How to Remove the News and Interests Widget From the Windows 10 Taskbar

Microsoft’s news and interests feature isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Here’s how you remove it from your taskbar.

Microsoft is constantly updating Windows 10 with tweaks and minor features. The June 2021 update for Windows 10 introduced a new feature called news and interests that lets users view weather information, stock updates, traffic data, news, etc., at a glance.

Despite being called news and interests, it appears as a weather widget in the taskbar. It’s a good idea for sure, but not everyone is pleased with the positioning and size of the widget. If you’re annoyed by its sheer presence after updating your PC, you can remove it from the taskbar.

How to Disable News and Interests in Windows 10

If you’re yet to update your Windows 10 PC, you’ll find the news and interests widget located next to the system tray in your taskbar. The current temperature is displayed, followed by a brief forecast. Hovering the cursor over it will open the widget to display news and other information at a glance.

Follow these instructions to hide news and interests from your taskbar:

1. Right-click the widget to access the taskbar context menu. Here, select News and interests to access more options for the same.
2. Now, all you need to do is click on Turn off from the expanded menu.

News and interests will immediately disappear from the Windows 10 taskbar. You no longer have to worry about it taking precious space.

If you like to glance at the stock market or news using this widget despite its annoying size, you can select Show icon only instead of turning it off. This will remove the weather forecast text, but you’ll still be able to use the dynamic icon to figure that information out.

Related: The Best News Sites You Can Trust for Credible Stories

All in all, the news and interests feature is actually pretty useful to get a quick peek at all information you like, provided you personalize it accordingly. However, the widget uses as much CPU power as Microsoft Edge when opened, so it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Note that this widget uses your Microsoft account to deliver tailored content. Therefore, if you’re using a local account on your Windows 10 PC, you will not see this particular widget despite the update.

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