Tech

Microsoft ensures that third-party widgets will not cause performance problems in Windows 11

Going back to Windows 10, there is no doubt that one of the most notable new features of Windows 11 is its widget panel. However, this panel has now been relatively limited, counting exclusively on support for native applications developed by Microsoft, with some basic tools to show the weather, current news, sports, and updates of some selected applications such as Microsoft To Do, Photos or Calendar, among others.

Though this could change soon. And it is that in addition to its own tools, already at the beginning of this year, we saw the first signs that Microsoft would officially begin to implement the arrival of third-party elements to the Windows 11 application store, among which the Return of the additional desktop widgets and tools that were popularized years ago with Windows 7.

Now, as they point out from Windows Latest, during the company’s Build 2022 event it has confirmed that “an extensive library of widgets could be available later this year”.

Windows 11 third-party widgets

According to Microsoft documentation, widgets work with adaptive cards that are written in JSON and allow applications or services to exchange data openly. With adaptive cards, Microsoft can transform JSON into a native UI that automatically adapts to a specific app’s container or window, serving as a great companion experience for Win32 and PWA apps in Windows 11.

And it is that in fact the Adaptive Cards technology is not new, but has already been used by Microsoft in Windows Timeline, Teams, Cortana, Outlook and other native applications.

While at the moment we don’t know exactly how developers will be able to integrate their apps with Widgets, but a document has confirmed that widgets will only have a minimal impact on Windows 11 performance. And it is that as detailed by the company, these third-party widgets based on Adaptive Cards will always make use of “low memory and CPU”and its adaptive interface will automatically style them to match the host/form factor experience.

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