Windows 11 users aching for a more vibrant, informative taskbar have a new reason to be hopeful. Developer Andrea Del Bello has released WidBar, a free beta application that places live, customizable widgets directly into the taskbar’s often-wasted empty space. Available now through the Microsoft Store, WidBar brings glanceable information—such as currently playing music, CPU and RAM usage, network activity, and more—right where users need it most. The app represents a grassroots effort to restore some of the at-a-glance utility that Microsoft stripped away when it redesigned the Windows 11 taskbar.
For many, the Windows 11 taskbar has been a source of frustration since the operating system’s launch in October 2021. Microsoft’s decision to center the Start button, remove live tiles, and limit customization options left power users and casual tinkerers alike feeling that the taskbar had become less functional than its Windows 10 predecessor. While Microsoft has slowly addressed some complaints—reintroducing drag-and-drop support in the Windows 11 2022 Update and tweaking the system tray—the company has shown little interest in bringing back dynamic, information-rich elements like the Live Tiles of old. The Widgets panel, accessed via a dedicated taskbar button (or a swipe from the left on touchscreen devices), offers a curated feed of news, weather, and other web-powered snippets, but it requires an extra click and pulls users away from their workflow. Microsoft’s Widgets are essentially glorified MSN shortcuts, lacking the deep system integration that made the old desktop gadgets or Windows 7’s Sidebar so useful.
WidBar sidesteps these limitations by embedding the data directly onto the taskbar itself. The concept is simple: a thin, semi-transparent bar that sits near the system tray—by default to the left of the clock—and can host multiple widget modules. Since it’s a native UWP application distributed through the Microsoft Store, it benefits from automatic updates, managed permissions, and a degree of sandboxing that system-level taskbar mods often lack. WidBar requires Windows 11 build 22000 or later and doesn’t tamper with system files, making it a safer alternative to tools like ExplorerPatcher or StartAllBack, which replace core UI components.
WidBar’s early beta releases focus on two highly requested widget types: a Now Playing module for media controls and a System Metrics module for hardware monitoring. The Now Playing widget automatically detects media from any active session—be it Spotify, Groove Music, or browser-based players like YouTube Music—and displays the artist name, track title, and album art in a compact format. Small playback controls (play/pause, next, previous) are present, though their responsiveness depends on the specific media player’s API support. During playback, a thin progress bar fills beneath the track info. In testing, the widget correctly identified music from Microsoft Edge playing a YouTube Music playlist, though it occasionally lost sync after pausing and resuming from the player’s interface rather than the widget itself.
The System Metrics widget is perhaps the most technically impressive part of the package. It polls hardware sensors directly to show real-time CPU usage per core (or a total aggregate), memory consumption as a percentage and in gigabytes, and total network throughput for uploads and downloads. The update interval can be set anywhere from 100ms to 5 seconds; at 500ms, the impact on system performance is negligible—the widget process itself consumes less than 1% of a modern CPU’s capacity. Users can selectively enable or disable any metric, and the widget respects Windows 11’s power modes, reducing its refresh rate when the device is on battery to conserve energy.
Beyond these two flagship modules, WidBar includes other helpful widgets that fill feature gaps in Windows 11’s default taskbar. A simple clock widget can display the time with seconds—a precision that Microsoft stubbornly hides behind a registry hack in the native clock. A volume control widget shows a numerical percentage and a horizontal slider that can be adjusted with a mouse scroll, restoring functionality lost after Windows 10’s full-volume flyout was simplified. A weather widget, which requires location permissions, places the current temperature, conditions icon, and a two-day forecast right on the bar. While not all of these are fully polished—some exhibit minor alignment quirks or don’t quite match the latest Fluent Design acrylic blur—they collectively demonstrate the app’s flexibility.
Installation is a one-click affair from the Microsoft Store. The listing clearly states the app’s permissions: internet access is used solely for fetching weather data and checking for version updates; no telemetry or analytics services are bundled. After installing, WidBar places an icon in the system tray; right-clicking it opens a configuration panel. The app initially runs with a default set of widgets (clock, now playing, and system metrics) aligned to the right of the taskbar, but everything can be tailored. Drag-and-drop within the configuration UI lets users reorder modules, and a checkbox system toggles them on or off. The entire bar can be repositioned to the left side of the system tray, or even set to float in the middle of the taskbar if combined with other customization tools like TaskbarX. Pixel-precise offsets ensure it doesn’t clash with other tray icons.
Visually, WidBar aims to complement Windows 11’s aesthetic. The widget bar adopts the system’s light or dark theme automatically, and each module can be individually styled: text size, font weight, and color can be overridden, or set to inherit the system accent color. The background of the bar can be completely transparent, solid, or blurred using acrylic. On high-DPI displays, the widgets scale cleanly, though some users have noted that the album art in the Now Playing widget can appear pixelated if the source image is low resolution. For those who prefer a minimalist look, all text labels can be hidden, leaving only icons and numeric readouts.
As a beta release, WidBar is not without rough edges. The most commonly reported issue is widget bar positioning on multi-monitor setups: the bar sometimes appears on only one display, or shifts unexpectedly when changing the primary monitor. The auto-hide taskbar setting is another pain point; with auto-hide enabled, the widget bar occasionally fails to reappear with the main taskbar, or overlaps open maximized windows. Stability is generally good, but a reproducible crash can occur if the bar is dragged to a very narrow portion of the taskbar while the system is under heavy memory pressure. The developer has acknowledged these bugs and updates the app frequently—sometimes multiple times a week—via the Store’s update mechanism. A built-in feedback button links directly to a GitHub issue tracker, and Del Bello has been responsive, often implementing user-suggested tweaks within days.
The community reception has been enthusiastic. On platforms like Reddit and the Windows Insider forums, users have praised WidBar for finally delivering what many had requested since Windows 11’s debut: persistent, glanceable system information without a full-screen dashboard. Comparisons to the much-loved Rainmeter are inevitable, but WidBar distinguishes itself by being simpler to set up and integrated directly into the taskbar rather than relying on desktop overlays. One forum commenter noted, “It’s like having Windows 7 gadgets that actually belong on the taskbar and don’t clutter my desktop.” The app’s GitHub repository has gathered hundreds of stars, and community-driven feature requests are shaping the roadmap.
Looking ahead, Del Bello has shared tentative plans for the next development phases. High on the list is broader media player support, including native integration with VLC, foobar2000, and TIDAL desktop clients. A GPU monitoring widget is in early testing, which would expose NVIDIA and AMD GPU utilization, temperature, and memory usage—potentially invaluable for gamers and video editors. The developer also intends to introduce widget grouping and stacking: users could bundle several small widgets into a collapsible group that expands on hover, keeping the bar uncluttered. A “peek” mode, where widgets temporarily enlarge to show more detail when the cursor hovers over them, is another promising concept. Perhaps most significant is the planned widget API, which would allow third-party developers to create and sell their own widget modules through the Microsoft Store. If realized, WidBar could evolve into an ecosystem akin to a lightweight, taskbar-resident Rainmeter, but with vetted distribution and simpler user installation.
WidBar’s emergence also raises questions about Microsoft’s own direction. The Windows 11 Widgets board continues to be a curated feed of web content, not an extensible framework for local system information. Microsoft has made it clear that it sees Widgets as a discovery and engagement platform—potentially monetizable—rather than a utility layer. While that may shift as Windows 11 matures, for now, the company’s focus on “productive, calm, and creative” experiences leaves power users underserved. Third-party apps like WidBar, Start11, and TaskbarX fill that void, and their popularity could influence future Insider builds. If enough users vote with their downloads, Microsoft may be compelled to offer official hooks for taskbar extensions, much as it eventually allowed third-party widgets in Windows 8 after pressure from the ecosystem.
In the meantime, WidBar offers an immediately useful enhancement for any Windows 11 machine. It’s lightweight, respects your privacy, and provides information that the stock taskbar stubbornly hides. The beta label means that users should expect occasional hiccups, but the rapid update cadence and the developer’s engagement suggest it’s on a fast path to maturity. As Del Bello himself has written in the app’s release notes, “I built WidBar because I missed the ability to glance at my taskbar and know my CPU temp or what’s playing without interrupting my flow. I hope others find it as useful.” Judging by the early response, many already have.
WidBar is free and available now from the Microsoft Store. Users are encouraged to report bugs and suggest features through the app’s integrated feedback hub or its official GitHub repository.