Solved Widgets completely missing

Rhinny2012 · Dec 20, 2023

My widgets have completely disappeared. I have tried everything I have found online, including making sure they are turned on, making Edge the default browser, checking gpedit.msc, logging in to Microsoft account, reinstalling graphics drivers, and this thing from Powershell: winget uninstall "windows web experience pack".

As I mentioned, "Widgets" is not showing up at all in Task Manager, so I obviously cannot stop and restart it.

I tried re-downloading Windows Web Experience Pack, and it is already installed and up to date. Windows 11 is all up to date.

Any ideas on how to get them back into Task Manager?

I have this icon at the bottom left, but clicking it does nothing.

wiganken · Dec 20, 2023

Can you remember if you had done something beforehand that might have caused widgets to disappear? Have you installed a 3rd party Windows tweaker?

Rhinny2012 · Dec 20, 2023

No tweakers, but I did do a restore not too long ago. I can't say for sure if that is exactly when it started, but it's possible. Since then, I did the most recent cumulative update, which I hoped would fix it. But it didn't.

OAT · Dec 20, 2023

Rhinny2012 said:
... this thing from Powershell: winget uninstall "windows web experience pack".

What happened after you ran that PowerShell command?

Rhinny2012 · Dec 20, 2023

I get this:

FreeBooter · Dec 20, 2023

Uninstall and Reinstall Widgets in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall or reinstall widgets for all users in Windows 11. Widgets are small cards that display dynamic content from your favorite apps and services on your Windows desktop. They appear on the widgets board, where you can discover, pin, unpin, arrange...

www.elevenforum.com

OAT · Dec 20, 2023

Rhinny2012 said:
I get this:

View attachment 81814

You are using an older version of PowerShell. Don't use the one from system32.
Use the one from "C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\"
pwsh.exe

Rhinny2012 · Dec 20, 2023

OAT said:
You are using an older version of PowerShell. Don't use the one from system32.
Use the one from "C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\"
pwsh.exe

Searched 2 computers, both with windows 11 Pro, and I do not have that directory

OAT · Dec 20, 2023

Rhinny2012 said:
Searched 2 computers, both with windows 11 Pro, and I do not have that directory

Please install it from here.
Once installed, go to MS store and check for updates. A new App Installer might get installed- Maybe not.
Run the powershell command -it should say PowerShell 7.4.0 - to uninstall WEP (just in case)

Code:

winget uninstall "windows web experience pack"

Then go here to re-install your widgets:
Windows Web Experience Pack - Microsoft Apps
Reboot

Rhinny2012 · Dec 20, 2023

FreeBooter said:
Uninstall and Reinstall Widgets in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall or reinstall widgets for all users in Windows 11. Widgets are small cards that display dynamic content from your favorite apps and services on your Windows desktop. They appear on the widgets board, where you can discover, pin, unpin, arrange...

www.elevenforum.com

I have tried everything here, and nothing worked. The first problem seems to be that the winget uninstall "windows web experience pack" will not work, and I don't know why. I tried switching to the users directory, and I still get this:

The second thing seems to be that I can no longer download the windows web experience pack. Whenever I try, it starts out at the Microsoft Store web page, which looks like this:

But when I click on install, it takes me to the MS store app like this:

and there is no way to install it from here. The store does claim that I have it installed:

very frustrating......

OAT · Dec 20, 2023

Rhinny2012 said:
I have tried everything here, and nothing worked. The first problem seems to be that the winget uninstall "windows web experience pack" will not work, and I don't know why. I tried switching to the users directory, and I still get this:

View attachment 81820

The second thing seems to be that I can no longer download the windows web experience pack. Whenever I try, it starts out at the Microsoft Store web page, which looks like this:

View attachment 81821

But when I click on install, it takes me to the MS store app like this:

View attachment 81822

and there is no way to install it from here. The store does claim that I have it installed:

View attachment 81823

very frustrating......

You are still using an outdated PowerShell, that is why the command does not work.
Switching dir will not help since you are already in PowerShell.
Please re-read my previous post after refreshing this page.

Rhinny2012 · Dec 20, 2023

OAT said:
Please install it from here.
Once installed, go to MS store and check for updates. A new App Installer might get installed- Maybe not.
Run the powershell command -it should say PowerShell 7.4.0 - to uninstall WEP (just in case)

Code:

winget uninstall "windows web experience pack"

Then go here to re-install your widgets:
Windows Web Experience Pack - Microsoft Apps
Reboot

Same problem:

what would be causing it to say that winget is not recognized?

Rhinny2012 · Dec 20, 2023

OAT said:
You are still using an outdated PowerShell, that is why the command does not work.

Tried the version 7.4.0 that you sent over, but same problem as shown above.

FreeBooter · Dec 20, 2023

I have Get button to install it looks like you don't maybe reinstalling all apps will help, open the PowerShell with admin privileges and execute below command and restart your computer.

Code:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Rhinny2012 · Dec 20, 2023

FreeBooter said:
I have Get button to install it looks like you don't maybe reinstalling all apps will help, open the PowerShell with admin privileges and execute below command and restart your computer.

Code:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

So this is going to uninstall all apps? Not sure I'm comfortable with that.

trumpy81 · Dec 20, 2023

@Rhinny2012
Did you right click on the Taskbar and select Taskbar settings or go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and enable Widgets there?