Configuring, managing and deleting a widget from an Android device. How to remove widgets on Android and how to install them? How to remove mini apps from your phone screen

By interacting with Android devices, we customize them to suit our needs. During use, application icons and widgets appear on the main screen. This article is a short lesson on interface elements. You will learn what widget applications are, how to add them, and also how to remove a widget on Android.

Managing Interface Elements

Let's turn to Wikipedia to determine the meaning.

Widget(also called: interface element, control element, control) is a graphical user interface primitive that has a standard appearance and performs standard actions.

Widgets can be divided into four groups:

System- interface elements designed to control and manage the operating system as a whole and the state of its elements in particular. For example: battery charge indication, time, GSM network status, and so on.
Extensions- additional controls and controls installed by the user. They usually end up on your device after installing applications. For example: graphical information about the weather, data on system security from antivirus, the amount of money in WebMoney virtual wallets after installing a similar application.
Shells- visual component, used as an addition to the installed shell. At the same time, in the Android OS you can change everything: from the design of icons on the desktop to the interface itself in the settings.
Multifunctional- controls that contain several types of functional and visual information. For example: auto-rotate screen, Bluetooth indicator.
Other- interface elements that are designed to decorate the gadget screen. Usually do not contain useful information.

Adding and customizing a widget

Available UI extensions can be added as follows:

Some widgets require initial setup. Once added to the desktop, the corresponding interface will open, such as with a double clock.

Removing a widget

To remove a widget on Android from your desktop, press and hold the icon for a few seconds. A "Delete" button will appear at the top or bottom of the interface. Drag the icon there to clear it.

To remove a widget from a smartphone or tablet, you need to delete it in the Application Manager, in Settings.

Some widgets are tied to installed applications, so they are removed together.

System widgets or those associated with system applications cannot be removed without the presence of .

Our next lesson in the training course is devoted to how to clear your desktop of unnecessary shortcuts.

According to the latest data, almost 2 million applications have been downloaded in the Google Play digital store, most of which are free programs. At the same time, the functionality of applets extends from simple notepads and calculators to controlling household appliances in the house.

Naturally, it is extremely difficult for a mobile device user to resist downloading additional applications, even if he knows exactly what he wants to install. In this case, programs and widgets and “one-time” series begin to accumulate, increasing the number of desktops. Because of this:

The desktop turns into a real dump of icons
It's quite difficult to find the app you need in this dump
Apps running in the background overload your battery and processor.

However, the functionality of the Android operating system allows you to properly clean up your phone’s desktop and get rid of the clutter of unnecessary shortcuts, widgets and additional work screens. There are 3 simple ways to do this:

Method 1. How to remove a shortcut or widget from the Android desktop through the system trash

This method is convenient because it does not require working with system settings. Everything happens on the main screen of your smartphone:

Selecting an unnecessary program
Hold your finger on the label
Wait until the Remove/Delete option appears
Drag the icon to the desired item

To simply erase an icon from the desktop, just select the “Remove” command. In this case, the program will remain in the smartphone menu, from where it can be returned to the main screen at any time. But the “Delete” command will uninstall the application.

It is worth noting that this method only works with third-party applications. System programs can only remove icons from the desktop.

As a rule, after deleting any application, the so-called cache remains in the memory of the mobile device - residual files that load the processor and fill the internal memory. Therefore, after uninstalling a program or widget, we recommend using a garbage cleaning application, for example, Clean Master:

Install the application on your smartphone
Give the program access to the files
Click on the "Trash" button
Click "Delete"

The utility will thoroughly scan your smartphone and delete all excess cache.

How to remove a widget from the Android desktop? Just like a shortcut. Press your finger on the widget, wait for the “Remove” command to appear, and drag the widget towards it.

Method 2. How to organize applications in one folder

If it is important for you to keep application shortcuts from one vendor, for example, from Google, on your desktop, all icons can be placed in a special folder:

Hold your finger on an app shortcut
Move the shortcut to another icon
Move other shortcuts to the created folder
If necessary, specify the folder name

Method 3. Delete the desktop on Android

Empty desktops are no less redundant elements on the phone, just like unnecessary shortcuts and widgets. How to reduce the number of desktops.

Since the number of desktops cannot be changed in standard firmware and with a standard launcher, in this case it is necessary to use other launchers. Launcher for Android is a desktop for a smartphone, but with an alternative appearance and other changed elements.

For example, ADW.Launcher is considered one of the popular ones. This launcher is perfect for tablets - a desktop with multiple screens, a main application menu. To manage the contents of the launcher, you just need to press your finger on the area on the display and wait 1-2 seconds. A new window will open where you can choose to customize widgets, applications, and the entire desktop in general. But the main disadvantage of this launcher is the lack of ability to remove applications from the application tray. To do this you have to use the standard launcher.

Another popular launcher is Go Launcher. At the bottom of the desktop is a dock where you can save frequently used programs. This launcher also works great on tablets. A long press on the device screen will open the user's settings menu, where you can customize themes, widgets, applications, as well as add or remove desktops.

Deleting a desktop on Android

The process of adding an additional desktop on your Android device is very simple. To do this, you need to hold your finger on the desktop for a few seconds, and then select “Page” from the menu that appears.

But sometimes it happens that as a result of random manipulations, several desktops are created. And there is a need to remove some of them. To remove excess desktop, you need to swipe two fingers from the corners to the center (similar to the action for reducing a picture). A new menu will appear for managing desktops, on which they will be depicted in a reduced form. Then you need to hold your finger on a specific desktop and move it to the image of the trash can. Here you can also specify which desktop will be the main one by clicking on the “Home” button (schematic image of a house) in the upper right corner of the selected desktop.

There is another way to remove an extra desktop. While on the main desktop, you need to click on the “house” icon, after which all desktops will open on one screen. And to delete an unnecessary desktop, you need to grab it and drag it to the trash.

If the icons on the desktop spoil the aesthetic perception of the background image or there are simply more of them accumulated there than necessary, then there are several ways to delete one, a group or all shortcuts at once.

Instructions

To delete a “private”, just right-click on it and select “Delete” from the context menu that appears. The system will ask you to confirm this operation - click “Yes”. When deleting some types of shortcuts using the same method, the OS may require: “Enter” - you will need a password to confirm your authority.

If you need to delete not just one shortcut, but an entire group, select the desired area of the desktop and delete the selected shortcuts in bulk. You can only select rectangular areas, so move the mouse cursor over, for example, the lower left corner of the area, press the left mouse button and, without releasing it, move the cursor diagonally to the upper right corner of the rectangle. Once selected, right-click any of them and repeat the operation described in the previous step.

Some of the icons (for example, “My Computer”) cannot be removed in a simple way - there is simply no “Delete” item in their context menu. To eliminate such icons, right-click somewhere on the free space of the desktop and select “Properties”. In the Display Properties window, go to the “Desktop” tab and click the “Customize Desktop” button. A window will open with the heading “Desktop Elements”, where you will have the opportunity to cancel the display of the “Network Neighborhood”, “My Computer”, “My Documents” icons by unchecking the corresponding checkboxes.

It is possible to solve the problem of displaying shortcuts on the desktop radically. Right-click on the free space on your desktop, expand the “Arrange Icons” section in the context menu and uncheck the “Show desktop icons” checkbox. Your operating system will think for about five seconds and then clear the entire desktop space. From now on, until you enable this option, shortcuts will not appear on the table background.

The Windows desktop is convenient to use for placing shortcuts to files and programs that you always want to have at hand. However, the availability of this place for storing various useful files leads to its excessive “clutter,” which sooner or later will have to be dealt with. There are several special functions and general capabilities in the operating system that can help you accomplish this task.

You will need

Windows OS.

Instructions

If your computer is running Windows XP, you can clear your desktop of shortcuts to applications and files that have not been used for a long time using a special wizard. To launch it, right-click the desktop background image and select “Properties” from the context menu. On the “Desktop” tab of the window that opens, click the “Desktop Settings” button, and in the next window click “Clean up desktop”.

You can launch this system application in another way - by opening the desktop context menu, go to its “Arrange shortcuts” section and select “Desktop Cleanup Wizard”.

When the wizard starts, just click the “Next” button. The system application will analyze the statistics on the use of shortcuts and offer a list of those that, in its opinion, are not very necessary. You can edit the list and give a command to start cleaning - click “Next” again, and then click on the “Finish” button. The wizard will not permanently delete the shortcuts, but will place them in a specially created folder called “Unused Shortcuts”.

In later OS releases - 7 and Vista - it is possible to completely disable the display of shortcuts on the desktop. To do this, call the context menu and in the “View” section, uncheck the “Display desktop icons” item. In the same way, you can clear the workspace of gadgets - the command “Display desktop gadgets” is placed in the next line of the same section of the context menu.

Less radical cleaning methods can be used. For example, create several folders on your desktop for different groups of shortcuts - text files, programs, pictures, videos - and sort existing shortcuts into them. To create a folder, click on the background image and select “Folder” in the “Create” section, then type a name and press Enter. To move a shortcut from the desktop to the created folder, simply drag it there with the mouse.

Video on the topic

For the convenience of using the Android operating system, namely the OS desktop, developers offer the use of widgets. And we will help you figure out how to install a widget - an element of the desktop of a tablet or phone, a kind of mini-program with its own graphical interface.

Installing a widget on Android

To install, you need to do a number of fairly simple steps, which are described below:

Tap and hold your finger on the desktop of your phone or tablet for a few seconds, then a context menu will appear
In the menu that opens, select “Widget”. You will see a list of standard widgets provided by the operating system
Any program installed on your device has one or more widgets
Some have not only several types of widgets, but also for the widgets themselves you can choose settings and adjust some parameters (for example, size, its image on the desktop)
Select the one you need, touch it and hold it with your finger on the screen. The widget will immediately appear on your desktop. You can move it to a convenient place on your desktop.

In Android OS versions 4.0 and higher, the context menu has a special tab called “Widgets”. In order to install the necessary plugin in this version of the operating system, click on the button located in the center at the bottom of the screen, and in the menu that appears at the top, select the “Widgets” tab. Scroll the menu to the right or left, decide on the module, touch and hold it, and drag the widget to the desktop.

After the icon appears on the desktop, you can adjust its location on the desktop.

Removing a widget

Tap the widget you want to remove from the screen
Drag to the Trash icon that appears at the top or bottom of the screen

It should be noted that when you delete a widget, you do not delete the program itself. It remains in the phone or tablet menu. To completely remove a program from your device, use the “Remove programs” item in the settings of your phone or tablet.

Widgets are necessary for a smartphone. For example, if you want to add a clock to your device's desktop, you will need a corresponding widget. However, it also happens when widgets start to get in the way on the desktop, so there is a need to remove them. How to do it? Now you'll find out.

For example, let's take the clock widget located on the desktop. It looks like this:

To remove a widget, tap and hold on it. The widget is highlighted.

Now move it to the trash area (it changed color to red in our example) and just release it.

The widget has been removed. There is nothing complicated here.

However, remember that on older versions of Android, some widgets are not removed from the desktop, for example, the search widget. What will help? We will not recommend obtaining root rights, since this is by no means the best option; we would rather suggest installing a third-party launcher that does not have a search bar. You can find launchers in the Play Market, most of them are free.

How to remove widgets from the system?

There are two options here. The first is that widgets cannot be removed from the system, since they are system-specific and you cannot do anything without root rights. And with root rights you need to be extremely careful so as not to accidentally freeze the wrong applications. Therefore, in this case, we advise you to do nothing at all.

The second option is if the widget is installed along with the application. For example, the Yandex.Maps widget.

You can remove it from the system only by deleting the main application, that is, Yandex.Maps. Once you delete the main application, the widget is also deleted. True, in our opinion, there is no point in this, since widgets can simply be deleted from the desktop and forgotten about their existence.