles from that source.

However, if you truly want to customize your feed, merely removing publications won’t do it. Click the three-dot menu and go to the “Manage Your Interests” option. A browser window will open up to a page that lets you pick and choose which categories you want on your feed.

While this is a neat addition, you’re still going to get a lot of other news thrown in, and there’s no way to disable it. You’ll still get political news and world events with no way to avoid them.

What widgets are available now?

Right now, there are a handful of widgets that can populate your feed. The weather widget and traffic widget are pretty self-explanatory. We have a photo app that plays a slideshow of your picture on One Drive.

The entertainment widget shows you the latest movies and shows coming out and where to watch them. Clicking on the widget will take you right to the streaming app that it’s on. If the movie/show is streaming from the Microsoft store, then you’ll be taken there.

If you’re into the Esports scene, then there’s a widget just for you. The widget is simply named “Video Games”, but it shows you the latest Esports competition scores. If you like regular sports, there there’s also a widget that does the same thing.

The Family Safety widget is the shortcut to the suite of family-friendly tools that Microsoft offers. It takes you right to the site where you can access your family-friendly apps. There’s also a widget that shows you the latest stock prices.

There are also productivity widgets

Along with the widgets that let you see things, there are widgets that let you do things. Firstly, we have the Outlook Calendar widget. This shows you your week along with any events you may have scheduled.

Rounding out the list, we have a to-do list widget. This one is pretty axiomatic; you jot down what tasks you need to do and keep track of your tasks.

Right now, these widgets all lead to first-party Microsoft services. Hopefully, other companies will be able to add their own widgets to Windows 11. It’d be to access services from other companies in the widgets panel. If you’re interested in getting Windows 11, you can download it from the official page.