Microsoft is betting big on widgets in Windows 11. If anything, this is one feature in the new OS that continues to expand with new options and choices. And it just got another welcome addition.
This one comes in the form of the Game Pass widget that is now officially a thing.
With support for third-party widgets on the way, Microsoft wants to offer as many first-party ones as possible. The company recently added a dedicated one for searching right in the Taskbar, and soon after the new OS launched, we also got access to one that helps you keep tabs on your family.
Then there’s also talk of the official Teams widget that is being teased.
Cleary, Redmond wants these little applets to become a key feature of the Windows 11 operating system. One way to do that would be to offer a full set of these widgets before allowing developers to create custom ones.
To that end, we just got another neat addition with the launch of an all-new Game Pass widget, which debuts with build 25174. It shows essential information like the gaming service’s latest titles and games that are leaving soon.
That said, as Microsoft notes in the announcement post, these are still early days:
“This widget is a window to the extensive PC Game Pass library – it will show the latest additions, games leaving soon, and others from highlighted categories and then take you to the Xbox app where you can install them, see reviews, and go all in.
We’re still hard at work on some exciting functionality coming soon that will let you sign-into your Xbox profile and easily jump back into recently played games as well as see personalized recommendations of games we believe you’ll love.”
Microsoft definitely has big plans for this widget, and this launch is just a preview of what’s to come.
Adding the new Game Pass widget is easy.
You simply open the widgets board and click on the + icon next to the user profile. Look in the list, locate the new Game Pass widget, and add it to your system. To get access to this new widget, be sure that you are running the latest Windows 11 preview build.
If you do, be sure to provide Microsoft with your valuable feedback on usage and feature set.
