Windows 11 delivers third-party widget support to developers in the latest Insider Preview Build

Released yesterday to the Dev Channel, Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25217 comes with support for testing third-party widgets. However, everything is still in a preview stage now, so there are quite a few limitations involved. These things considered, end users will probably have to wait at least a few months until this feature becomes available in a production build.

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25217 includes WinAppSDK 1.2 preview 2, which allows developers to build widgets for Win32 apps, as well as to test them on the Widgets board. Unfortunately, the widgets are restricted for local use. Once WinAppSDK 1.2 GA arrives, users will be able to install the widgets from the Microsoft Store app.

In addition to the above, Microsoft also revealed that third-party Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) widgets will be soon supported by Microsoft Edge. The list of features present in the latest Insider Preview Build of Windows 11 also includes a new video calling experience for Chat, version 22209 for the Microsoft Store app, which now includes a banner that shows when a game is available with Game pass, the Tamil Anjal keyboard, as well as quite a few tweaks and fixes.

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