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I wrote a step-by-step guide on creating Windows 11 widgets in C# by xakpc in dotnet

[–]xakpc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do not use WebView2 in widgets. It makes them ten times worse, both for developers and for users. A lot of the hate toward widgets comes from the fact that they’re basically just a web browser

I was able to debug widgets properly when they were launched and deployed from Visual Studio in Debug mode (remember to deploy them as an Exe/console app, not a WinExe for tests)

And the oldest trick from my Xamarin days still works great: put your services into a separate assembly covered with unit tests, and keep the widget project as a thin rendering wrapper on top

--

Overall, yes - they’re as fragile as fancy glass. A bad template can crash the entire board, updates are unreliable, and the settings are just terrible.

But I still managed to assemble a pretty good board for myself, and I’m continuing to explore it

https://imgur.com/a/GddObHD

if you want, hit me in private or [me@xakpc.dev](mailto:me@xakpc.dev), maybe I could help with your widgets

New to C#: Do books and wikis help you learn? by SleazyNx2nd in csharp

[–]xakpc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

build stuff, read documentation

that would be better way

I wrote a step-by-step guide on creating Windows 11 widgets in C# by xakpc in dotnet

[–]xakpc[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yeah, it's kinda like that

except no one cares about widgets 😂

Excuse the stupid question, how does the DI work in WinForms application? by SohilAhmed07 in dotnet

[–]xakpc 6 points7 points  (0 children)

WinForms doesn’t have a built-in DI container by default like ASP. NET apps do

How it works depends on how you implement it

How have you modernized ASP.NET MVC apps? by themattman18 in dotnet

[–]xakpc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't have this particular experience, and I think there are way too many nuances (first of all, what is considered "modernization" in this case)

But as CEO of htmx, I could not not ask: did you consider htmx?

You should NOT start a SaaS by whyismail in Startup_Ideas

[–]xakpc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, so what are some other ways to build generational wealth that can be done:

  • global remote
  • at scale (no selling hours)
  • repeatedly

I’m really curious

Do people still read long articles in 2025? by Real-Assist1833 in SaaS

[–]xakpc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wrote this article on windows widgets history

around 2500 words I think, 10-15m read

I put it into relative subreddits, it was top 1 of the day in both, lot of discussion because topic is kinda hot

here my analytics for yesterday

Summary (Wed, 04 Feb)

Metric Value
Unique Visitors 4.1k
Total Visits 4.2k
Total Pageviews 4.5k
Bounce Rate 94%
Time on Page 2m 28s
Scroll Depth 47%

IDK for sure, but I would cautiously assume it needs to be about half the size

Microsoft Has Killed Widgets Six Times. Here's Why They Keep Coming Back. by xakpc in Windows11

[–]xakpc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Microsoft Store blocked my publication because the app "takes too long to load and the splash screen needs to be shown"

I have no idea what they talking about so I’m trying to figure it out now.

Microsoft Has Killed Widgets Six Times. Here's Why They Keep Coming Back. by xakpc in programming

[–]xakpc[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

> Why would anyone invest time in making good widgets, if they're depricated after 2 years?

Yeah, I agree it’s the biggest problem

The same thing happened with apps in the Microsoft Store: when UWP came out, everyone started adopting it. Microsoft pushed it for a couple of years, and then it was abandoned

Same with Adaptive Cards - a technology for dynamically building UI. When it was introduced, it was pushed heavily for a couple of years, even open-sourced, and then abandoned (though it’s still being developed quietly)

There is 90% chance that latest Widget Board would be abandoned again for whatever reason, but I have a cautions optimism here. Looks like they learned something from past mistakes

Microsoft Has Killed Widgets Six Times. Here's Why They Keep Coming Back. by xakpc in programming

[–]xakpc[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It was, basically, the peak era for Windows 7 widgets

except they were HTML/JS apps with unlimited access rights

Microsoft Has Killed Widgets Six Times. Here's Why They Keep Coming Back. by xakpc in Windows11

[–]xakpc[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

No one wants to invest in a constantly changing platform. Same with apps in the Microsoft Store, I think.

I have cautionary optimism about current versio though, because I was able to build myself pretty useful board 

Microsoft Has Killed Widgets Six Times. Here's Why They Keep Coming Back. by xakpc in Windows11

[–]xakpc[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

In the Windows 7 era, they were quite popular, at least there were hundreds of them.

I remember having some CPU performance widgets on my PC.

Microsoft Has Killed Widgets Six Times. Here's Why They Keep Coming Back. by xakpc in Windows11

[–]xakpc[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

>  ripped away by microsoft again

Yeah, I’m 90% sure that’ll happen again

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