The board stays open until clicked away, making it semi-persistent. It does not pin to the desktop permanently (unlike old gadgets), but it can be opened on top of any app. You can rearrange widgets by dragging. The panel also respects system theme settings (light/dark mode).
The Widgets board is often called a “modern sidebar” but criticized for forcing news content even when disabled. Still, for quick glances at weather, calendar, and tasks, it works well as a temporary side panel. 2. Notification Center & Quick Settings (Right-Slide Sidebar) Though not a single panel, Windows 11 combines two sidebars into one unified flyout from the right edge. Clicking on the network/volume/battery area (or pressing Win + A ) opens Quick Settings . Clicking the time/date (or pressing Win + N ) opens Notification Center . These two are now separate but both slide from the right. 7 sidebar windows 11
The Widgets board occupies roughly the left third to half of the screen, depending on display resolution. It has a semi-transparent acrylic background (Mica or similar), with a clean, card-based layout. At the top, there’s a search bar powered by Bing. Below that, a weather widget typically appears first, followed by news, stocks, traffic, sports, and other dynamic widgets. The board stays open until clicked away, making
This is a full vertical sidebar, about 400–500px wide, with a profile header, a search bar, a list of recent chats, and a "Meet" button to start a video call. It uses the same acrylic/Mica material and dark/light theme support. The sidebar can be detached into a standalone window, which is unique among these seven panels. The panel also respects system theme settings (light/dark
It behaves exactly like a secondary taskbar section. You can click any icon to launch or switch to that app, drag icons from the overflow into the main taskbar and vice versa, and even see progress bars (e.g., file downloads) on the icons within the overflow. It supports right-click context menus too.