Windows 11 lock screen welcomes new widgets, here’s how to display them

Windows 11 introduces new widgets to place on the lock screen, but a little trick is required to activate them. Here we explain the procedure to follow.

The Windows 11 lock screen is now very empty and very sad. When you turn on your computer, only the date and time are displayed on this first screen, in addition to the connection information allowing you to access your session.

Microsoft developers have looked into the issue and now offer several widgets allowing you, even before identifying yourself, to obtain some useful information for your day. If the option is not currently available in a simple menu in the operating system settings, a little trick and a few minutes are enough to activate it.

Widgets first deployed in Windows 10

Microsoft first introduced its widgets on the Windows 10 lock screen. These allow the user to check the weather of the day in their city or where they are, the road traffic around its position, or even some stock prices selected in advance, in addition to the most popular topics in the news and on the Web.

If the company’s efforts are logically focused on the latest version of its in-house operating system, the publisher’s teams have not forgotten the users of the old version.

Windows 10 is still widely used among individuals and businesses, and tens of millions of users have still not been able or willing to update their machine to Windows 11. Despite the upcoming end of support for the OS by Microsoft and the arrival of paid security updates, Microsoft wants to offer as complete an experience as possible to all of its users.

A few command lines are enough to take advantage of it before anyone else

Surprise: these widgets are also available on Windows 11, but their implementation is a little more complex. If you want to take advantage of it now, just follow these few steps:

• Update, if not already done, Windows 11 to version 22631.3371 (KB5035942);
• Download the ViveTool tool from GitHub to your computer, in an easily accessible folder on your PC;
• Open a command prompt and navigate to the folder containing ViveTool with the CD command (for example CD C:Vive, if ViveTool is at the root of your PC;
• Type the command vivetool /enable /id:47921515,47921574, then press Enter on the keyboard;
• Restart your computer;
• Once restarted, go to the Settings app > Personalization > Lock screen > Lock screen status and select “Weather & more”. The widgets will then appear on the lock screen.

This small discount is temporary, and it is very likely that the option will arrive in Windows 11 thanks to a future update.

Source : Neowin