Widgets (23H2)

Windows 11 includes a news and interests feed called Widgets that consists of a Widgets button on the Taskbar and a widget board that displays widgets and news and interests content cards.

Widgets appear as cards of dynamic information culled from Microsoft’s online services in the leftmost column of the widget board. News and interests content cards display mostly low-quality news and general interest stories, much of which comes from Microsoft Start, interspersed with the occasional advertisement. These appear in the rightmost two columns of the widget board by default.

Widgets and news and interests content cards are both configurable to some degree, and the latter lets you customize the content types and sources you see so the widget board will (allegedly) become more useful the more you use it. But in over two years of experience, we have never witnessed this miracle.

Additionally, the Widgets button on the Taskbar will typically display the weather forecast, but it can also display breaking news bulletins and other information.

Widgets is an evolution of the News & interests feature from Windows 10.

The problem with Widgets

Before we discuss how to use and configure Widgets, we need to take a step back and examine how Microsoft is using this feature to drive the usage of its other products and services. Unfortunately, this is the real reason that Windows 11 includes Widgets.

First, Widgets forces you to use Microsoft Edge, even if you’ve configured another web browser as the default. There’s no way to configure Widgets to open new and interests stories in any browser other than Microsoft Edge.

Second, you can’t configure Widgets to access news and interests stories and other content from any other source other than Microsoft Start. You’re stuck with what Microsoft provides.

If you find this behavior objectionable, you will need to balance your usage of Widgets with the knowledge that Microsoft is using this feature to gain an unfair advantage over its web browser, web search, advertising, and content aggregator competition. Or, you can simply choose to not use Widgets.

We explain how you can remove the Widgets icon from the Taskbar later in the chapter. But if you like its weather display, you can also keep using the Widgets icon but prevent Widgets from opening if you accidentally mouse-over it. We also explain how to do that later in the chapter.

View the weather forecast, news bulletins, and widget notifications

The Widgets icon can be found on the far left of the Taskbar and while it typically displays the local weather forecast, it can also display breaking news or other announcements and notification badges.

You can configure what types of information the Widgets icon displays to some degree. Please refer to Customize Widgets at the end of this chapter.

Open the widget board

To open Widgets and display the feed in the widget board, mouse-over or select the Widgets icon on the Taskbar.

You can also display Widgets by typing WINKEY + W.

You can disable the mouse-over behavior. We describe how at the end of this chapter.

Display the widget board in Full View

By default, Widgets appears as a large pane on the left side of the Desktop. But you can alternatively display Widgets full-screen in what’s called Full View mode instead. To do so, click the “Expand to Full View” icon in the upper right of the pane.

When you do, Widgets appears full-screen.

Widgets will remember this change and display in Full View every time it’s opened in the future.

To reverse this change, select the “Collapse to Half View” button in the upper-right of Full View.

Browse the widget board

Once you open Widgets, you can browse through the available content. If you see a story you wish to read in the news and interests area, simply click its promo graphic or title. Microsoft Edge will open and display the article on the web.

Remember, Microsoft Edge will open even if you’ve configured another browser as your default.

By default, the widget board uses what’s called the Discovery view and as noted it provides cards of general news and interests content. But there are links at the top that let you switch to Following, Watch, or Play views instead.

The Following view changes the widget board so that it only shows content related to your interests. You can also use the interests tiles below the header to filter the view to a specific topic.

If you haven’t picked any interests yet, you will be prompted to do so. We explain how to manage your interests elsewhere in this chapter.

The Watch view, meanwhile, displays cards of video news and interests content instead of articles and blog posts. You can mouse-over a card to preview its video, but if you click play, it will load in Microsoft Edge. Of course.

Finally, the Play view displays cards promoting web-based games. Anything you click here will cause Microsoft Edge to open, as you can’t play any games in the widget board.

One important note here: You cannot set Following, Watch, or Play to be the default view in Widgets. When you close and reopen Widgets, it will again display the Discover view.

Pin a new widget to the widget board

Widgets lets you pin a growing collection of widgets for Microsoft and third-party services like Entertainment, Weather, Spotify, Outlook Calendar, Family Safety, Watchlist, and others to the left of the news feed in the widget board. To do so, open Widgets and click the “Add widgets” button (“+”) in the top right of the leftmost column.

When you do, the Pin widgets window opens and displays the list of available choices.

You can also find more widgets in the Microsoft Store by clicking “Find more widgets” at the bottom left of the Pin widgets window.

To add a widget, select it on the left and then click the “Pin” button. When you return to Widgets, it will be at the top of the widget board.

When you customize the widget board this way, your changes are synced to your Microsoft account so that they will appear in Widgets on any PC you use. For example, if you pin the Outlook Calendar and Weather widgets to the board on one PC, you will also see those two widgets at the top of the board on any other PCs you use.

Pinned widgets have a small “pin” icon near the top right to differentiate them from feed widgets.

Customize a pinned widget

Pinned widgets can usually be customized. For example, you may wish to change the location that the Weather widget tracks. To do so, select the “More options” (“…”) link in the top right of its card and then choose “Customize widget” from the pop-up menu that appears.

What you see here will vary by widget. The Weather widget, as noted, lets you select a different location.

If you do customize the Weather widget to display the weather for a different location, that location will also be used by the weather forecast displayed on the Taskbar.

You can also resize the widget using up to three built-in sizes when available, Small, Medium, and Large. These choices are also available in the “More options” menu. Note that some widgets will only support some size choices.

Finally, pinned widgets can be moved to a new location, though only in relation to other pinned widgets in the leftmost column. To do so, simply select the widget and drag it where you’d like.

Unpin widgets from the widget board

To unpin a pinned widget, select the “More options” (“…”) link in the top right of its card and then choose “Unpin widget.”

Customize the feed

If you are going to use Widgets, you should take the time to customize the feed. This customization take different forms. You can remove news sources you don’t like or trust, for example, or tell Widgets that you’d like to see more–or fewer–stories that are similar to the one you’re previewing. You can also manage your interests, which will help Widgets determine which types of stories to show you.

Block a content source. If you find a particular content source objectionable or uninteresting–and you will–you can tell Widgets to stop displaying cards from that source. To do so, select the “See more” (“…”) link in the upper right of the card in question and choose “Block [content source]” from the menu that appears.

The card that was displaying the content will give you the option to undo the change if it was made in error.

Hide this story. If you don’t like a particular story but don’t want to block its source, you can select the “Hide this story” icon (“X”) in the top right of the card. (It expands into a bigger “Hide this story” button as you mouse-over it.) As with content blocking, the card will give you the chance to cancel the change as well.

See more/less like this and comment. You can also choose to see “More like this” or “Less like this” and comment on the story in a content card by clicking the appropriate icon in the lower left of the card. Clicking “More like this” or “Less like this” will influence the types of content cards you see going forward.

{#widgets-interests}
Manage your interests By default, Widgets displays news and other content from a wide variety of mostly low-quality content sources. But you can manually manage the entire list of content types and sources by selecting “See more” (“…”) in a content card and then choosing “Manage interests.”

You can also access this interface from Widgets settings: Click your profile picture in the upper-right of Widgets and click the small “Manage interests” link in the bottom left of the Widgets settings pane that appears.

When you do, a Feed settings pane will appear so you can manage your interests. To do so, you can search for topics and select interests from a grid of tiles. Topics you are interested in will appear under “Interests you’re following” while content sources you’ve blocked will be listed under “Interests you’ve blocked.”

You can also manage your interests on the web. To do so, use your web browser to navigate to the Microsoft Start website and click the “Personalize” button in the upper right of that page.

Remove the Widgets icon on the Taskbar

Many will find Widgets unnecessary for their day-to-day needs. Others may like to occasionally view the feed but don’t want the Widgets icon taking up valuable space on the Taskbar. Either way, you can remove its icon as you will still be able to open Widgets.

To remove the Widgets icon, open the Settings app (WINKEY + I) and navigate to Personalization > Taskbar. Then, in the Taskbar items area, configure Widgets to “Off.”

To open Widgets with its icon removed, type WINKEY + W. Widgets will appear normally but without displaying the weather forecast in the Taskbar.

Unfortunately, you can’t remove Widgets but keep its weather forecast on the Taskbar. Or vice versa. What you can do is keep the keep the Widgets item on the Taskbar so you can see the weather (and, optionally, other information) while preventing Widgets from opening simply because you moused-over its icon by mistake. That is described in the next section.

Customize Widgets

Widgets provides a simple settings interface that lets you customize a handful of key features. To access it, select your profile picture (“Settings”) in the upper-right of the widget board. Widgets settings appears.

Here, you can configure the following settings:

Open Widgets board on hover. By default, Widgets will open if you mouse-over its Taskbar button, but that can be annoying if you do so inadvertently. To disable that behavior, which we recommend, change this option to “Off.”

Show notification badges. Sometimes, a widget will want to alert you to breaking news, and it will display a notification badge on the Widget button in the Taskbar by default. To disable that behavior, change this option to “Off.”

Show announcements. When there is breaking news, nearby traffic, or other announcements, the Widget button on the Taskbar will change its display away from the weather. To disable that behavior, change this option to “Off.”