Ah, OK - thanks!

That version fixes the sub-menus, but the widgets are still unavailable (with the unhelpful message, "If you're having trouble with the widgets board, here are some steps to get things working again - Retry").

It would also be helpful if we got a notification when a new version is available.

I'm using Windows 11 version 22H2 (OS Build 22621.2506).

The widgets are a Microsoft feature and any issues with that are unlikely to be anything to do with Start11.

I would imagine there is a network issue somewhere causing it.  I have found them to be somewhat unreliable myself.

Quoting davelorde,

reply 7

Oddly, my laptop has the same version of Windows as my desktop (which has the unavailable widgets), and also the latest version of Start 11 V2, and it displays the taskbar widgets OK. The only difference is that the desktop runs Windows 11 Home and the laptop runs Windows 11 Pro.

The reason I queried whether the problem was due to Start 11 V2 is because it was working OK with Start 11 V1 and stopped working immediately after I installed Start 11 V2.  

This is what it now looks like (the 'Retry' button has no effect): 

It may be because you rebooted to install Start11 v2.

Issues often show up after a reboot.

Sadly, after several episodes of instability with Start 11 V2, I've switched to StartAllBack, which is a bit less sophisticated, but way more stable for an autohide menu aligned at the top of Windows 11.

The problem is described below:

Start 11 V2 seemed stable after purging it and reinstalling it (on Windows 11, Surface Pro 9). I set the taskbar to align 'top', and set 'enhanced' mode for 'autohide'. It was fine for a few days, then after a Windows update, the taskbar icons on left and right side 'slipped down' so only the top edges were visible on the taskbar.

This taskbar issue persisted after a reboot, so I tried turning off the 'enhanced' mode to stop autohide to see if that would help. To do this, Start 11 requires Windows Explorer to restart. When Windows Explorer restarted, the screen layout kept repeatedly refreshing, making the icons jump. At this point, the start menu was responding normally, so I rebooted, but after reboot the desktop started up in the same display refresh loop and the Start 11 V2 taskbar and menu were unresponsive. 

I booted into the Windows boot menu and used Macrium Reflect to restore from a recent system backup, before purging and uninstalling Start 11 V2. This is the third time I've been through this cycle with the same result - the problem always seems to happen after disabling the 'enhanced' taskbar option and restarting Windows Explorer.

I had a similar issue on my Del XPS desktop PC, but after reinstalling Start 11 V2, I left the taskbar unenhanced (no autohide), and so far it's been stable. Unfortunately, on the Surface Pro, I need the extra screen real estate an autohide taskbar provides ¯\_(ツ)_/¯