14 DAY TRIAL // One of the biggest new features in Windows 11 is the support for widgets, which is actually a more or less evolved version of the News and interests experience previously available on Windows 10.
The widgets can be launched via a dedicated icon on the taskbar, and now Microsoft is working on a new approach that’s supposed to make the widgets overall feel more polished.
Microsoft is using the most recent preview build to try out a new entry point for widgets on the taskbar, moving it to the left side of the screen and providing it with a new live weather icon.
In other words, the widgets icon now shows the weather information and is located in the same place where the Start menu used to be on Windows 10.
Gradual rollout for insiders
Microsoft explains that users who aligned the taskbar to the left will see the new widgets icon in a different position.
“We are trying out showing the Widgets entry point on the left side of your taskbar with live weather content. You can also open the Widgets board by simply hovering over the entry point. For users who choose to align their taskbar, the Widgets entry point will be to the right of the Task view icon. Group policies and the ability to show/hide the Widgets button from the taskbar remains unchanged. We are beginning to roll this change out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone,” the company says.
At this point, it’s important to keep in mind this feature is still in the testing phase and there’s absolutely no guarantee Microsoft would stick with it and eventually release it for production devices running Windows 11.