Starting Windows 10 version 21H1 update, Microsoft introduced the News and Interests widget. You can access it through the weather icon located on the right portion of your taskbar. This feature displays the latest news headlines, weather, traffic condition, stock market, and many more in tiles form that might interest you. While some may like it because it gives them an overview of what’s the latest information outside, some don’t. And that’s what we will be covering in this article – steps on how to disable the weather icon and the “News and Interests” widget from your Windows 10 taskbar.
According to Microsoft‘s blog, the News and Interests widget can provide dynamic and personalized content for the user. The year 2021 was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide and most people stay indoors. Many companies switched to the remote work setup to prevent the spread of the virus. Hence, more and more people spend most of their time in front of their computers.
And that probably made Microsoft think of adding a way for Windows users to still connect to the world. But not everyone welcomed that idea for various reasons.
What's In Here
How To Turn Off The News and Interests Widget From Your Taskbar
- Log in first to your Windows 10 computer.
- Hover your mouse and right-click anywhere along the taskbar.
- Find and hover your mouse to News and interests and click the Turn off option.
Once you turned off the News and interests, that will also automatically remove the weather icon from your taskbar.
Concluding Words
Although this feature is a “personalized” widget that provides the user with the latest information that might be interesting, it can become intrusive for most Windows 10 users. Some users think that this can be also counter-productive. It is because instead of concentrating on what they are supposed to work on, they are tempted to view other content from the News and interests widget.
Whatever your reasons might be, with the steps above, you can easily switch on or off the widget from the Windows 10 taskbar.
