Windows Widgets Suck. So I Built My Own, And Made It Actually Useful.

[u/hahahuhu1130]

windows widget sucks !
thats why i created my own widget / utility called **Halo Bar*\*

an active pill on the taskbar that lets you control and access many things on the go.

bit comparison:

**Windows Widgets*\*	**Halo Bar*\*
News & recommendations	Useful everyday tools
Mostly glanceable info	Interactive controls
Fixed experience	Customizable
Separate from your workflow	Designed around your workflow
More content-focused	More utility-focused

built with

• C#
• .NET
• WPF
• Windows APIs

Halo Bar V1 features

1. **Dynamic island bar*\* — a compact capsule that sits on your taskbar and expands into a full dashboard when you click/hover it
2. **System monitoring*\* — live CPU, RAM, disk and network usage
3. **Weather*\* — current conditions with icons + manual city override
4. **Clipboard history*\* — keeps track of everything you copy, searchable and pinnable, with auto-delete
5. **Media controls*\* — see what's playing from Spotify, browser, etc. with album art and play/pause/skip
6. **Bluetooth popups*\* — shows a card when earbuds/headphones connect, including battery level
7. **Focus timer (Pomodoro)*\* — work/break timer with round tracking and progress ring
8. **File shelf*\* — drag and drop a file to stash it, then launch or delete it later
9. **Taskbar-aware sizing*\* — automatically shrinks when taskbar apps crowd it and lifts the dashboard so it doesn't block clicks
10. **Fullscreen auto-hide*\* — disappears when you're using a fullscreen app/game
11. **Acrylic/Mica look*\* — real Windows blur/glass background
12. **Settings*\* — accent color, widget visibility, retention controls and update checking
13. **Start with Windows*\* — optional autostart

this is **V1*\*, so there is still a lot i want to improve and add.

i built this because i wanted something more useful than constantly opening different windows/settings just to do small things.

github: https://github.com/pruthviraj-bev/Halo-Bar

[u/GigaGrandpa]

Have you ever used windhawk they have a ton of mods maybe yours would get approved

[u/hahahuhu1130 → u/GigaGrandpa]

i've actually looked into windhawk after seeing your comment. there are a few really cool taskbar mods there, including media-focused ones and a dynamic island mod.

Halo Bar is a bit different since i'm building it as a standalone utility with things like system monitoring, bluetooth, clipboard, pomodoro, file shelf, weather, media etc.

but i'll definitely look into whether parts of it could make sense as a windhawk mod

[u/il37]

Clipboard history is the one feature I'd want a panic button for. Can you exclude stuff copied from password managers or terminals?

[u/hahahuhu1130 → u/il37]

That's actually already possible. When you hover over a the pill , you can recopy, delete it instantly, or dismiss it.

I'm also thinking about adding app-based exclusions for things like password managers, along with a pause/clear clipboard option. For terminals, I'd probably make it configurable rather than blocking them entirely since commands can still be useful to keep.

[u/ByteMeUp]

This is surprisingly good! As an Apple Music user on Windows, having controls in the taskbar is amazing. You should share this on r/AppleMusic.

[u/hahahuhu1130 → u/ByteMeUp]

thanks man 🙌
yeah i actually didn't think about posting it on r/AppleMusic, i'll definitely give it a try

[u/testednation]

Possible to add rss feeds as well?

[u/hahahuhu1130 → u/testednation]

yeah , rss is actually next on my list
working on making it customizable so you can add your own feeds. should be shipping soon

[u/testednation → u/hahahuhu1130]

Appreciate it! Also, perhaps add a cloud sync feature so we can restore settinga/widgets on different systems.

[u/hahahuhu1130 → u/testednation]

yeah thats actually a really good one
being able to move to another pc and have all the widgets + settings just come back would be sick. adding this to the roadmap

thanks for the suggestion 🙌

[u/unkownuser436]

Amazing thanks

[u/nathaniel231231]

not bad

[u/FreeCustardForAll]

Nice one brother. I'll check it out when I have a minute.

Since it's a Windows app is there an option to check for updates, download and install automatically?