Can you put widgets on the Windows desktop? Not with Windows alone. The widgets in Windows 11 sit in a board that slides out from the taskbar and closes again. For a clock, the forecast, CPU and GPU load or the current song that stays visible, you add a desktop widget app. This guide uses Spacedash, which is free: you place the widgets on a monitor once and they remain there.
What it takes
Step 1: install the app
Download it
Get Spacedash from the download page. There is no charge and no sign-up.
Start the installer
Open EdgeOS Setup.exe, the installer's name until Spacedash is approved in the Microsoft Store; the app inside is the same. It sets Spacedash up for your Windows account only, which is why no administrator prompt appears, and launches it at the end.
Choose a starting layout
The first-time setup offers several prepared layouts. Take whichever is closest to what you want; all of its widgets can be swapped or changed later.
Step 2: choose the monitor and how it shows
In the app, go to Settings → Screens and turn on your monitor. Three choices then decide how the widgets sit on it.
Show decides the layer. With Desktop only, the widgets are part of the desktop and your app windows cover them. With Always, they float above all windows.
Background decides what's behind them. Dashboard paints a background for the widgets. Transparent leaves your wallpaper visible in the gaps, and a click in a gap goes to the desktop underneath.
Taskbar keeps or hides the Windows taskbar on this monitor.
The free plan puts Spacedash on one screen at a time. Premium shows it on all of your monitors together, and each has a separate layout.
Step 3: place your widgets
Go to Layout
On the Layout page, a Widgets panel on the right holds the full list. Type in its search box, or narrow the list with a category, for example Essentials or Monitoring.
Put one on the screen
Drag a widget from the panel to the spot you want. Pressing its + adds it too.
Set it up
Each widget has a Customize panel for its own options, such as the style and time zone of a clock, the place a weather widget reports on, or the figures a PC stats card displays. Font, text size and overall look can be set on any widget.
One task at a time: put a clock on the desktop, show CPU and GPU temperature, or show what's playing on a second monitor.
Games and performance
Widgets shouldn't cost you frames. The Performance page lets Spacedash pause itself in three situations: a game is running full screen, one of the apps you list is open, or the CPU or GPU is under load. It resumes afterwards without you doing anything. All of this is in the free plan.
After the basics
- Profiles. A profile is a saved layout for a situation. The free plan includes one. Premium adds Gaming, Work and Streaming profiles and ones you make, and switches between them when a certain app comes to the front or at set times.
- Skins. One file restyles everything. Read Spacedash skins.
- Widgets you write. A widget is a folder containing a
widget.jsonand anindex.html. Read Build your own Spacedash widget. - Rainmeter skins. If you're moving from Rainmeter, Spacedash for Rainmeter users covers the differences, and Premium runs
.rmskinskins as well.