Widgets have been around for years, but they have a mixed history in terms of use and popularity, Particularly on Windows. You could argue that Windows 8 was a widget only operating system and it is commonly derided as the worst version of Windows ever. At the moment though, Widgets are going through a bit of a renaissance with Apple rolling out widgets for the iPhone for the first time and Google jumping on the bandwagon to create iPhone widgets too. Microsoft seemingly doesn’t want to miss out either and looks to be introducing full-screen widgets
An update has rolled out to members of the Windows Insider Program that allows them to implement a new full-screen view for their widgets. This means you can use your whole screen to view different widgets, giving your background a much more dynamic view.
The update seems to be more than just aesthetics too, with Microsoft working on the functionality of the Windows widgets too. Microsoft’s attempts at widgets have never really been successful so it is important that the company is working to make the user experience they offer much more comfortable and ultimately useful.
The updated widget feature is currently rolling out in build 25201 to Windows Insider Program members, which works as a kind of beta testing community for Windows. This means the feature is quite far along the development process but that we likely have a while to wait yet before we can expect to see it land on regular users’ PCs and laptops. Stick with us for future updates on the development of the feature.
In other recent Windows news, if you haven’t updated Windows recently, it is a good time to go and manually install the most recent Windows security patches, as we recently reported on a confirmed Zero-day vulnerability affecting the Microsoft operating system.