How to Install and Enjoy Dynamic Island on Your Windows PC
Reading Time: 5 minutesWho says the iPhone 14 Pro can only have Dynamic Island? Here’s how to get it on Windows.
Dynamic Island is one of the most talked about features of the iPhone 14 Pro that launched in September 2022. This nifty feature, which replaced the notch at the top of the iPhone, turned into an instant fan obsession for its innovative use of space and interactivity.
Now you too can install and enjoy Dynamic Island on your Windows PC. We’ve explained the step-by-step process of how to do that, so read on to explore.
What Is the Dynamic Island?
Dynamic Island is the name of the black pill-shaped cutout on the top of the iPhone 14 Pro screen that houses the front-facing camera and the sensors required to run Face ID.
Once you install Dynamic Island on your PC, it will look like the same black extended pill. But, the functionality it offers you to access several Windows OS features and interact with them makes it worth installing. And yes, it looks cool too.
You can do so much with this new way to interact with your PC—check the temperature, weather, memory details, battery percentage, and more. It also serves as a control for the music player. Moreover, you can also shut down or restart your computer in a snap with Dynamic Island.
Yes, it’s handy and fun. So let’s check out how you can get and enjoy Dynamic Island on your PC.
How to Install Dynamic Island on Windows 10 and 11
Installing Dynamic Island on your PC involves two main downloads and installs with a few mini steps.
First, you need to download XWidget, a light desktop widget customization engine with smooth animations. XWidget has a built-in powerful visual widget editor and an online widgets gallery, which includes Analog/Digital clocks, a Calendar, Weather, Launcher, PhotoAlbum, Music Player, and more.
- Open your browser and visit the XWidget website.
- Download XWidget from the first screen of the website. Or scroll down, and you will find it towards the top right. Click Download to get it on your PC.
- You need to extract the XWidget set files from the downloaded folder. However, when extracting the files you might get an error message from Windows Security that Microsoft Defender Antivirus has identified a threat. It’s because Windows Security identifies xwidget_setup as a folder containing malware. You won’t face this problem or get any error messages with other third-party antivirus apps, even the paid ones. So before you extract the files of the XWdget setup, all you need to do is first turn off real-time antivirus protection. You can easily do this by following the few steps in our article on how to turn off Microsoft Defender temporarily.
- Now extract the downloaded zip file in the xwidget_setup folder to launch the installation setup. Also click Run on the security warning asking if you want Run this software since the publisher is not identified.
- Follow the on-screen instructions and click the Next button to install the software to your system.
- Then click Finish to launch XWidget. A shortcut of XWidget will appear on your desktop.
- XWidget will launch on your Windows PC, and three different widgets will appear on your desktop. You can right-click each widget and close them.
- Almost immediately after the three widgets appear on your desktop, the XWidgets Gallery page will also open up on your laptop screen. You will find images of many widgets on the page, but the one you need to look for is Desktop Dynamic Island by a developer named Jimking. Inspired by Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro, he has developed the Desktop Dynamic Island widget for XWidget.
- So click on the Desktop Dynamic Island image and its page will open.
- Now scroll down the page till you reach the green Download Free button and click it. The Desktop Dynamic Island will start downloading on your PC.
- As soon as the download completes, the Desktop Dynamic Island in its black pill-shaped form will appear on your desktop, maybe on top of the three widgets on your screen.
- So if you hadn’t before, right-click each of the three widgets and press the Close button.
- Now Dynamic Island will be ready for use on your desktop. You can drag and place it anywhere—on top of the screen under the webcam, or on the center of the screen.
Have Fun With Dynamic Island On Your Desktop
Dynamic Island on your PC gives you a new way to access and interact with a few essential and fun features. It will expand when clicked to reveal a feature and open up further into a rectangular bubble to showcase a few feature elements.
Right-click on this black island to open the menu and assign a different feature to view and use.
From the menu, click on any of the following to use with the island: Date Time, Weather, Memory, Battery, Player, and Shutdown. Let’s explore them briefly.
1. Stay Updated With the Date, Time, and Calendar
Right-click Dynamic Island on your screen and select Date Time. Now when you click on Dynamic Island again, it will expand to show the date and time. If you click on the calendar icon, the island will expand to show the current month’s calendar too. Click on the calendar icon again to close the month’s calendar.
2. View the Weather Conditions
Select Weather in the menu and Dynamic Island will display a part of the weather information, like if it’s clear or cloudy. Click on the black pill to expand it and view the weather status and the temperature. Click on the Weather icon to view the weather for the next five days. Click on the icon again to close it.
3. See the Memory in Use
Select Memory in the menu to know how much memory is currently being used by the system.
4. Know the Battery Status and Battery Percentage
Select Battery in the menu to view the battery percentage and whether the PC is connected and charging, or is unplugged and on battery power.
5. Access Music Player and Control Songs From Dynamic Island
Dynamic Island acts as the control for your music player. Choose Player from the menu and click on the black island to expand it. Then click on the orange dotted line on the right of the pill to open the basic player controls below.
To get it working, click the Player icon, the triangle with circular lines over it. It will open the Windows Media Player, which is the default setting, and songs in your playlist will start playing. Close the player. You will see that the name of the song playing is on top of the Dynamic Island player. You can set others from the Player Settings in the menu.
6. A Cool Way to Restart or Shutdown Your PC
Choose Shutdown in the menu, click on Dynamic Island, and use the Shutdown and Restart options on the island for your PC.
You will also see your PC’s name alongwith an image of a man on Dynamic Island. You can personalize this image to reflect your PC or your style, by following the steps below:
- Open File Explorer and click on the Documents tab to open it.
- You will find the XWidget folder in Documents. Open it and then open the Widgets folder inside.
- You will find the desktop dynamic island folder within. Open it and look for the .png image titled face—this will be the same image that is displays on Dynamic Island with your PC’s name. Delete this default face image.
- Now, choose any image you like to display next to your PC’s name on Dynamic Island. It could be your face or something that reflects your passion, like music. For best results, resize the image to 200 x 200 pixels and save it as a .png file. You can resize images easily with the Photos app, which also lets you create videos easily.
- Now name that image as face and add it to the desktop dynamic island folder. In the screenshot below, the image of a person playing guitar has replaced the default face image.
- For the change to take effect, open the System Tray from the taskbar. Right-click the XWidget icon and select Exit to close Dynamic Island.
- Now double-click on the XWidget shortcut that was created on your desktop. The Dynamic Island will pop up again and your chosen picture will display when you choose the Shutdown option.
Make Using Windows Fun and Cool With Dynamic Island
Adding Dynamic Island lets you use some essential features creatively and view important data quickly on your Windows PC. It also looks so awesome on your desktop. So get the Dynamic Island and enjoy.
Moreover, if you use an Android phone, why not add the fun of Dynamic Island to your phone today?