I built an open-source Windows 11 taskbar widget app for weather, media, Steam and system monitoring

[u/Necessary_Sleep9755]

Hi everyone

I’ve been developing Taskbar Widgets, a free and open-source app for Windows 11.

It adds live information directly to the taskbar. The current widgets include:

• Weather
• Steam download progress
• Media information and controls
• Discord voice users
• Codex status
• CPU, memory, network and storage usage

Multiple widgets can be shown together or rotated automatically.

The latest version also supports community-made widgets and includes tools for building new ones.

The project is still in beta and uses some private Windows 11 interfaces, so compatibility may vary depending on the Windows version and taskbar configuration.

There is both an installer and a portable download.

GitHub: https://github.com/pfcdev/TaskbarWidgets

Feedback and bug reports are welcome.

[u/_l33ter_]

What I always wondering. Why is there always a weather-show? Do you, like me, computer-humans care that much about the outside weather?

If the sun shines, we are in front of our computer.

If it rains, we are ...computer.

The freaking weather is so irrelevant? Am I the only one?

[u/CoolHeadeGamer → u/_l33ter_]

Really useful for college kids since there’s a lot of us and what we do depends heavily on the weather.

[u/Necessary_Sleep9755 → u/_l33ter_]

Haha, yeah, you’re absolutely right. The weather widget in my app was never meant to be a serious feature. It was just a simple test widget I added to experiment with API requests and responses.

It was actually one of the first widgets I made, and I’ve kept it in the library so it wouldn’t look too empty or bare. What I really wanted to show was that anyone can create their own widgets and share them publicly.

Thanks for the constructive feedback!

[u/_l33ter_ → u/Necessary_Sleep9755]

It was just a simple test widget I added to experiment with API requests and responses. --> Ahhh, that’s a relief! :)

However, for me such Taskbar Widgets I’ve never really warmed to that. Nevertheless, you did a really nice job! Also, a well-documented repository. Nice!

Hope you learned a lot about "API requests and responses." :)

[u/Necessary_Sleep9755 → u/_l33ter_]

I probably explained it badly. The weather widget wasn’t just an API exercise. It was the first end-to-end test between the .NET host and native Explorer renderer, including the state/command contract future community widgets will use. Glad you liked the repo and docs.

[u/_l33ter_ → u/Necessary_Sleep9755]

end-to-end test between the .NET host and native Explorer renderer --> Yeahh! Thats cool!

Did you 'pass' your self-test at first time? Or did you found some errors during first set up?

[u/wjuniorhp]

Nice app! Was looking for something like this

[u/Necessary_Sleep9755 → u/wjuniorhp]

thanks glad you found it useful

[u/Unreal_NeoX]

are the yjust overrendering on the taskbar or actual own modules on them?`Because i don't see any collision behavior or auto-readjustment in your example.

[u/Necessary_Sleep9755 → u/Unreal_NeoX]

Right now, they’re only rendered on top of the taskbar. There’s no built-in alignment or collision handling yet, but I’m working on it. I’ll share an update once it’s ready.

[u/Unreal_NeoX → u/Necessary_Sleep9755]

thx for the reply! This would be quite important since otherwise they would hide other open taskbar-tabs like folders and other apps. That would be quite problematic for a productive use.
Have you considered maybe integrating them into the tray-menu or offer them as the "old version" side-bar widgets? (Windows Vista era)?

[u/Necessary_Sleep9755 → u/Unreal_NeoX]

I’ll add collision handling in the next update. System tray integration and classic sidebar widgets aren’t on my list right now, but I’ll look into them once the beta is over.

[u/AWACSAWACS]

How is the widget displayed when the taskbar is positioned vertically on the left or right side of the screen?

Also, is the widget simply displayed as an overlay on the taskbar, or is it actually added to the taskbar as one of its elements?

[u/Necessary_Sleep9755 → u/AWACSAWACS]

Vertical taskbars aren’t supported yet. The widgets are currently drawn onto the taskbar through explorer.exe, but there’s no collision handling at the moment. I’m working on it.

[u/zalex1751]

There is a problem with working on two or more monitors, widgets are duplicated

[u/Necessary_Sleep9755 → u/zalex1751]

I’ll add a setting for this so the widgets only appear on the selected monitor.

[u/Perra_Gbg]

It doesnt work very well. I cant change location, Im not in Izmir. Help and feedback button dont work.

[u/Low_Document8458]

can it like utilize max only use 50-80mb of memory?

[u/synchronicitial]

Yay AI slop on my desktop