It’s worth trying out for weather and calendar. If you hate the news feed, you can turn off the Widgets button entirely via taskbar settings. For most users, third-party apps like Rainmeter (classic desktop widgets) or simply pinning apps to the taskbar remain better alternatives.
❌ – Weather, traffic, news, and synced To-Do items all need you to be signed into a Microsoft Account. Local accounts get a crippled experience. widgets #windows 11
✅ – Widgets are responsive, load quickly, and respect your system theme (light/dark mode). It’s worth trying out for weather and calendar
❌ – Unlike macOS Sonoma/Sequoia or Android, you cannot place widgets on your Windows 11 desktop background. They remain locked inside the pane. For many users, this defeats the purpose. ❌ – Weather, traffic, news, and synced To-Do
❌ – As of 2026, there’s no WhatsApp widget, no Slack widget, no Discord, no Spotify full player (just a limited preview), and no Google services (Calendar, Keep, Gmail). Developers have shown little interest.
✅ – Hovering over the taskbar button (or pressing Win + W) brings it up instantly. It doesn’t cover your full screen like a Start menu search, just a 1/3-width overlay.