Desktop widgets are floating, draggable components that sit on top of your wallpaper. Noctalia ships four built-in widgets, Clock, Media Player, Weather, and System Stats, and plugins can add their own.
Enabling Desktop Widgets
Desktop widgets are disabled by default. To turn them on:
- Open Settings → Desktop Widgets
- Toggle Enable Desktop Widgets
Adding and Managing Widgets
All widget management is done from Settings → Desktop Widgets:
- Add a widget - click Add Widget and pick from the list
- Remove a widget - click the remove button on a widget entry
- Configure a widget - click the gear icon to open its settings dialog
Widgets are stored per-monitor, so each screen can have its own set.
Positioning and Scaling
Enable Edit Mode to freely position and resize widgets:
- Drag to move a widget anywhere on the desktop
- Right-click drag to scale a widget up or down
- Flip Horizontal / Flip Vertical - toolbar buttons in edit mode mirror the selected widget(s)
- Grid Snap - enable in settings to snap widgets to a grid while dragging
Exit edit mode when you’re done. Positions and scales are saved automatically.
Performance Considerations
Some widgets continuously poll hardware counters or perform expensive rendering. Noctalia marks these as CPU-intensive and will warn you when adding them. The System Stats widget falls into this category.
If you notice increased CPU usage or battery drain, consider removing CPU-intensive widgets or limiting how many are active at once.
Plugin Widgets
Plugins can register their own desktop widgets. Once a plugin with a desktop widget is installed and enabled, it appears in the Add Widget picker alongside the built-in widgets.
See the Desktop Widget plugin guide for how to build one.