Step-by-Step Guide: Creating Widgets for Windows 11

The widget board is a component of Windows 11 that appears over the desktop when a user clicks the taskbar icon or selects ⊞ Win+ W containing a grid of adaptive cards with text, images, and actions related to your app.

J.P. Roca shows you how to create a Widget for your app in order to improve engagement with Windows 11 users, along with a few quick demos showing what Widgets can do.

In this episode:

• 00:00 J.P. Roca, PM for Widgets at Microsoft, shows the Widget board and what Widgets can do.
• 01:04 The three high-level steps needed to create a Widget for your desktop app (Design the Widget card, Implement the communication interface, Register your Widget).
• 01:34 The six methods used to communicate between the Widget board UI and your desktop app (Create, Delete, OnAction, OnChanged, Activate, Deactive).
• 02:20 Creating the UI for your app’s Widget using the Adaptive Cards Designer.
• 03:04 Implementing the six communication methods with Widget interface in your C# app project using Visual Studio.
• 04:25 Registering your Widget using the Appx Manifest.
• 05:17 Testing your Widget by deploying it to the Widget board.
• 06:15 Learn more in the documentation at https://aka.ms/widgetdevdocs or share feedback at widgetsupport@microsoft.com

Learn more:

• Windows Widget documentation: https://aka.ms/widgetdevdocs
• Send feedback to the Widget team: widgetsupport@microsoft.com
• Windows App SDK repo on GitHub (view existing or create new issues): https://github.com/microsoft/WindowsA…
• Windows App SDK docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/a…
• Follow Windows Docs on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WindowsDocs
• Follow J.P. Roca on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jpthepm
• More Tabs vs Spaces episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?app=…