Live, native-looking widgets for the Windows 11 taskbar.
Download the latest installer · Portable ZIP · Türkçe hızlı başlangıç
Taskbar Widgets is an open-source Windows 11 x64 application that places useful, live information directly on the taskbar. Enable several widgets side by side, position them independently, or cycle through them with the optional rotation layout. The installer includes the loader, Settings application, native hook, media helper, and every built-in widget as one product.
Warning
Taskbar Widgets integrates with private Windows 11 XAML surfaces and is still beta software. An incompatible taskbar layout disables the integration instead of forcing it. Unsigned builds may also trigger a Windows SmartScreen warning. Read the private API risk notes before use.
The built-in Widget Library shows the real taskbar design before a widget is enabled. Click anywhere on a widget card to configure it, then add it to the taskbar from the same screen. Slider Rotation, updates, runtime controls and global settings are available from the shared Settings application.
 Weather Current temperature, city and local forecast with configurable units. |
 Steam Downloads Active game, download progress, speed and estimated remaining time. |
 Codex Status Active task state, account information, quota usage and reset windows. |
 Media Player Current Windows media session, cover art and playback controls. |
Discord Voice is also included. It shows voice participants and highlights the current speaker after Discord RPC authorization is configured in Settings.
Four lightweight system widgets provide an XMeters-compatible meter layout using Taskbar Widgets branding and independently implemented native rendering:
- CPU shows total, user/privileged, or per-core utilization.
- Storage shows read/write throughput for all disks or a selected physical disk.
- Network shows receive/send throughput for all adapters or a selected interface.
- Memory shows used physical-memory percentage.
Each meter supports text, bar, and pie views, configurable colors, and refresh intervals from 0.1 to 10 seconds. System meters are disabled by default on upgrade and can be enabled and positioned independently from the Widget Library.
The Media Player derives its background, accent and control colors from the current cover art. These clips are cropped directly from a live taskbar session:
|
The Codex widget can manage multiple local Codex accounts without leaving the taskbar:
Email addresses are intentionally redacted in this screenshot. |
- Multiple widgets can run together in a configurable row.
- Rotation mode can cycle through a selected widget queue.
- Each widget has independent enable, order, anchor and pixel-offset settings.
- Providers are isolated: one failed integration does not stop the other widgets.
- Settings runs completely from local assets without a CDN or Google Fonts.
- Snapshot writes are atomic and malformed state fails closed at the Explorer boundary.
- The loader automatically recovers after Explorer restarts and supports safe unload/load.
- Legacy TaskbarStats settings, accounts and profiles are migrated without deleting the source.
- The built-in updater downloads only the complete installer and verifies its SHA-256 file.
Taskbar Widgets currently supports Windows 11 x64.
| Package | Use case | Download |
|---|---|---|
| Installer | Recommended installation and automatic updates | TaskbarWidgetsSetup-x64.exe |
| Portable | Manual or self-contained use | TaskbarWidgets-portable-x64.zip |
| Release page | Notes, checksums and release manifest | Latest GitHub release |
- Download and run
TaskbarWidgetsSetup-x64.exe. - Choose the install directory, Windows startup behavior and shortcut options.
- Start Taskbar Widgets on the final installer page.
- Open Settings from the taskbar widget action or run:
TaskbarWidgets.exe --settingsThe default location is:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\TaskbarWidgets
The uninstaller preserves user data unless Also remove settings and data is selected explicitly.
The installer checksum is always available beside the latest release:
$expected = (Invoke-WebRequest "https://github.com/pfcdev/TaskbarWidgets/releases/latest/download/TaskbarWidgetsSetup-x64.exe.sha256").Content.Split()[0]
$actual = (Get-FileHash ".\TaskbarWidgetsSetup-x64.exe" -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLowerInvariant()
$actual -eq $expectedThe Settings application provides a widget library, per-widget configuration, taskbar positioning, rotation sequencing, update controls and runtime load/unload.
- Row mode: shows every enabled widget side by side in the configured order.
- Rotation mode: shows widgets from a selected queue at a configurable interval.
- Positioning: every widget can be dragged directly along the taskbar; the saved anchor percentage and fine pixel offset remain editable and stay synchronized in Settings.
- Unknown widgets: remain in configuration but stay disabled until supported.
Settings is an internal component. Users launch TaskbarWidgets.exe; they do not
need to install or manage a separate Settings product.
Mutable application data is kept under the installed product's Data directory:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\TaskbarWidgets\
TaskbarWidgets.exe
TaskbarWidgets.Settings.exe
TaskbarWidgets.MediaHelper.exe
Data\
config.json
State\
Commands\
Accounts\
Logs\
Settings assets are local. Individual integrations may still use the network for their own data, such as weather requests, Discord authorization, Steam cover art and update checks. Secrets and account data are not stored in the repository.
Taskbar Widgets separates network and account work from Explorer:
Settings UI ──> Data/config.json ──> Loader and providers
^ │
│ v
Data/Commands/*.json <── actions ── Data/State/*.json
│ │
└──────────────── Explorer hook <──────┘
- The .NET loader supervises providers, accounts, commands, migration and updates.
- The Tauri Settings app edits configuration through an offline web interface.
- The native hook hosts and renders validated snapshots on the Windows taskbar.
- The media helper talks to Windows media sessions outside Explorer.
Provider code never executes inside Explorer. Read the full architecture and widget protocol for the runtime boundaries and versioned data contracts.
Requirements:
- Windows 11 x64
- PowerShell 5.1 or newer
- .NET 8 SDK
- Rust stable and Cargo
- Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools with MSVC x64, Windows 11 SDK and CMake
- NSIS 3 for installer packaging
git clone https://github.com/pfcdev/TaskbarWidgets.git
cd TaskbarWidgets
.\build.ps1 -Target Verify
.\build.ps1 -Target Build
.\build.ps1 -Target Package -InstallDependenciesVERSION is the single version source. Build outputs are written under
artifacts/. Contributors do not need Windhawk. See the detailed
build guide for toolchain and signing information.
src/loader/ .NET runtime, providers, accounts, commands and updater
src/settings/ Tauri Settings application and offline web UI
src/native/ Explorer hook, taskbar renderer and media helper
widgets/<id>/ widget manifest, provider source and assets
installer/ NSIS installer
build/ validation, build, package, signing and release scripts
docs/ architecture and contributor documentation
tests/ Explorer-independent contract and native tests
Built-in widgets use a source contribution model. Each widget owns a
widgets/<widget-id>/widget.json manifest and can provide data through the C#
IWidgetProvider contract and render native taskbar UI through the C++ renderer
boundary. Arbitrary external DLLs or executable widget packages are not loaded
in v1.
Start with Adding a widget, then review the protocol and architecture.
- Widgets are missing: confirm Windows 11 x64, restart Explorer once and inspect
Data\Logs\loader.logandData\Logs\hook.log. - One integration fails: inspect
Data\State\<widget-id>.json; other providers should continue running. - Settings does not open: run
TaskbarWidgets.exe --settingsand verifyTaskbarWidgets.Settings.exeexists beside it. - SmartScreen appears: compare the installer with the published SHA-256 file before continuing.
More solutions are available in the troubleshooting guide.
Contributions are welcome. Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request. Report security issues through the process in SECURITY.md, not in a public issue.
Taskbar Widgets is released under the MIT License.