BeWidgets vs Stickies

BeWidgets is a Windows app for customizing a desktop with widgets, including changing widget colors and usage. Users can update widgets individually inside the application and receive notifications when updates are available. Layouts collect widgets into arrangements that can be saved and loaded. The maker's documentation describes a store for downloading widgets and notes that a layout store update is scheduled for 2026. BeWidgets is distributed through the Microsoft Store; the listed plan is free, and the Store listing indicates in-app purchases. For users who want to build widgets, the maker provides a Visual Studio project template. Custom widget packages use the.wpkg archive format and can be installed into BeWidgets. The listed development prerequisites are Visual Studio,.NET 8.0, the Windows 11 SDK, and the BeWidgets Widget Template extension. The maker describes the interface as modern, easy to use, and inspired by Windows 11.

Stickies is a free Windows utility for placing text and image notes on the desktop. Notes stay where positioned until closed, including after reboots, and can be resized and styled with custom fonts, colours, buttons and layouts. You can hide a note until a chosen date and time, schedule it to wake daily, weekly or monthly, and add alarms. Notes may be attached to an application, website, document or folder so they appear only when that item is on screen. Stickies transfers notes between machines over TCP/IP, an SMTP mail server or a MAPI client, and exposes an API through Windows messages. It stores data in one SQLite database file without writing to the registry. Unicode and right-to-left text are supported, with translation files for menus and dialogs. The current download supports Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11. Group Policy can control settings.