14 DAY TRIAL // I don’t know about you but I check the weather forecast regularly on both my mobile and Windows 10 laptop.
On Android, for example, I use a weather widget with a 60-minute automatic refresh to always know the current temperature without having to launch the weather app itself.
Obviously, a similar implementation would come in so handy on iPhone as well, but since it’s Apple’s walled garden the one we’re talking about here, I stopped hoping for such improvements a long time ago.
On Windows 10, there are basically two options to check out the weather forecast without downloading third-party software. And both of them involve the native Windows 10 app that the operating system ships with.
Basically, the thing that most people do is simply launch the Weather app and get all the information they need right from within the app. The amount of weather details is impressive, to say the least, so if you want to read info like the current pressure, get an extended forecast, and view weather history for a specific day, launching the Weather app is the thing to do.
At the same time, in Windows 10 you can set up a Weather widget in the Start menu, and thus get basic info, like the current temperature, without having to launch the Weather app itself. The live tile thus more or less plays the role of the Android widget mentioned above, albeit the number of options available here is a lot more limited.
Of course, a fully-featured widget, like the traditional gadgets that were originally available in Windows 7, would be a lot more useful, but Microsoft has given up on this idea a long time ago.
So how should Microsoft make it a lot more convenient to check the weather forecast and instantly get info like the current temperature? By adding a small applet in the taskbar or in the system tray.
As many long-time Windows users certainly know, there are a lot of third-party apps that can do that in one way or another, and many of them can add one or even several weather icons in the system tray to display the current temperature or weather conditions for a specific location. This is obviously enhanced with other features like animated icons and customizable sets of icons.
Similar features are also available on non-Windows platforms, like Linux, where users can add temperature information to the taskbar and also pick from various icon packs, adjust refresh times, and other handy features in this regard.
A suggestion published in the Windows 10 Feedback Hub calls for such capabilities in Windows 10, and truth be told, this idea makes a lot of sense going forward, especially if done right. For instance, Microsoft should let users decide whether they want weather information in the taskbar or not, as not everyone might be a big fan of a more cluttered taskbar that includes such details.
And while third-party apps let you deal with this current shortcoming in Windows 10, it wouldn’t be the first time when Microsoft looks at the existing software applications to create a new feature that is offered built into the operating system. Night light, for example, is a Windows 10 feature based on the super-successful f.lux, an application that does pretty much the same thing, but which comes with many more options and customization settings.
Microsoft is yet to say a single word on this feature suggestion, and given no improvements in this regard has been made in Windows 10 20H1, there’s no chance to add weather info to the taskbar until the second half of 2020 the earliest.