Windows 10: Windows 11 gets new system resources widgets courtesy of Dev Home app

Microsoft has released a new Dev Home app for Windows 11 to allow developers to keep track of their workflow from one place. The app comes with new widgets that you can use to monitor your system resources.



Finally, there is something useful in the widgets panel. The best part about this is that you don't need to be on the Windows 11 Insider Channel, so you can use it on the stable release.



How to get the new system resources widgets in Windows 11


1. Download the Dev Home Preview app from the Microsoft Store or Git Hub. (requires Windows 11 21H2 (build 22000) or later)

2. Open the app and wait for it to complete the setup process, after which you will be able to access your dashboard.

3. Click on the Widgets button on the Taskbar.



4. Hit the + button at the top, and you will see options for 5 new widgets: CPU, GPU, Memory, Network and SSH Keychain.

5. Select the widget that you want to use, and it will be added to the Widgets board.

You don't need to have Dev Home running to access the widgets, i.e. you may close the app's window. Don't uninstall it. The widgets can also be pinned to the Dev Home app's dashboard.



All widgets from Dev Home display a graph to indicate the performance of your system, although they don't appear to be updating in real-time, though this could be a bug related to the Widgets board itself, and not the app's widgets.

You may want to switch to the large size of the widgets to access the full data that they provide, because there are some buttons that you can click to perform some actions. The CPU Widget lists 3 actively running processes that you may force quit by clicking on the End Process button. The Network widget displays your network's usage, as well as a button to switch to the next network adapter. Similarly, the GPU button allows you to view your integrated GPU and your dedicated graphics card's usage details.



While Dev Home has been designed to help developers, there is no reason why it can't be useful for regular users who wish to understand their computer's performance without opening the Task Manager. That said, the utility of the Task Manager can't be replaced by widgets. You could also argue that the system resources widget that you can access from the Game Bar (Win + G) is better to monitor the performance in games, as it offers more information such as frame rate per second (fps), RAM and VRAM usage in an overlay that you may pin on the screen.

Microsoft has been working on improving the Widgets experience over the past year. The Widgets board supports a full screen mode, it will soon allow users to pin 3 widgets horizontally, instead of just 2, which would display more information at a glance. The Redmond company recently dropped the Microsoft requirement for using Widgets on Windows 11.

Widgets are still quite laggy on Windows 11, it feels like a beta test. Well, you could say that about the operating system itself, Explorer in particular is a travesty. Microsoft needs to do some serious tweaking to boost the OS' performance if it wants to attract new users, or to convince them to upgrade from Windows 10.

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Windows 11 gets new system resources widgets courtesy of Dev Home app appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

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Widgets in Windows 11

One of the new features in Windows 11 is Widgets, coined by Microsoft as a place for content and entertainment where you can see information at one go. Widgets feature is the next evolution of the News and Interests feature that was introduced with Windows 10, where you can quickly check News, Calendar, weather, etc, without interrupting your workflow.





How to use Widgets in Windows 11

To invoke the widgets screen, simply press Win+W keys on the keyboard. You can also press the

button on the Taskbar.

Available Widgets in Windows 11

There are multiple widgets in Windows 11 that are available, and the list would be updated over time. As of now, the following Widgets are available:

• Weather: As the name suggests, it allows you to see the weather in your area. Clicking at the three dots menu to customize and resize the widget. Unlike Windows 10, you cannot see Temperature on the taskbar though.
  
• News: This widget shows News, which is powered by MSN, just like News and Interests in Windows 10.
  
• Outlook: To see your upcoming events added to your Calender of Microsoft account.
  
• Stock Watchlist/Movers: This widget is for stocks that you wish to watch. To add a stock to the watchlist, click the 3 dots menu and click customize.
  
• Photos: Photos widget shows the recent photos from your Microsoft Account synced to Onedrive.
  
• Windows 11 Tips: This widget gives tips regarding Windows 11.
  
• To do: The to-do widget helps you in Tasks management, synced to your Microsoft Account.
  
• Family Safety: This widget is helpful for those who have added a Child to their Family. It allows you to see recent activity from members of your Microsoft family group.
  
• Traffic: To see Traffic in your area - Location access must be given.
  
• Sports: The Sports widgets show live scores of the sports you are interested in.
  
• Office 365 for Enterprise customers only: This widget brings relevant documents, news, and meeting recordings to enterprise users. This widget will only be available if you are signed in with your AAD account on your PC running Windows 11.
  
• Entertainment: Only available in US, UK, CA, DE, FR, AU, JP.
  

The top bar has a web search option as well, which allows you to quickly search if you want.

Customize Widgets

To customize the Widgets screen, click your profile picture at the top right to open Widget Settings.





If you want to customize the news, you need to open MSN settings, which are located on this page. MSN News is now referred to as Microsoft Start.

Microsoft Start (msn.com)

Common questions Regarding Widget Board:

1. Widget opens Microsoft Edge instead of my browser for Settings: This is by design. Like News and Interests, Widgets settings and everything else open in Microsoft Edge instead of your default browser.
   

• Can I add multiple accounts in the Calendar widget: You cannot add multiple accounts as of now.
  
• Can I add 3rd party widgets: No, as of now 3rd party widgets are not supported.
  
• Cannot remove a Stock from the watchlist widget: This is by design. Microsoft is looking into it.
  
• Watchlist Widget does not sync with MSN watchlist: This is by design. You need to create a separate watchlist.
  
• Make the widget board full screen: It is not supported yet.
  

Troubleshooting Windows 11 widgets

At certain times, the Widgets feature may not work properly. In that case, the following troubleshooting may help:

Reinstall Windows Web Experience pack: Microsoft delivers content in Widgets through an app from Microsoft Store, called Windows web experience pack. Basically, this app is responsible for web content inside the Operating system. If WWEP is missing, the Widgets feature would disappear. If this is the case for you, please perform the steps below:

• Right-click Start>Windows Powershell(admin).
  
• Type the following command to remove traces of the Windows web experience pack: winget uninstall "windows web experience pack"
  
• Wait for the process to complete. When it is done, go to the following page
  
• Windows Web Experience pack from Microsoft Store.
  
• Click Get>Install.
  
• When the installation is complete, restart your computer and see if the issue is resolved.
  

Reinstall Edge Webview2: Widgets board uses EdgeWebView2 to render content. If in case the same is crashing, you can try reinstalling the EdgeWebView2 component from here. Choose Standalone installer. Also, make sure Edge is installed on the machine.

• Webview2 - Microsoft Edge Developer
  

Reinstall Display drivers: In certain scenarios, the display driver may be causing issues for the Widget board to load. Please try reinstalling them from the manufacturer and try again. Make sure to install the latest ones. For troubleshooting purposes, you can remove the display driver and see if the widget board opens with the basic display driver.

Check Microsoft Store for available updates: Make sure all the apps, specifically the Web experience pack and else are updated in the Microsoft Store.

To send Feedback about Widget features to the Windows team, press Windows key+F. The relevant category is Desktop environment>Widgets.

You can know more about Widgets in this video:



Also read:

• Repair Install Windows 11 using an ISO file (yourwindowsguide.com)
  
• Windows 11: FAQ (microsoft.com)
  
• How to: Use Snap Layouts and Snap groups in Windows 11 (microsoft.com)
  
• Check Windows 11 compatibility using these tools - Your Windows Guide
  
• How to change the default apps in Windows 11? - Your Windows Guide
  

Sumit (@_sumitdhiman) / Twitter

 

Disabling News in Windows 11 Widgets

Cristiano,

> If you're still experiencing issues with the news feed appearing

> in your Windows 11 Widgets despite trying the solutions suggested

> in the sources, I recommend leaving feedback for Microsoft to

> request the ability to turn off the news feed specifically without

> affecting other widgets. This can be done through the Windows

> Feedback Hub app or the Windows Insider Program.

Oh, by the way, I also mentioned in my original question that I already did this to no avail.

 

Disabling News in Windows 11 Widgets

Hello! My name is Cristiano. I'm an Independent Advisor. I'm glad to help you.

There are several ways to disable news in Windows 11 widgets:

Uninstall the Microsoft News app: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/for...

Disable the entire widget area by right-clicking the taskbar, clicking Taskbar Settings, and disabling widgets: https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-hide-news-wi...

Click the "Hide this story" button in the top-right corner of the news article you want to remove: https://allthings.how/how-to-disable-news-in-wi...

Click the Settings button in the top-right corner of the Widgets board, toggle off Open widgets on hover, and then close the Widgets board: https://blog.pcrisk.com/windows/13720-remove-mi...

It is not recommended to hack the registry or block TPC/IP ports, as this could cause unintended consequences and potentially harm your system.