XWidget 1.9.22

Overview

Have you gotten bored of your desktop, and want to give it a fresh look? For exmple, by adding more components with several animations that make it more interesting and modern. If yes, then the solution is XWidget. XWidget is nifty tool that allows you to add many interesting and fun widgets. For example, it has beautiful clock widgets, weather widgets, resources usage widgets, media player widgets, and many more kinds of widgets. In addition to the built-in widgets, users also have the ability to create their own custom ones.

Installation

After you run the installer you will be presented with the installation wizard which will guide you through the installation steps. It’s a very short installation procedure basically, which has no advanced settings whatsoever; the only settings you have to make are the usual shortcut and installation directory ones.

No malicious software is included in the setup package, such as viruses, trojans, adware, spyware, etc.

Supported operating systems are Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 (32/64-bit). There’s an Android version available too.

Interface

Once the program installation is finished, the XWidget gallery will be shown (which is actually a mini-browser). There you will find countless available widgets that you can install and use, all of which are two clicks away from your desktop. The widgets are available in several different categories: Featured Widgets, Latest Widgets and for Android. In addition, there’s a Forum section where you can discuss anything related to XWidget.

Apart from the XWidget gallery, 3 widgets will be added to your desktop upon installation: a clock widget, a weather widget and a gallery widget.

The main program is located in the system tray, from where you can find many different options, features and settings.

Pros

The basic advantage of XWidget is that its widgets are very lightweight, as they use very few system resources. In fact, having multiple widgets has an insignificant impact on the computer’s speed and memory usage. That’s quite good to know, actually, since a lot of applications with similar functionality take up a lot of processing power and memory, considerably slowing down the computer.

Additionally, there’s a tool implemented in the program called XWidget Designer, which gives you the power to design your own widgets, and then add functionality to them. With XWidget Designer you can even choose whether the widget will run under Windows or Android.

Additionally, there’s a wide range of widgets that you can pick for your desktop. And many out of those are created by users (with XWidget Designer).

Cons

No cons, other than the fact that there’s no instruction manual on how to use XWidget Designer.

Alternatives

The most popular desktop customization application is Rainmeter (free). It has tons of features that allows you to customize all elements of your desktop, plus the fact that its user base is huge makes it one of the most supported desktop customization apps available. Other alternatives are Samurize (free), ObjectDock (paid) and LiteStep (free).

Conclusion

XWidget is a really capable application that can give energy to your desktop, and not just any kind of energy; you have full control over what kind of widgets you add. Definitely recommended.