Well, that’s a relief! One of the more notable new features coming to Windows 11 is support for custom, third-party widgets that will live alongside the currently available ones in their dedicated panel.
This new addition was confirmed not too long ago at BUILD 2022.
But if you were concerned that the availability of this vast library of widgets might have performance negatives, rest assured that this will not be the case. Microsoft is doing all it can to ensure that the applets work without dragging your system down.
According to company documentation, these widgets will be powered by Adaptive Cards technology, which is written in JSON and allows apps and services to exchange data openly.
This is actually how Redmond transforms JSON into a native UI that automatically adapts to the container or window of a specific application. This design choice helps developers integrate a lightweight user interface for all major platforms and frameworks.
Of course, Adaptive Cards are not a new technology; Microsoft has been using them in Windows Timeline, Teams, Cortana, Outlook, and more.
Microsoft notes that these widgets will only have a minimal impact on performance and will always have low memory and CPU requirements. Their interface will also automatically style them to match the form factor and experience of the host device.
The company, obviously, also announced a few minor additions to the Widgets panel earlier this year.
At the moment, the pane opens from the left side of the screen, but soon enough users will have an option to open the Widgets panel in full-screen mode. When in this mode, widgets will cover the entire desktop.
This not only means that users can access more widgets at once, but it is also more user-friendly for tablets and touch-screen devices.
And with the looming arrival of 3rd party widgets, this new interface choice should be put to good use.
