Are third-party widgets safe to install?

Now that MS is opening up the Widgets feature to other devs, I'm concerned that they can be used for dodgy things. It feels like a return to the old Windows 7 Gadgets system, which MS removed as they were considered a security risk.

All of these third-party widgets (apart from the first five) are made by one dev - 'Stefen vd'. Some of them look quite useful but are they safe?

Well, they should be safe if properly controlled, but in the end there is always a risk but why should it be any different to any other 3rd party software.

I would always recommend that you research the source(s) of any software you intend to load onto your system(s).

Do a general online search on the software and / or the developer to check if there are any concerns stated by respected websites - If you are still not sure post a thread here on a relevant forum [a search to check for existing mentions on these forums is always a good starting point ]

There are legitimate developers who have built their reputations on making clean and useful software. Then there are apps coming from undependable and unproven sources that are not so clean and can affect a system in detrimental and unpredictable ways. From my point of view, just because something appears to be useful is not reason enough to install it.