• Are there reliable clock/weather “widgets” for Windows 10 desktop?

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    #2284640

    Are there reliable clock/weather “widgets” for Windows 10 desktop?

    On my old Windows 7 PC, I had a clock and weather widget on my desktop using Rainmeter. It worked pretty well except the Rainmeter weather would stop working when it lost track of the weather format.

    Now I’d like to put a clock and weather widget on my new Windows 10 desktop. But Microsoft apparently says that widgets are a security risk and removed them, but there are also apparently still some free apps at the Windows store that do the same thing. I haven’t tried any of them, but I am wondering if anybody has a recommendation of the easiest, safest, simplest “widget” that I can add to my Windows 10 desktop that will show a clock and weather.

    Thanks for any advice .

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    • #2284720

      I miss the Windows 7 clock/weather “widgets” on my Windows 10 PC.

      However, if you are in the United States you can get your local weather from the National Weather Service at  https://www.weather.gov/  .

      Enter your location and the copy the URL.

      Then, right click on your desktop, click “New”, click “ShortCut”, paste in the URL, click Next, and give the thing a name like Weather. Now the weather is just one click away.

      You can do the same thing for weather radar by going to Weather Underground at https://www.wunderground.com/radar/us

      Not quite the same as a “widget” but if you cannot stick your nose out of the window you can at least know what is going on outside.

      • #2285350

        I miss the Windows 7 clock/weather “widgets” on my Windows 10 PC.

        I used to like trying out the different Windows 7 desktop Gadgets, but they were unfortunately discontinued due to a serious security exploit: Link

         

    • #2284726

      Are there reliable clock/weather “widgets” for Windows 10 desktop?

      From HowToGeek:
      How to Add Gadgets Back to Windows 8 and 10 (and Why You Probably Shouldn’t)
      By Chris Hoffman | October 26, 2016

      Windows Desktop Gadgets Were Discontinued Because They’re a Security Risk

      Yes, Microsoft is trying to push its own live tiles instead of desktop gadgets. But, if live tiles aren’t good enough for you, there’s a better desktop gadget platform.

      What You Should Do: Get Rainmeter for Modern Desktop Gadgets

      How to Re-Enable Desktop Gadgets (If You Absolutely Must)

       
      Maybe reinvestigated Rainmeter is an option?

    • #2285320

      Thanks Kathy and Kristi for your comments.  Some questions:

      1.  Do “live tiles” work on Windows 10 desktop?  What are their pros and cons?  I’ve never used them.
      2. Do  you know if Rainmeter is a “security risk” like Microsoft “widgets”?
      3. Do you have any idea how reliable Rainmeter weather is  on Windows 10?  It’s a pain to set up and I’m not too excited about putting in a lot of work if it’s not going to work.

      Finally, I am surprised that nobody has created a secure “widget” for Windows 10.  It  seems to me like there would be a lot of demand for it.

      • #2285342

        Finally, I am surprised that nobody has created a secure “widget” for Windows 10.  It  seems to me like there would be a lot of demand for it.

        As long as almighty Microsoft considers desktop gadgets and/or widgets to be a security risk (probably due to the way they must be implemented within Windows in order to work as intended), there won’t “be” any demand for the feature. 🙁   Get where I’m going with that?

      • #2285376

        I’ve used Rainmeter for some years now on Win10. I have 8 “skins” running on my desktop right now. Most from https://www.deviantart.com/silverazide which set out to replicate the Win7 Gadgets. I’ve written a few of my own (I really like to just glance at the lower right corner of the desktop and see “Win 10 Pro 2004-19041.388”.) It isn’t the easiest product to set up as the OP noted but they surely are nice (and not too hard to build your own simple item).

        For your questions: Live tiles only work on Start not the desktop. I cannot find any reason to believe that Rainmeter skins would pose a security risk. And Rainmeter has been very reliable on Win10. I have delayed some updates but the small development team is very good about releasing working products (probably better testing than a well known Redmond WA company).

        Lastly about weather skins. Weather.com has repeatedly changed their API interface. SilverAzide has been diligent on keeping up and releasing fixes. I don’t think there is any other weather skin that works as well. (I’ve been through several!)

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    • #2285362

      I use the Rainmeter widgets and they all work great except the weather skin. It just keeps wanting to refresh and never connects.

      Rainmeter

      Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
      All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

    • #2359922

      I use the Sonder skin. They have a number of variations for the weather skin which all seem to work great based on your location, or you can manually enter a latitude and longitude.

      Sonder also has a nifty settings applet that allows you to make changes to their different variants.

      Also, each variant operates based on a text file with a simple programming language. There you can go in and edit to your heart’s content. I have tweaked the date and time variants significantly.

      Rainmeter itself is at rainmeter.net

      Skins are there or at deviantart.com/rainmeter

    • #2362491

      Sidebar-screenshot
      I set up this sidebar with Rainmeter after the most recent update for Win10 removed the Win 7 sidebar.exe I had moved from computer to computer to computer.

      It is fine for what I want, but one feature is missing. The “old” gadget. as I’m sure many of you remember, protected that sidebar space. When you opened a window “full screen” it would stop short of the sidebar. Thus, the sidebar was always visible, and I didn’t have to fiddle around with the size of the window to see it. I don’t want the sidebar on top of what I am working on — just nicely on the side, as SIDEbars are supposed to work.

      I have not found a way to do this with Rainmeter skins.  I also have Fences. Is there a way to put a fence around it and adjust settings in Fences to protect that monitor real estate?

      Thank you in advance for any workarounds you can suggest!

      Pat in CT
      @sheltiemom

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