Widgets, or gadgets, were one of the novelties that Windows Vista brought and that remained until the end of Windows 7. However, with the arrival of Windows 8, this function disappeared. And with 10 they did not arrive again. Despite this, it seems that Microsoft has realized that these desktop add-ons are very useful both for the information they show and for customization issues. And therefore, for Sun Valley (autumn update 2021) we can see a new panel with these gadgets. Although, if we don’t want to wait, we already have them available for Edge, your new browser.
Since Microsoft released its new Chromium- based Edge browser, it has done nothing but work to improve it. This browser has advanced security and privacy functions, a new way to navigate through vertical tabs, the best free PDF viewer that we can install on the PC and many other surprises. A browser that has nothing to envy that of Google. And, in addition, very soon we will see another great novelty that will improve our experience when surfing the net: a new system of widgets that, surely, we are familiar.
The new Edge gadgets
Similar to what has been seen in Windows 10, Microsoft is adding a panel within its own Edge browser. This panel, which we can activate or deactivate to our liking, will allow us to see a series of “cards”, or widgets where we will find interesting information. For example, we can see a gadget with the weather of our city, and another with all kinds of news related to our tastes.
At the moment it only shows news (like Discover on Google ) and the weather. However, it may add support for other information in the not too distant future.
Of course, this is a most interesting function. And Chrome, very soon, is going to do something similar, as has been seen recently in the Chromium changes. However, keep in mind that this is not just “for users”, but Microsoft itself will use it to show news and advertisements according to our interests, through Bing, and generate more revenue on MSN. In the end, like everything: one more advertising tool to squeeze the data that they constantly collect. But at least a useful and interesting tool.
Activate the new widgets
For now, this new feature is only available to users of the Canary version of the browser. That is, the development version. However, we cannot yet enable or disable it to our liking, rather Microsoft is using the ” Controlled Feature ” method to enable it only for a very limited number of users. If we are lucky, we can try it. Otherwise, we will have to wait.
When it is our turn, we can activate or deactivate this function from the settings section. To do this, we will simply write ” edge: // settings / newTabPage ” in the address bar, and we will be able to see the following option.
By activating the option, this new tool will start working. At the moment we do not know when the tool will reach the stable version of the browser. But everything indicates that it will still take.