Forum Discussion
Widgets on Windows 11 not opening at all
On Windows 11 (build 22000.120), the Widgets program does not open when I click on it. Nothing shows up on the screen, not even a blurry rectangle. The animation on the icon works, but that is it. I tried other methods including the one on this forum, please help.
DrTamiz Disabling and reenabling all of the Graphics Drivers solved the issue for me. Check out this tutorial.
https://itechhacks.com/fix-widgets-not-working-windows-11/- Disabling and enabling graphics driver did not work for me. Still waiting for Microsoft to solve the problem.
DrTamiz I just loaded Windows 11 and have a similar issue. I went to device manage, expanded display adapter, and right clicked on graphics card and disabled the graphics card. Then the widgets worked perfectly. Following I clicked and turned the graphics card back on and then the widgets again did not work. There definitely is a "bug" in the system that I hope Microsoft can fix soon.
- Enabled or disabled widgets do not work for me. Maybe they never will. I enjoy Windows 11 without the widgets but still would like to see them work eventually.
- Has anyone else been able to fix this issue? I just installed Win11 a week ago and noticed that I am experiencing this same issue yesterday. I can't seem to find any sort of fix online.
My widgets started working seemingly spontaneously some months ago. I had tried all the suggestions indicated in this thread, to no avail, and had basically given up on them working. Although I don't recall specifically, I'm pretty sure there were a couple of updates that had happened, when I decided just for giggles to see if they were working, and much to my surprise, they were.
None of the release notes I saw specifically mentioned the widgets issue, although I might have missed it as some of the notes were pretty long. All I can suggest is making sure all your drivers are up to date, especially the chipset and video drivers, and making sure you are running the latest release of Windows 11, which at the time of this post is co-release 22000.434. To check this, press Start, then type 'winver' into the search box and press Enter.
Sadly, I have no idea what may have changed to get my widgets to start working again, as nothing I tried seemed to work. They just started working one day, although as I mentioned, I think there was an update or two since the last time I'd tried them.
EDIT: After going back and reviewing this thread, I saw that I had incorrectly remembered the events leading up to my widgets working again. In a previous post, I had mentioned that the widgets didn't work one day, and did the next. I apologize for misremembering this.
when I very first downloaded win 11 all went well but wigets just did not work, soon as i clicked on them
they just flashed on my screen and went. I tried several times but no good so sought help from the M/S community, one guy was very patient with me (im an old git no all that tech savvy) but he explained things simple for me, i tried everything he ,d suggested, others offered help as well nothing worked, so back to win10.
The guy that helped me said their is a new update coming out end of November, wait till then so I did and win 11 went in ok but still same problem, click on wigets it flashed on screen and went I sought more help, all to no avail, so back to win 10.
Then midway through December I tried again win 11 again installed ok but this time wigets worked fine no probs what so ever, so all was well till last week, when I clicked on wigets they opened but when I clicked on any link, news, sport what ever it just flashed on screen and would not open, that is when I contacted the community for help again.
My laptop was like this for 24 hours. I shut it down everynight sometimes I get a mesage to update and continue or update and shut down, I choose update shut down (My bed time) I turn pc on again next morning I tried wigets and all worked fine and touch wood is still doing so.
So dont know if it was just a glich, or one of my evening updates solved it. not got a clue. but as of this moment all is good. Like you guys I really like win 11, in fact in win 10 I kept my old desktop with my yellow folders, never did use tiles.
Thanks fo contacting hope Ive given some hope for you at least.
CeeBee1776 I haven't gotten mine to work as of this writing and my computer has received all the current updates and a new Display Driver from Intel all still all to no avail. I am still waiting for magic to make it work for me. I have tried everyhthing else.
- I found it was my Zonealarm anti-virus program. I decided to live without Widgets.
- For anyone that has not found a solution yet, I just found one on another thread: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/report-an-issue/widgets-are-not-opening-in-windows-11/m-p/2866225/highlight/true#M3222
You have to install the edge web view 2 runtime: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webview2/
My widgets started working right away. We'll see if the fix lasts.
I upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 and Widgets worked for a few days, then stopped workingDrTamiz
- I found it was my virus protector ZoneAlarm. Seeing I have a 2 year licence, would rather keep Zonealarm than have widgets. I have yet to figure out how to reprogram Zonealarm to let widgets through.
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My widgets didnt work at all after several attempts at installing win 11, so in the end i just installed win 11 without widgets working, and by the end of the day they had started working, so no idea what the issue was, non of my security stopped anything.
The original attempt at instalation back in November kept failing, i did all what those that offered help advided me to, but still nothing, so basically gave up. I then tried in Januarary and it just loaded. so not got a clue but all is working fine now.
But I do believe there are instalation issues though. My wife finally yesterday admited she would have to give up the tiles in win 10 (which she liked) took over two hours to down load and install only to be told there was not enough space on the laptop to install win 11 and it did not load or go any further.
we both have the same laptops loads of space my wife has less on her laptop then me yet I never had the space issue. Now today my wife turns her laptop on and got a message would you like to finish installing win 11, so clicked to continue and it installed no problem in about 30 minutes, all fully functional. Gremlins!!
DrTamiz I figured I would jump back in here with a reply. Since Windows 11 came out I was running it as an upgrade from Windows 10. On one computer (my main computer) only the widgets feature did not work. About two weeks ago I accidentally jumped over to the Windows 11 "Dev" insider edition. None of the updates along the way ever helped. Anyway, I didn't want to be stuck forever in Dev and I wanted to go back to beta... but there is no way to do this. So I made the decision to use the USB builder and do a 100% clean installation of 11 without dealing with 10 at all. Widgets have been working since this new installation and I'm back on Beta now. No issues. I don't know what the actual problem or the in-place fix is, I just wanted to let everyone know a clean install (not using the built in "reset") seems to fix the problem.
- I also did a clean install which worked until I installed zonealarm Extreme. This stopped Widgets from working. As I have a 2 year term on Zonealarm and like it another, I've decided to live without Widgets for now.
DrTamiz Investigating my suddenly missing widgets panel, I found that my version of widgets.exe (which is the app which runs widgets) is version 421.20050.505.0 and perhaps won't work because these .dll's are missing: MSVCP140_APP.dll, VCRUNTIME140_1_APP.dll and VCRUNTIME140_APP.dll I'm going to see if I can copy them off a back-up ISO and pop them in the WindowsApp folder. Who knows, it may work. Nothing else has.
I had this issue then realized that I was using a Local Account even though I had my Microsoft account linked. So I created a new account using Microsoft login at the start and now I have widgets working. That seemed to fix the issue for me.
jatasis All fixed by latest update! It would have been nice for Microsoft to say they were setting about fixing it: I think most of us thought the problem was to do with our machines, thus all the activity.
- Yes it would have been nice but no such consideration.
