Themia vs Windows 11 Widgets: Live on the Desktop

Windows 11 has widgets built in. Click the little icon on the left side of your taskbar (or swipe in from the left) and the Widgets Board slides over your screen — weather, calendar, news, sports, a few others. It is free, it is official, and for a lot of people it is the first thing they think of when the word "widget" comes up on Windows.

Themia is playing in the same conceptual space. But the two apps make almost opposite design choices, and those choices matter more than the feature list.

A Themia desktop where widgets for folders, to-dos, stats, and charts sit visibly on the wallpaper — no panel to open — A Themia desktop: widgets are already on-screen. No button, no panel.

The short version

Windows 11 Widgets live in a panel you open on demand. The widget catalog is fixed, and the feed pulls heavily from MSN content.
Themia puts widgets directly on your desktop, where they are always visible. You choose which ones, where they go, and what they show.

Feature comparison

Feature	Themia	Windows 11 Widgets
Price	Free tier · $19 one-time Pro	Free, built into Windows
Where widgets live	On the desktop, always visible	In a pop-out panel, on demand
Layout control	Drag anywhere, any size, any screen	Pinned grid inside the board
Widget catalog	Files, email, calendar, system stats, stocks, music, notes, to-do, RSS, GitHub, and more	Weather, calendar, traffic, sports, plus MSN feed
News feed	Optional RSS widget — you pick the sources	MSN feed, mixed into the board
Per-context layouts	Switchable per-screen layouts	Not supported
Works across monitors	Yes, independently per screen	Single panel

Where Windows 11 Widgets wins

Zero install

It is already on your machine. No download, no license, no second app to launch. For someone who just wants a quick weather check, that is a real advantage.

Microsoft account integration

If you are already signed into Windows with a Microsoft account, Outlook calendar and To Do show up without any extra setup. The Microsoft 365 integrations are as frictionless as it gets.

Tied to the taskbar

The Widgets Board opens from a single click or swipe and closes the same way. It never gets in the way of your work, because by default it is not visible at all.

Where Themia wins

"At a glance" actually means at a glance

The strongest argument for desktop widgets is that a widget behind a button is barely a widget at all. If you have to click to open a panel, you might as well have clicked to open the app.

Themia puts the widget on the desktop. Minimize your browser, switch screens with Win+D, Alt+Tab past something — the weather, your calendar, your inbox counter, your system load are already there. No extra click.

You choose the content

The Widgets Board pulls from MSN and a fixed catalog. You can add or remove items, but you cannot fundamentally change what they show. Themia's widgets let you point at your folders, your feeds, your accounts, your watchlist, your playlist — the content is yours.

Layout freedom

The Widgets Board is a grid inside a panel of a fixed width. Themia lets you place widgets anywhere on your desktop, at any size, on any monitor. If you want a tall calendar down the right edge of your main display and system stats tucked in a corner of your second monitor, that is a two-minute setup.

Themia widgets spanning the entire width of the desktop — file lists on the left, stats and charts on the right — Free-form placement across the whole desktop — a pop-out panel cannot match this.

Per-screen contexts

Themia lets you define multiple desktop layouts and switch between them — work mode, personal mode, focus mode. This is the kind of feature the built-in Widgets Board has no equivalent for.

No news feed you did not ask for

A common complaint about the Widgets Board is that the MSN news and sports feed takes up most of the real estate, even if you do not want it. Themia does not ship a news feed; if you want RSS, you add the RSS widget and pick your own sources.

Themia widgets showing the user's own email, calendar, and notes — no sponsored or recommended content — Your inbox, your calendar, your notes — nothing Microsoft is trying to surface in addition.

Which should you pick?

Stick with Windows 11 Widgets if: you only want a quick weather and calendar glance now and then, you like that it is built in, and the MSN feed does not bother you.

Pick Themia if: you want your widgets visible on the desktop without opening anything, you want real control over layout and content, and you have multiple monitors or contexts to manage.

The built-in Widgets Board is a feature. Themia is a workspace.