Better Recent Posts Widget Pro provides a greatly enhanced recent posts widget. The default recent posts widget that comes with WordPress offers almost zero control over which posts are displayed, or how they are displayed. This widget fixes that.
Features
New Recent Posts Widget 11 Options to Choose from on a per-widget basis Widget Title Post Title Display Post Author Display Post Date Display Comment Count Display Post Excerpt Display with Length Control Post Display Order Post Sorting Method Number of Posts to Show Post Offset Featured Thumbnail Display Thumbnail Size Control Show Posts from Custom Taxonomy, including post formats Choose the Taxonomy Terms to Show Posts From (based on term ID or slug) Show Entries from Custom Post Types Multiple Widget Instance Support
Better Recent Posts Widget Pro provides unparalleled control over how your recent posts are controlled, and fits seamlessly into all WordPress themes.
Support
All support for this plugin is now provided through my dedicated support forum. Please go there to ask support related questions.
Easily Create Post Types and Taxonomies to Show in Your Sidebar
Change log
7-7-11: Added Excerpt feature, included length control. Added on/off for post date. Added comment count feature.
7-25-11: Added option to disable post title
7-26-11: Fix height issue caused when using post thumbnails
8-23-11: Removed shortcodes from post excerpts.
9-13-11 version 2.0.4: Added support for post formats.
11-12-11 version 2.0.5: Added unique IDs to each widget item.
01-29-12 version 2.0.6: Added the post_class function to the recent post list items.
02-03-12 version 2.0.7/2.0.8: Added additional classes to widget elements and updated with complete localization.
03-08-12 version 2.0.9: Fixed a small markup bug with the post thumbnails.
05-04-12 version 2.1.0: Added "menu_order" support for the Sort option and fixed a bug with STYLE tags in the excerpts.