Start11 and Windows Widgets

Widgets don't appear

from Stardock Forums

I've reported before (circa Oct 2025) that when Start11 uses "let Start11 enhance the taskbar," windows widget won't appear next to clock. 

This behavior doesn't happen every single time and the widget bar may appear normally on boot (like 40% of the time), but definitely not reliable.

If enhancement is turned off, it appears fine. Toggling it back makes the widget disappear. Sometimes clicking the widget (and the popup window appears) can make the widget bar "stick" and thus display, but sometimes it disappears as Explorer restarts. 

Probable steps to reproduce are:

Install Start11

Set "let Start11 enhance the taskbar"

Reboot

At least on my computer, it's uncertain the widget will appear, so restarting Explorer repeatedly (and clicking on widget) might make it stick.

I'd do this repeatedly in testing to see if the widget ever doesn't appear and investigate from there. 

The bug has been persistent through several Start11 updates, so bug isn't fixed. FWIW and YMMV.

Stardock Software Start Menu Products start11 Type: Bug Report
495 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Can confirm this is still happening. The widget visibility is very unreliable with taskbar enhancement turned on

Thanks for providing the detailed steps to reproduce, hopefully it gets fixed in the next update😛

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

Sorry to hear you’re running into this issue. On my system, with the Start11 taskbar enhancements enabled, the Widgets appear normally to the left of the task tray area. However, this only happens when the Start button is set to left‑aligned.

If the Start button is center‑aligned, the Widgets don’t show up, likely because of space limitations. From what I understand, this behavior isn’t a bug but rather how the design works.

Thank you,

Basj,

Stardock Community  Assistant.

Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.