[cookem]

Perfect...thanks...that worked.  

It appears I spoke too soon....the widget layouts now work as expected but when I actually go into the libraries and exit back to the homescreen it reverts to the bingie layout for the homescreen.

I also noticed on intial kodi startup the widgets do not load. I am using smart playlists for my widgets and use path substitution to pull them from a network share.  this was not an issue seen in the old version  

You have to add the widgets from "default widgets" and that's where you have to choose the "smart shortcuts" option and choose each widget. Do not do it directly from the "select widget" / "smart shortcuts" option or they will not load you at the start of BINGIE. 

that resolved the widget loading at startup issue....

when I go into anything from the menu and exit to the home screen layout reverts to bingie no matter what I have setup in the settings