Credit: Yasir Mahmood / MakeUseOf

Windows 11 comes with a built-in widgets panel, but if you’ve ever tried using it, you know it’s more of a news feed than anything truly functional. Microsoft pushes its own selection of widgets, and while some are fine, there’s not much room for customization or adding utilities you need on your desktop.

Widget Launcher takes a different approach. It’s a free app that lets you place individual widgets directly on your desktop—weather, system monitors, calendar, notes, and more. You’re not stuck with a sidebar or locked into Microsoft’s ecosystem. If you’ve been looking for a way to make your Windows desktop more than just a wallpaper backdrop, this app offers a straightforward solution.

The desktop shouldn’t just be a wallpaper holder

Widget Launcher doesn’t try to reinvent widgets—it just gives you the ones you need, where you need them. I installed it from the Microsoft Store. It has a clean interface showing a library of widgets you can add to your desktop. Pick a widget, adjust its appearance if you want, and place it anywhere on your screen.

You get a decent selection of built-in widgets: calendar, weather, clock, CPU meter, notes, and a calculator. There’s also a currency converter, unit converter, RSS feed reader, and even a slideshow widget if you want rotating images on your desktop. You can launch multiple instances of the same widget—handy if you need clocks for different time zones or separate note widgets for different projects.

Each widget is customizable. You can choose from different skins, adjust transparency, and tweak the background, border, accent, and font colors. If you prefer a minimal look, dial down the opacity. If you want widgets to stand out, go bold with high-contrast colors. The settings are straightforward, and changes apply instantly. The app runs quietly in the background and uses around 90 MB of memory, based on what I’ve seen in Task Manager, which is nothing compared to most desktop customization tools.

The app also includes a few convenience features worth mentioning. You can lock widget positions so they don’t move accidentally, set it to launch on startup, and choose between light, dark, or default themes. There’s even a developer mode if you want to create your own widgets.

But don’t overcomplicate things

Outside of holding icons, the desktop has had no real function since Windows 95. It’s a passive space—a wallpaper holder—not an active part of the user experience. With Widget Launcher, I use the calendar widget, which is one of the most useful. Unlike the tiny calendar in the taskbar, which requires a click to open, this sits on your desktop as a full monthly view. The current day is clearly highlighted, and you get a quick sense of the week’s layout without opening any apps. It’s a passive visual reminder that keeps you oriented.

I keep a digital clock widget in the corner. Yes, Windows has a clock in the taskbar and different ways to open date and time settings, but having a larger, always-visible time display is surprisingly helpful. It lets you customize the format, size, and style to fit your desktop setup.

The calculator widget is another one I use regularly. Instead of opening the Windows calculator app every time you need to do quick math, you can have a small calculator sitting on your desktop ready to go. It’s basic, but that’s all it needs to be.

The weather widget shows current temperature, highs and lows, and conditions for your set location. No ads, no news feed—just the weather. It pulls data from Weatherbit and updates automatically.

I don’t bother with the system monitoring widgets. For that, I stick with OEM software like AMD Adrenalin’s Radeon overlay, which gives me more detailed performance metrics when I need them. Alternatively, I use Process Explorer, a free system monitor, to see why my PC is slow at times.

Its few flaws are easy to overlook

They’re not a deal-breaker

Widget Launcher has a few quirks that are worth mentioning. The biggest one is that the widgets disappear when you use the “Show Desktop” button in the taskbar. If you’re someone who frequently clicks that button to clear your workspace, you’ll have to click it again to bring the widgets back. It’s a minor annoyance, but it can disrupt your workflow.

Another limitation is the lack of alignment guides. When you’re positioning widgets on your desktop, there’s no snap-to-grid or alignment lines to help you arrange them neatly. If you’re particular about symmetry, you’ll have to eyeball them yourself.

Some of the individual widgets aren’t as feature-rich as dedicated apps. The calculator, for example, is basic—fine for quick calculations. But there’s no option to increase the size of the numbers and operators, which can make it harder to use if you’re clicking quickly or have a high-resolution display where everything looks smaller. The weather widget is simple and informative, but it doesn’t offer hourly forecasts or severe weather alerts.

Despite these limitations, Widget Launcher does what it’s designed to do—put useful, at-a-glance information on your desktop. For a free app that runs smoothly and doesn’t hog resources, these flaws are easy to overlook.