14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has recently announced that developers can start building their own third-party widgets for apps available on Windows 11.
The widget support in Windows 11 is an essential feature of the operating system, with the software giant delivering important improvements with every new major update.
However, what’s missing right now is the support for third-party widgets, as only widgets for Microsoft’s very own apps are currently available on Windows 11.
Microsoft, however, has just announced that WinAppSDK 1.2 preview 2 comes with support for third-party widgets, so developers can start working on their own widgets on Windows 11.
“Developers with packaged Win32 apps will be able to create and test 3rd party widgets locally if their machine is running in Developer Mode under Settings > Privacy & security > For developers. Developers will also need to be on the latest Insider Preview build from the Dev Channel to get the necessary update for the Widgets Board (version 521.20060.1205.0 or higher). For more information on widgets including pre-requisites please see Widget Design Docs and Widget Dev Docs,” the company explains.
Microsoft explains there are two limitations currently impacting devs who want to build third-party widgets for Windows 11.
The first of them concerns the support for third-party PWA widgets, as the company says this feature will be part of a future Microsoft Edge update.
The second concerns the availability of third-party widgets, as only users running Insider builds in the Dev channel can try them out.
“3rd party widgets can only be tested locally on the latest Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel for this preview release. Once WinAppSDK 1.2 GA is out, users on released versions of Windows 11 can begin acquiring 3rd party widgets via the Microsoft Store for shipped versions of their app,” the software giant explained in the announcement.