Published Oct 30, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT

Dibakar Ghosh is a tech journalist at How-To Geek with over a decade of experience using and writing about open-source software, Linux, Android, AI, and personal productivity. He writes about software, operating systems, and tools that help people get more from the technology they already use.

I love desktop widgets. I’ve loved them since the early days of Windows 7, and I hate the fact that Microsoft decided to remove them. Sure, some of you will say the desktop looks cleaner without widgets, but to me, it just feels like wasted screen real estate. Widgets give you easy access to useful information without requiring you to open an app.

Now, yes, you can technically bring desktop widgets back to Windows 11 using Rainmeter . However, that comes with its own set of drawbacks, which I’ve mentioned in a later section. As such, I decided to take matters into my own hands and started creating custom widgets using Claude and Rainmeter.…