Windows 11 looks set to get a battery widget for the lock screen
Preview builds contain references to a battery status widget showing charge levels for your PC and connected accessories.
Microsoft appears to be working on a battery status widget for Windows 11 that would show your PC’s charge level alongside connected wireless accessories in one place.
What’s actually going on
References to the widget were first spotted on Discord in recent preview builds and reported by TechPowerUp, drawing on Windows Central. The widget is designed for both the Widgets Board and the lock screen, with light and dark theme variants already present in build assets. It would list the PC’s battery at the top, followed by connected peripherals such as Bluetooth mice, keyboards and headphones, each with an icon, name and percentage, plus charging status and whether Energy Saver is enabled.
The feature is not functional yet, and there is no word on when it will ship or whether the lock-screen and Widgets Board versions will arrive together.
Why you should care
Android and iOS have offered combined battery overviews for years, so Windows 11 catching up is overdue rather than groundbreaking. Still, a genuinely useful system widget might finally give the Widgets Board a reason to exist beyond weather and phone notifications.
Our opinion
This is a small, sensible quality-of-life feature that should have shipped years ago. It will not sell a single Windows licence, but for anyone juggling a Bluetooth mouse, keyboard and headphones, it removes a dozen tiny daily frustrations. We just hope it arrives before the Widgets Board quietly joins Microsoft’s long list of abandoned interface experiments.