As part of the May 2021 Patch Tuesday updates, Microsoft introduced a new feature to Windows 10 called 'News and Interests.' If you are not a fan of the new widget, this article will explain how you can disable it, so it doesn't appear on the Windows 10 taskbar.
This feature is a taskbar news feed that displays the local forecast directly on your taskbar, and when you click or hover your mouse, it opens up a screen showing news, sports scores, and stocks based upon your interests.
While the News and Interests feed is a useful tool to quickly check the weather and see the recent news, I keep accidentally opening it when I hover my mouse over it.
If the widget could be moved to the left section of my taskbar, it may be better, but Microsoft does not allow you to change the location where the News and Interests icon is displayed.
If you have similar issues with the News and Interests feed or simply do not like it, it is possible to disable it so that it does not show on your taskbar.
To disable the News and Interests widget, right-click on an empty portion of your taskbar, select 'News and interests,' and then click on 'Turn off.'
Once you turn it off, the News and Interests icon will disappear from your taskbar.
To enable News and Interests again, perform the same steps and click on 'Show icon and text' or 'Show icon only' options instead.
Comments
Dash_O_Pepper - 2 years ago
Thanks for the concise info for disabling that stupid widget.
It wouldn't have been so terrible if one could set it to *only* provide weather, without any news or other junk. (I'm on satellite internet; my provider has routed me through 30 different states at various times. So, besides not wanting to read from MS's "sources", getting the latest news and weather from Omaha is useless for me.)
Hammerfest - 2 years ago
you can and should provide feedback through it, my feedback was "weather+traffic only, maybe a button for news, but otherwise, I am turning it off"
wackoinWaco - 2 years ago
When I updated today I noticed the stupid widget.
MS must have removed KB5003214 because my task bar is just fine.
Thank you Lawrence, I'm one of those that don't want it!
Drgnfli - 2 years ago
Thank you for the easy fix, in easy terms. (I should have been able to find that fix myself!)
LWOLF - 2 years ago
Okay but how do you fully remove it so it stops sucking ram out of my laptop like a damn leech? I don't want to just hide the damn thing. If I wanted this info I could of just went to any of thousand other pages spouting the same stupid advice.
rbhall52 - 1 year ago
I tried turning it off on our windows 10 home laptops, but the colorful part of the icon remains. How do I get rid of that?
Dash_O_Pepper - 1 year ago
If you're asking about the stupid thing that sort of looks like an explosion at a rainbow factory in the "File Explorer search bar" that sits on the "Task Bar", this is how to get rid of that:
1. Right click on "Task Bar".
2. Scroll to "Search" in the menu that pops up.
3. While on "Search" another menu will pop up, scroll down to "Show Search Highlights" (which will have a check ( ✓ ) mark next to it).
4. Click on "Show Search Highlights", which will remove the check ( ✓ ) mark, and make that stupid rainbow thing-y disappear.
Hope that helps.