Microsoft planning to add a major feature to Windows 11 Widgets

Microsoft has been focussing on the Widgets feature a lot lately. A larger canvas for Widgets, new animation, a new widget picker experience, and third-party app support are all improvements the company introduced in the last few months to make the experience better. The Redmond tech giant has more plans for Widgets in the future too.

The ability to pin Widgets to Windows 11 desktop was one of the most requested features in the Microsoft Feedback Hub app. Microsoft has taken note of this and has finally started working on it, according to sources. The Redmond company is actively working on the functionality to allow Windows users to pin their favorite widgets on the Desktop, a feature we last saw on Windows 7.

Pinning widgets to the Desktop is exactly the same as pinning apps on your phone’s home screen. In both cases, it primarily has only one purpose: to allow you to stay up to date with recent information without opening the app. For instance, if you pin the Outlook widget on the Desktop, you can stay up to date with emails you received recently without actually opening the Outlook app.

Specific details about the upcoming Widgets feature are unavailable, however. Pinning widgets to the Desktop should not be only for first-party apps. Besides Outlook, Phone Link, and the like, Microsoft should also allow users to pin widgets that come from third-party players like Meta’s Facebook. We will see if that turns out to be the case when Microsoft releases the feature.

As for when it will be available for Windows 11 users, we are not aware of it at the moment. However, Microsoft will introduce the ability to pin widgets to the Desktop to Windows Insiders first. After the necessary testing, it will be available for general users via “Moment” or 23H2 update release, expected to come this year.

Source: Windows Central