You can even choose to keep them in a sidebar, where they used to live in Windows Vista, though if you add too many gadgets for the sidebar, they slip onto a second pane where they’re not immediately visible. Its widgets have a glossy retro look that stands out in this age of muted colours, transparency and flat design. Launching 8Gadget is like winding back the clock. You can add extra widgets, including a dictionary, translator tool and photo frame, via the optional $ Pro Widgets extension ( /APC512WLPRO) that builds on its core skills. Once you’ve got your widgets set up, the Launcher app remembers your widget settings and locations, so when you restart your PC, all widgets will reappear in their former locations, with contents – such as text in the Notes widget – still in place. Some widgets support multiple instances, so for example you could have several different Notes widgets open at once, or two different Calendar widgets showing different time periods and events. The available widgets cover a good spread of functions: you can check on your CPU and RAM usage, keep an eye on the time in multiple locales, track the weather forecast and even convert currencies directly on your desktop. You can choose whether they sit above or below windows, and in many cases you can customise their appearance. Widget Launcher is a simple, free utility that adds a selection of floating widgets to the Windows desktop. Happily, there are several third-party tools that can do just that. Rather than hiding information away in a panel, there’s much to be said for the old way of displaying widgets on the desktop, especially in these days of huge 4K screens. Not everyone wants to get hands- on with code, however, and frankly not everyone loves Windows 11 widgets anyway. If you’re fluent in JSON you can try it out now at adaptivecards.io.

Microsoft recently announced that developers will be able to start creating their own widgets for Windows 11 this year, using a framework called Adaptive Cards. Windows 11 is limited to a curated selection of built-in widgets, but that will soon be changing.

Widget launcher for windows 10