Death to widgets: Microsoft could kill desktop gadgets in Windows 8

There was a time when desktop widgets were supposed to be the next big thing. Fortunately, in our post-PC world, those times are long gone.

Microsoft, too, is catching up with our anti-widget times with its plan to nix desktop gadgets in Windows 8, according to Win8china, which says that the latest build of the operating system lacks the functionality.  

Desktop widget are designed to offer users a variety of information — weather, the time, photos galleries — in a dedicated, desktop-pinned space. The problem is that the functionality tends to take up a lot of invaluable desktop space, even when the software isn’t hogging a computer’s processor.

That Microsoft would remove the feature isn’t surprising in the slightest. For one, desktop widgets are about as far from the anti-desktop Metro interface as you can get, a reality Microsoft no doubt realizes.

The company, however, isn’t commenting either way on the report. “We currently do not have any more to share about this topic,” a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat.

Microsoft’s reluctance to spill the beans on the move is a bit strange, seeing as how the company hasn’t been shy so far about removing features from Windows that don’t fit with its new Metro-fied philosophy. Another recent high-profile removal is the Start button, which Microsoft killed because so few Windows users have been running applications from it. Clearly, no Windows feature is safe.

Photo: Shutterstock