Gadgets not working in Windows 11

Important! All steps in this article are for Windows 11 Pro version 21H2 (22000.556). This should be taken into account, as subsequent releases may have changes in the visual design and location of some interface elements. But despite this, all methods of solving the task will remain relevant.

Method 1: Checking the work of mini-applications

If the mini-application shortcut disappeared from the taskbar, there is a possibility that this happened due to accidental user actions. In this case, first of all, you should check the parameters of the widgets in the system settings. To do this, do the following:

1. Open the options window using the system search or the application list in the Start menu. The generic method involves using the Win + I hotkeys.
2. After that, go to the “Personalization” section, and then click on the “Taskbar” item.
3. Check if the toggle next to Widgets is in the On position. If it’s not, click on it to change the setting.

Method 2: Restart the widget system

If gadgets are enabled on the system, but the corresponding indicator is not displayed on the taskbar, you should restart the corresponding set of components. This is done as follows:

1. Open the “Task Manager” using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Esc. Alternatively, you can apply a system search by entering the appropriate query.
   

   Note: In a separate article on our website, all ways to launch the Task Manager in Windows 11 are considered.

   More: All ways to launch the Task Manager in Windows 11

   

2. If necessary, change the view mode to advanced, by clicking on the “Details” item in the window that appears.
3. While on the Processes tab ”, find the application named “Windows Gadgets” in the list. Select this line and click on the “End Task” button, which is located in the lower right corner of the window.
4. Close the active “Task Manager” window, and then initialize the widget service by clicking on the appropriate shortcut on the taskbar.

Method 3: Update operating system

On rare occasions, gadgets can break due to errors made by the developers of the operating system. In such cases, an appropriate patch is released as soon as possible, designed to eliminate all malfunctions. Therefore, if a problem occurs, you should check for updates and install them if available:

1. Go to Windows 11 settings. To do this, expand the Start menu and in the list of all applications, find and launch Settings.
2. Using the left sidebar navigation, go to the “Windows Update” section. In the main part of the interface, click the “Check for Updates” button.
3. Wait for the analysis of new updates to complete. If any are found, the system will automatically install them. This procedure may take some time.
4. After that it will be necessary to reboot the computer.To do this, use the “Restart Now” button that appears, or perform a standard restart.

Note: If for some reason you cannot turn off the computer, we recommend that you read the thematic articles on our website.

Read more:
All ways to turn off the computer
Turn off the computer without a mouse

To improve system stability and save yourself from crashing other components, you should allow the installation of Microsoft products and install optional updates. This is done in the same menu.

1. Go a little lower on the page and open the “Additional parameters” section, which are located in the “Other parameters” block.
2. Check the toggle next to the “Get updates for other products” option Microsoft”.
3. Go down to
4. Open the drop-down lists with update categories one by one and check the boxes next to all available items. Then click the “Download and Install” button.
5. After the update procedure is complete, the progress of which can be monitored in the main Windows Update menu, restart the computer.

Important! Check for optional updates recommended systematically, as it improves the stability of the operating system.

Method 4: Set Microsoft Edge as your default browser

All widgets that open in the widget bar are synchronized through the built-in services of the operating system. Most of them belong to the regular browser. For this reason, problems may occur when Microsoft Edge is not the default web browser. To fix this, do the following:

1. Open Microsoft Edge using the system search. To do this, enter the name of the application and click on the appropriate icon in the results that appear.
2. Open the browser menu by clicking on the function button located on the right side of the top bar. Then click on Settings.
3. In the tab that opens, expand the additional menu by clicking on the button in the upper left corner. In the list of sections that appears, select Default Browser.
4. Once in the desired category of options, click on the “Set as default” button, located opposite the line “Set Microsoft Edge as the default browser”.

After all the manipulations done, it is recommended to restart the service responsible for the operation of widgets. You can do this by simply restarting your computer, or by using the instructions in Method 2 of this article.

Method 5: Logging in to your Microsoft account

During the installation of the operating system during the initial setup, the user is asked to log in to a Microsoft account, if this is not done, some functions will not be available. For example, the integrated OneDrive cloud storage module will not be able to synchronize data on the computer with the server. This does not affect the functionality of the widgets, but failures may occur in an account that is not authenticated and uses a local account.

To log in to your Microsoft profile, you will need to do the following:

1. Open the system settings window by using the search or by pressing the Win + I hotkey combination.After that, go to the “Accounts” section and enter the “Your data” menu.
2. In the “Account Settings” section, click on the link “Sign in with a Microsoft account instead”.
3. In the dialog box that appears, enter the email address, phone number, or Skype name that is linked to your Microsoft account. Click Next. Enter the password that was set when registering the profile in the appropriate field. Confirm your entry with the “Login” button.
4. Enter the current Windows password that was previously used to sign in to the account. If authorization in the system was automatic, then just click the “Next” button.
5. Click “Next” during the PIN creation step.
6. Create a passcode for authorization in your Windows 11 account and enter it twice. This action is mandatory, so you cannot skip it. After completing the input, click on the “OK” button.

Please note! By default, only numbers are used for the PIN, but it is possible to include letters and symbols. To do this, check the corresponding option.

 

After that, authorization will be completed and additional features of the operating system will be unlocked. We recommend that you restart your computer before launching the widgets to test them.

If you’re having trouble signing in to your Microsoft account, or you don’t know your profile credentials, we recommend that you check out our separate articles on our website for helpful tips. tips to fix these problems.

More:
Setting up a Microsoft account
Finding your Microsoft account

Method 6: Restoring system data

In the process of working at the computer, the user may unconsciously perform actions that cause damage to the data of the operating system. As a result, certain components of Windows 11 fail, in particular, the Widget Service. To fix the problems that have arisen, you should use the built-in console utility, which semi-automatically analyzes disk space and restores missing or damaged components.

To complete the task, do the following:

1. Expand the search menu and enter the query “Command line”. In the results that appear, select the application of the same name and click on the “Run as administrator” button.
2. In the console window that opens, enter the command below, then press the Enter key to execute it: sfc /scannow
3. Wait for the analysis of disk space with system files to complete. This process may take some time.
4. Check out the information after scanning. If a problem was found but could not be fixed, it will be reported. Otherwise, there are either no problems or all system data was restored successfully.
5. Method 7: Analyze the operating system image

Due to serious errors in the operating system image, some services may fail, responsible for the correct operation of individual programs.If you experience problems with widgets, you should verify the integrity of the image. This is done using a special console utility:

1. 1. Open the “Run” window using the Win + R hotkey combination. Enter the cmd command in the appropriate field and click on the “OK” button, after holding Ctrl on the keyboard + Shift. This will allow you to run “Command Prompt” as an administrator.

1. 1. In the console window that opens, enter the following command to analyze the operating system image, then press Enter to initialize it:DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

1. 1. Wait for the scan to complete and review the information provided by the tool. If the operation was successful, the corresponding inscription will appear on the screen.

Please note! The DISM console utility works automatically, no additional steps are required. But after the procedure is completed, it is recommended to restart the computer.

Method 8: Checking the system for viruses

Viruses can damage important files in the operating system by their activity system, in particular those that are responsible for the correct display of mini-applications. Accordingly, until the malicious code is removed, no other method described in the article will help in solving the problem.

To get rid of viruses, you should check the Windows 11 disk space with special software. It is worth noting that an antivirus developed by third-party companies must be used to detect malicious code, since the built-in protection tool no longer coped with its task at the threat initialization stage.

There are many anti-virus products on the software market , but despite their diversity, they work on the same principle. It is necessary to start the process of scanning the system, which is often done in the section of the same name, then to start analyzing disk space, you should select the area and method. It is recommended to do a full check of — it takes a long time to run, but it can track more threats.

If you are having difficulty choosing an antivirus software, we recommend that you read the article on our website, which briefly reviews popular third-party products. In the same place, if necessary, you can get a link to a detailed review of the application with the ability to download from the official site.

More: Applications for removing viruses from a computer

Method 9 : Editing Local Group Policies

If you can’t enable widgets in System Settings, and any other method of launching them doesn’t work, it’s possible that gadgets are disabled in the Local Group Policy Editor. Accordingly, in order to return the functionality of the component in question, it is necessary to activate the service.

Please note! The Local Group Policy Editor is available only in the Windows 11 Professional and Enterprise editions. If your computer is running a different version of the operating system, this method cannot be implemented.

To complete the task, do the following:

1. Launch «Local Editor group policies». To do this, open the Run window by pressing Win + R, then enter the query gpedit.msc and click on the OK button.
2. Using the tree structure of the directories located on the left side of the window interface, go to the path “Computer Configuration” → “Administrative Templates” → “Windows Components » → «Widgets». Then, in the main workspace, right-click on the “Allow Widgets” option and select the “Edit” option from the context menu.
3. In the configuration file editing window that appears, check the box next to Enabled. After that click on Apply and then OK.

After following the instructions, widgets will be unlocked and you can enable them by changing system settings. But in order for the changes to be accurately registered in Windows 11, it is recommended to restart computer.

Method 10: Reinstall Windows Web Experience Pack

Windows Web Experience Pack is a set of components designed to display data correctly, received from the Internet.Accordingly, it is necessary for the normal operation of widgets, since they download information from the network.Depending on the assembly of Windows 11, the uninstallation of the package can be performed in different ways, but below is a universal method that involves initializing the console command.

1. Right-click the Start icon to open its context menu Select Windows Terminal (Admin) from the list of options that appears.
2. In the console window that opens, enter the command below, then click
   winget uninstall “windows web experience pack”
3. After a short wait for parsing data packets, the deletion process will start and will not take long.
4. Please wait until the specified component is removed, then restart your computer. Next, you should re-install through the built-in application store. It is impossible to find the required package in the standard way, so use the link below to go to the software page on the Internet.
5. Click on the “Install or open” button. Please note that the name may be different due to regional differences and previous actions in the system.
6. A page will open in the regular Microsoft app store. Install the component using the Install button.After the data package is downloaded and placed on the system, you will need to restart your computer. Widgets will start to work normally, but if necessary, to correctly display them on the taskbar, check the settings using the first method described in this article.

Method 11: Install Microsoft Edge WebView2

-content in the operating system. Therefore, if there are problems in the work of mini-applications, it is recommended to install this software package. This is done through an installer distributed on the official Microsoft website.

To complete the task, do the following:

1. Go to the data package page, after then scroll to the very bottom and click on the “x64” or “ARM64” button (depending on the bitness of the operating system used).Please note! If you have difficulty choosing the version of the application, we recommend that you read the article on our website, which describes in detail all the ways to determine the bitness of the operating system.

   More: How to find out the bitness of Windows

   

2. In the resulting in the dialog box, read the license agreement and start the download process by clicking on the “Accept and Download” button.
3. After downloading the installer, go to the appropriate directory with this file and run it by double-clicking on the name with the left mouse button.
4. Follow the installer instructions by running all specified commands. After that, wait until the files are unpacked and close the active window.Restart your computer for the new components to register with the system.

Method 12: Disabling the video card driver

When installing video card drivers Errors could occur that did not provoke a critical termination of the installer, but caused incorrect processing of some graphical elements of the operating system shell. You can find this out by disabling the designated software. To do this, you will need to use a special regular utility.

1. Expand the search menu and enter the query “Device Manager”. In the results, click on the application of the same name to launch it.
2. In the window that opens, expand the “Display adapters” branch and right-click on the name of the video card you are using. Select Properties from the menu that appears.
3. Go to the Driver tab and click the Disable Device button.
4. In the dialog that appears on the screen, confirm your actions by answering the question yes.

After deactivation, restart the computer so that the graphical shell is correctly displayed using the standard driver. Test the widgets by configuring them if necessary using the first step in this article. If the widget icon appears on the taskbar and works correctly, you will need to reinstall the graphics card driver. We have a separate article on our website dedicated to this topic.

More: How to reinstall the video card driver

@top-advice.ru