I built my own Windows desktop widgets using Claude, and it only takes a few minutes

Released Oct 30, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT

Dibakar Ghosh is a tech reporter at How-To Geek with over a years of experience utilizing and blogging about open-source software application, Linux, Android, AI, and individual efficiency. He blogs about software application, running systems, and tools that assist individuals get more from the innovation they currently utilize.

I like desktop widgets. I’ve liked them because the early days of Windows 7, and I dislike the truth that Microsoft chose to eliminate them. Sure, a few of you will state the desktop looks cleaner without widgets, however to me, it simply seems like squandered screen property. Widgets offer you simple access to beneficial details without needing you to open an app.

Now, yes, you can technically bring desktop widgets back to Windows 11 utilizing Rainmeter. That comes with its own set of downsides, which I’ve pointed out in a later area. I chose to take matters into my own hands and began developing customized widgets utilizing Claude and Rainmeter. These widgets show extremely individualized info that I appreciate, and the entire procedure takes hardly a couple of minutes.

Technically present, however almost concealed

Before I get swarmed with remarks, I want to discuss that, yes, Windows 11 does deliver with widgets. They’re not as helpful as standard desktop widgets. The Windows 11 widgets are stashed inside the Widgets Panel, which you can open by clicking its matching taskbar icon or pushing Windows+W. The extremely reality that you require to push a button to see the widgets is a minus in my books.

Now, some folks declare to like this setup due to the fact that you can bring up the panel from inside any app without needing to give up back to the desktop. To that, I ‘d like to explain that you can likewise push Windows + D from inside any app to leap directly to the desktop. The panel does not offer any workflow benefit while losing when it comes to basic ease of access.

Desktop widgets stay noticeable when you close a window, switch to a brand-new virtual desktop, or merely begin your computer system. And while we can argue about whether they have visual appeal, there’s definitely a useful one. Continuously seeing a calendar widget with your day-to-day program and an order of business widget with pending jobs can assist keep you liable and enhance your routines. If you’re interested, I’ve composed a devoted post checking out the concept of utilizing widgets as an efficiency hack.

Often you’ve got to take matters into your own hands

Rainmeter is among, if not the most popular, methods to get desktop widgets on your Windows 11 PC. The common workflow includes browsing the web for Rainmeter widgets, a.k.a. “skins,” and installing them on your system. It works, however it isn’t without its defects.

The primary problem is that skins made by various individuals seldom match each other. If you blend and match widgets, your desktop can begin to look a bit off. There’s likewise the truth that a few of the good-looking skins are locked behind a paywall.

Now, naturally, you can constantly code your own widgets– after all, each Rainmeter skin is basically a text file. If you’re like me and do not have a background in coding or style, then it’s not actually a useful service– at least, it wasn’t up until now. I’ve just recently been ambiance coding with Claude, and the outcomes have actually been amazing. I chose to see if I might utilize it to produce some Rainmeter widgets, and it did a sensational task.

Invite to the world of ambiance coding widgets

The procedure is quite uncomplicated, and you do not require any unique triggers or adapters. I’ve discovered Claude, particularly Opus 5.5, to be quite fluent in how Rainmeter works, even with no user-provided context. I merely informed it how I desired the widgets to look and what details they ought to show, and after a number of back-and-forths, I had my widgets all set in a couple of minutes.

You can sketch the style of a widget on a paper, take an image, and share it with Claude to explain the design more specifically.

Now, you can technically utilize any variation of Claude for this task, however I suggest utilizing Claude Code. It has direct access to your file system and can produce all the Rainmeter skin files and conserve them in the best folder without you needing to raise a finger. That stated, if you desire more control, you can likewise utilize the basic Claude app– it will offer you the code for each skin and inform you where and how to conserve the files. It’s a more hands-on procedure and takes longer, however it works simply.

I ‘d likewise motivate you to utilize an effective design like Opus 5.5 or perhaps Fable, if you have access to it. I attempted developing widgets with Sonnet 5.5, however faced more concerns. Opus made the procedure far more structured and produced less bugs.

A couple of concepts worth taking for your own desktop

If you’re trying to find motivation and concepts for what’s possible, here’s the set of desktop widgets I developed utilizing Claude and Rainmeter that I actively utilize on my system:

• Today widget: A timeline of my day ranging from 11 AM to 2 AM, with color-coded blocks for each job, a line marking the present time, and a card on top informing me what I’m doing now and what’s turning up next. It checks out from a CalDAV file I conserved in your area on my system to figure out which occasion is showing up and when.
• Day Left widget: A countdown timer created to demonstrate how much of my workday is left. The numbers alter from white to amber to red as the day goes out. I developed this to stop my workday from bleeding into my nights and pressing back my bedtime.
• Pitch Day widget: An editable list where I can include short article concepts to pitch to my editor. It’s set to count down to my Thursday pitch due date. All pitches contributed to the widget are likewise conserved to a regional file. Pitches I mark off get archived to a different file, while the rest rollover to the next week.
• Activity widget: A chart that pulls information from the ActivityWatch server running in your area to demonstrate how long I’ve been active on my PC today, which hours were busiest, and which apps used up the majority of my time.
• Claude widget: Tracks my Claude Code use for the day and approximates when my existing five-hour use window resets.
• Clock widget: A big animated clock sitting at the center of the screen, primarily for visual factors.

You can now construct the widget you constantly desired

Technically, desktop widgets never ever vanished from Windows due to the fact that we constantly had Rainmeter. The issue was discovering the best widgets that showed the details you desired and looked excellent together. Now that we live in the age of AI and ambiance coding, it’s simpler than ever to develop widgets customized to our particular requirements. And, obviously, you do not need to utilize Claude. Other coding representatives with CLI gain access to, like Codex and Antigravity, are simply as capable, as long as you’re utilizing a capable design.

Read More