Windows 11 has a Widgets Board, and Reveal the Dream can put your habit tracker on it: a photo of your goal, uncovered one piece for every day you check in. Setting it up takes a couple of minutes. Here is what you need, the steps, and what the widget shows once it is there.
What you need
- Windows 11, version 22H2 or later. That release is the first where an app from outside Microsoft can add a widget to the board. To see your version, open Settings, then System, then About.
- Reveal the Dream for Windows. Get it from the download on this site or from the Microsoft Store. Both install the same app, and both include the widget.
- A journey. The widget shows one, so start it in the app before you go looking for the widget.
There is no separate download for the widget and no administrator prompt. The app registers the widget with Windows itself, for your Windows account, the first time it runs.
On Windows 10 the app works in full, and there is no Widgets Board for it to join. The mini window, further down this page, is how to keep your goal in view there.
How to add the widget
- Install Reveal the Dream and open it.
- Start a journey: pick a photo of your goal and choose 7 or 30 days. The photo starts covered.
- Give it a minute. On its first launch the app registers its widget with Windows in the background, which can take a little while on a busy PC.
- Open the Widgets Board. Press the Windows key and W together, or select the widgets button on the taskbar.
- Select the plus button to add widgets, find Reveal the Dream in the list, and pin it.
- To change the size, open the widget's menu and choose small or medium.
Windows moves these buttons around between updates. The outline of the steps has stayed the same.
If Reveal the Dream is missing from the list
- Check your Windows version. Widgets from other apps need Windows 11 version 22H2 or later.
- Open Reveal the Dream, wait a minute, then close the Widgets Board and open it again.
- Some work and school PCs have a policy that stops apps registering packages with Windows. The app keeps working normally on those, and the mini window is the way to keep your goal on screen.
What the widget shows
Your photo, partly uncovered, drawn by the app in your reveal style and cover color. At the small size the widget leaves the photo out and keeps the words and the Open button. Under it are the journey name and a line about today, which reads like one of these:
- Day 12 of 30 · Check-in open, when today's check-in is waiting for you.
- Today revealed, once you have checked in.
- Not open yet, before today's check-in opens.
- Rest day, on a day you have set aside as a rest day, which is part of Premium.
When your next check-in has not opened yet, the line also says when it will: the time it opens, in the format your region uses, or how many days away it is when that is further off. The widget names a time and leaves the seconds alone. Windows draws a widget as a card from the last update the app sent it, so the live countdown is in the app and the mini window. To leave the time off the widget, switch the countdown off in the app's Settings.
Check in from the app, with the I Did It button. The Open button on the widget opens the app, or brings it forward if it is already running.
The app redraws the widget about once a minute while it is running. Closing the app's window keeps it running in the system tray, so the widget stays current. To keep it current after a restart too, switch on Open at login in the app's Settings, and the app starts quietly in the tray when you sign in to Windows.
If you use App Lock, which is part of Premium, its option to hide the mini window and reminders hides your journey on the widget too. The widget then shows a locked card with no photo and no journey name.
Free, and one widget per journey
The widget is free, along with one journey at a time. Premium lets you run several journeys at once, and each widget you pin can show a different one. Pin Reveal the Dream a second time, select Change journey on the new widget, and pick from the list. The Change journey button appears once there is more than one journey to choose from.
The widget or the mini window
The Windows app has a second way to keep your goal in view, and it works on Windows 10 as well.
- The mini window is a small borderless window that stays on top of whatever you are working in. Drag it where you want it and it opens there next time. It shows the photo, the journey name, the day, how many pieces are uncovered, and a countdown to your next check-in that ticks live.
- The widget waits on the Widgets Board until you open the board, and shows the time your next check-in opens.
Pick the mini window if you want the goal in front of you all day, and the widget if you would like to see it when you choose to. You can use both. The Windows app page has the rest of what it does.
Windows and an Android phone
If your phone is an Android, the same app is on Google Play with its own home screen widget, free. Keeping a Windows PC and an Android phone on the same journey takes Premium sync. It keeps one encrypted copy of your journeys and photos that both can open, and an iPhone, an iPad or a Mac can join in too.
On a PC, sync is also the backup. The free Windows app keeps your journeys on that PC and nowhere else. Buy Premium once, in any of the stores or on this site, and sign in with your email address to use it on your other devices. There is more in the habit tracker for iPhone and Android.
The short version
On Windows 11 version 22H2 or later, install Reveal the Dream and start a journey. Open the Widgets Board with the Windows key and W, select the plus button, and pin Reveal the Dream. Keep the app running in the tray so the widget stays current. On Windows 10, use the mini window.