Windows 11 will add support for third-party widgets

Widgets are compact blocks in the Start menu that contain the most important information from a particular application or web service. Currently, they are only available for standard applications, such as weather or news.

It will be possible to pin third-party widgets in the system in the summer. They will be included in the build of Windows 11 22H2 (Sun Valley 2).

Description of this feature found in the developer guide. The document emphasizes that initially only web widgets will be added to the system. Creating windows for Win32 or UWP (Universal Windows Platform) platforms will not be supported yet.

You can download third-party widgets from the Microsoft Store. In addition, developers will be able to create adaptive cards - pieces of the user interface that are platform independent. However, how they will work is not yet entirely clear.

Some standard applications have already been updated. For example, the latest version of the Photos app has received new cropping tools with aspect ratio and preview, markup and lighting settings in the frame. In addition, you can view multiple images using the bar at the bottom.

The familiar Windows Media Player has replaced the Groove Music app. It plays almost all popular audio and video formats.

You can now update standard apps in the Microsoft Store.

Also members of the Windows 11 Insider Beta Program showed redesigned interface of standard applications. For example, this is how Notepad looks like in WinUI and Fluent Design with a dark theme from Windows 11 Build 22000:

Windows 11 also received support for new icons and animations based on WinUI. There is a new settings page that allows you to change the font and theme for the app (including dark mode).