Gadgets in Windows 11?

Winuser · Jun 27, 2021

Edwin said:
Open Task Manager, right click on the ghost application and choose Maximize.

Thanks for the tip. It worked.

Edwin · Jun 27, 2021

Winuser said:
Thanks for the tip. It worked.

I had the same thing happen with CustomizerGod! :wink:

Winuser · Jun 27, 2021

Edwin said:
I had the same thing happen with CustomizerGod!

Now that I have the weather gadget in the upper righthand corner I'll probably never run it again. It's nice to know that I can if I decide to use more gadgets.

JAM83 · Jun 30, 2021

Sandi1987 said:
I installed 8GadgetPack but it doesn't work in Windows 11.

It works now! Go to the website, if you haven't already and update to v33.0

jh30uk · Jun 30, 2021

v33.0 is 1 year old and works.

JAM83 · Jun 30, 2021

jh30uk said:
v33.0 is 1 year old and works.

Yep. I had no problems getting it to run. It wouldn't run on the "leaked" version, but it runs on this one.

Jabiru · Aug 5, 2021

My 8 Gadgetpack has been working fine on my Win 11 resident on both my Hyper-V VM and my VMWare Player 16 VM without any problems. When you first spawn 8Gadgetpack it will show it's "desktop" as kind of a transparent vertical window as shown on some of these snapshots. What I did was just right click in the transparent window and select "add gadget" and a window pops up allowing selection of several available gadgets. From there it's just like using it in Win 10 or Win 7.

BTW, there's been a rumor for years that some of these gadgets "phone home" (the weather gadget for example), so be aware that this may happen. This was the primary reason MS killed off the gadgets some time ago as a security vulnerability. If anyone knows which gadgets may do this and where they're connecting to let me know so I can add the IPs to my pfblocker DNS Block List.

Dwarfr66 · Aug 5, 2021

All I use is CPU Usage and Network Meter.

Winuser · Aug 6, 2021

Jabiru said:
My 8 Gadgetpack has been working fine on my Win 11 resident on both my Hyper-V VM and my VMWare Player 16 VM without any problems. When you first spawn 8Gadgetpack it will show it's "desktop" as kind of a transparent vertical window as shown on some of these snapshots. What I did was just right click in the transparent window and select "add gadget" and a window pops up allowing selection of several available gadgets. From there it's just like using it in Win 10 or Win 7.

BTW, there's been a rumor for years that some of these gadgets "phone home" (the weather gadget for example), so be aware that this may happen. This was the primary reason MS killed off the gadgets some time ago as a security vulnerability. If anyone knows which gadgets may do this and where they're connecting to let me know so I can add the IPs to my pfblocker DNS Block List.

How would the Weather App keep updated it it didn't as you say, phone home?

Jabiru · Aug 7, 2021

Phoning home isn't necessarily a bad thing as in the case of the weather app. The problem is that MS had detected other gadgets phoning home without user notification thus opening up potential vulnerabilities for dropping malware on user's systems. Rather than go through and analyze every gadget for security holes, they killed off their whole gadget system at one point, now they seem to be implementing it again, hopefully with some security infrastructure. Do you know what gadgets are contacting servers over the internet? I don't. Right now I rely on DNS Block lists to protect me, but I'd rather see some smart and secure design in software at the application level.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you :)

JAM83 · Aug 7, 2021

Version 34.0 is out now

Winuser · Aug 7, 2021

Jabiru said:
Phoning home isn't necessarily a bad thing as in the case of the weather app. The problem is that MS had detected other gadgets phoning home without user notification thus opening up potential vulnerabilities for dropping malware on user's systems. Rather than go through and analyze every gadget for security holes, they killed off their whole gadget system at one point, now they seem to be implementing it again, hopefully with some security infrastructure. Do you know what gadgets are contacting servers over the internet? I don't. Right now I rely on DNS Block lists to protect me, but I'd rather see some smart and secure design in software at the application level.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you :)

Do you know that our cell phones are listening to us? My latest example happened about 2 months ago. My friend had just bought a new travel trailer. We were on our lunch break and talking about if he should buy a sway control hitch or not. Later that night when I logged into Facebook the first ad I got was for a sway control hitch. I had others say they have had the same thing happen to them.

TomJones · Aug 13, 2021

pauliewog said:
I knew about the news and weather thing in Win 10. Can old win 7 gadgets work though?

Yes. These plus some additional ones are what is included with 8GadgetPack.

ShamrockRig · Aug 13, 2021

Know I've always liked the looked of Gadgets and widgets etc , and also the way people customise they're windows overall but I am so anal for anything being open during start up of windows(Other than keyboard and mouse software) that my OCD stops me from doing it, Shame, Some of you guys stuff looks amazing

pietcorus2 · Mar 1, 2022

Finally a working weather gadget in my Win11 !
Its placed on the left-side of the tasbar , now Im searching for a way to get it on the right-side on the taskbar .
Anyone has a solution..........??

DzigiBau · Jul 16, 2023

I know this is an older topic, but I would appreciate a lot if someone could confirm that CPU meter from 8GadgetsPack works in Windows 11. This gadget pack I have used for many years in Windows 10 and it worked very good.

I have just noticed that CPU meter shows 3-5% which is completely different from Task Manager CPU usage monitor, which shows 10-15% for the same task (for instance playing some video). My CPU is AMD, maybe it could be an issue, I am not sure. I use most recent version of 8GadgetPack.

essenbe · Jul 16, 2023

Welcome to the forums. It should work fine. Windows doesn't like you using it, but it does work.

JAM83 · Jul 16, 2023

Stigg said:
If you want a very good desktop weather gadget, I have Sense Desktop, and it's great. It's only $0.99.

Sense Desktop - Official app in the Microsoft Store

This is the desktop "WIDGET" version of Sense Clock (https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9nblggh3zqz8) A full featured, fully customizable digital flip clock with weather forecast application. Sense Desktop features the following: - Clock flip animation - Over 20+ sense skins to choose from...

www.microsoft.com

Does this one even work anymore? The reviews on it are horrible.

MisterEd · Jul 16, 2023

JAM83 said:
Does this one even work anymore? The reviews on it are horrible.

Don't confuse Widgets and Gadgets. They are not the same thing.

I have installed 8GadgetsPack to get Gadgets on my Windows 10 and 11 computers. Here are examples on my Windows 11 laptop.

DzigiBau · Jul 17, 2023

MisterEd said:
Don't confuse Widgets and Gadgets. They are not the same thing.

I have installed 8GadgetsPack to get Gadgets on my Windows 10 and 11 computers. Here are examples on my Windows 11 laptop.

View attachment 64931

Thank you for your responses. @MisterEd would you please open Task Manager and try to play some video stream on internet, just to make some pressure on CPU and to compare Task Manager score with gadgets presentation. I have the same values when CPU is in idle, 0-1%, but when I do some pressure on CPU, there is significant differences between Task Manager and gadgets values.