He built custom Windows desktop widgets with Claude in minutes

A writer at How-To Geek says he built his own desktop widgets for Windows 11 using Claude, an AI assistant, and it took only a few minutes. He has no background in coding or design. The widgets show the information he cares about, in a look he chose, right on the desktop.

Why Windows 11 widgets fall short

Windows 11 does include widgets, but they sit inside a Widgets Panel. You open it from a taskbar icon or by pressing Windows + W. The writer sees that extra step as a drawback. Desktop widgets, by contrast, stay in view when you close a window, switch to a new virtual desktop or start your computer.

Where Rainmeter fits in

Rainmeter is a free tool that puts widgets on the Windows desktop. Its widgets are called skins, and each one is essentially a text file. The usual route is to download skins that other people made. The writer lists two problems with that: skins from different creators rarely match, and some of the better-looking ones cost money.

How Claude changes the process

The writer says no special prompts or connectors were needed. He described how he wanted each widget to look and what it should show. After a couple of back-and-forths, the widgets were ready. He also says you can sketch a layout on paper, take a photo and share it with Claude.

• Claude Code can create the skin files and save them in the right folder for you.
• The standard Claude app gives you the code and tells you where to save it. That takes longer but works.
• Other coding agents with command-line access, such as Codex and Antigravity, are described as just as capable.

What to know before trying

Model choice mattered in his experience. He recommends a powerful model such as Opus 5.5, or Fable if you have access. With Sonnet 5.5 he ran into more issues, while Opus gave fewer bugs and a smoother process. These are one writer's results, not a test.

The article does not say what access to these Claude models costs, so check that first. It also does not cover how well the widgets hold up over time.

What it means

The appeal is practical. A calendar with your daily agenda and a to-do list with pending tasks, always on screen, can help you stay accountable. Until now, getting widgets that matched your needs and looked good together was the hard part. The writer's point is that describing what you want to an AI tool can now solve that.