News and Interests Flyout Comes to Beta and Release Preview Rings

Originally expected to debut in Windows 10 version 21H2, the new News and Interests flyout is now being tested in more recent versions. And that means this feature could be coming to Windows 10 versions 2004, 20H2, and 21H1 too.

“We are rolling out news and interests on the Windows taskbar to Beta and Release Preview rings,” a Microsoft blog post explains. “This [feature] has been available in the Dev Channel, with on-going [sic] improvements based on Insider feedback. News and interests on the taskbar make it easy to stay up to date with information at a glance, and we look forward to hearing what you think.”

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The Windows 10 Insider Preview has undergone some big changes over the past few years, and it’s getting harder to understand which version each channel in the program is currently testing. The Dev channel is the strangest of them all since it doesn’t target any specific version, so new features that appear there could land in Windows 10 versions 21H1 or 21H2 if they’re not canceled first. The Beta and Release Preview channels are currently testing Windows 10 version 21H1.

So that explains why we believe that News and Interests is coming to Windows version 21H1. But what about 2004 and 20H2? Windows Central reports that it’s happening, and I assume that’s based on the fact that 21H2, like 2004 and 20H2, is delivered via an “enablement package” as they are not “full” feature updates, and each shares the same core OS and system files. But Microsoft has not confirmed that the feature is heading that far downstream.

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Conversation 22 comments

  • bart

    Premium Member
    20 April, 2021 - 9:09 am

    <p>Begs the question, if Microsoft is back porting features, will they do the same with Sun Valley once that is available for 21H2? </p><p>Can't imagine Microsoft wants different UX across Windows versions…</p>

  • prjman

    20 April, 2021 - 9:46 am

    <p>This useless addon will be abandoned shortly after it is implemented. Users will disable it immediately.</p><p><br></p>

  • jchampeau

    Premium Member
    20 April, 2021 - 9:59 am

    <p>I hope they allow users to filter out certain news sources in the "Headlines" section. There are a couple "news" sites whose headlines are routinely so bad and clickbait-ish that I'd really rather just never see anything they put out.</p>

    • darkgrayknight

      Premium Member
      20 April, 2021 - 10:32 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#623898">In reply to jchampeau:</a></em></blockquote><p>This would be great, along with generally being able to customize it and add other news sources. This looks like it is a continuation of the widgets/gadgets/live tile/active desktop, which I've always liked.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      20 April, 2021 - 3:40 pm

      <p><a href="https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/249290/news-and-interests-flyout-comes-to-beta-and-release-preview-rings#623898&quot; target="_blank"><em>In reply to jchampeau:</em></a></p><p>I figure the click-bait sites pay MSFT for <em>placement</em> in this feed, so MSFT has a vested interest in, er, entertaining and informing users with such headlines. If so, dream on about suppressing them piecemeal rather than disabling the whole thing.</p>

  • Jeff Fodiak

    20 April, 2021 - 10:24 am

    <p>Isn't this redundant with the tiles in the start menu? <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This looks horrible off the task bar.</span> Microsoft really is clueless. </p>

  • ggolcher

    Premium Member
    20 April, 2021 - 11:17 am

    <p>Tried it out and disabled it. It's too dense and doesn't fit with my workflow.</p>

  • JH_Radio

    Premium Member
    20 April, 2021 - 11:25 am

    <p>Do people who are working really wanna see all of this?</p><p><br></p>

  • petteri

    20 April, 2021 - 11:38 am

    <p>I don't think I'll be making much use of this, it doesn't really fit into my use patterns. Also, it annoyingly ignores the default browser settings, always opening up Edge. I have the DEV edition of Edge set as my default and it just merrily ignores that and opens up regular Edge. </p>

  • Daekar

    20 April, 2021 - 11:47 am

    <p>Would be interesting if you could customize it to be a combination of the sources you want to see rather than an algorithm driven version. I want to see Paul and Brad's articles on Thurrott.com, MJ's stuff on ZDNet, the recent articles on RevolverGuy, the 10 most recent posts on the single-shot section of the Cast Boolits forum, Ben Thompson's latest article on Stratechery, the trending posts on r/3Dprinting, and a few RSS feeds, for instance. </p><p><br></p><p>I feel like without that degree of control, this really won't do much for me… It's just another feed where somebody wants to shove their version of what's important in front of my eyes. </p><p><br></p><p>EDIT: And it needs to have a parallel version in the Microsoft Launcher. </p>

  • rm

    20 April, 2021 - 12:13 pm

    <p>Nothing wrong with having this as an option for people that want it. But, for those that do not, it needs to have a way to turn it off easily.</p>

  • navarac

    20 April, 2021 - 12:44 pm

    <p>More unwanted crap – Microsoft, please file away with Paint 3D. </p><p><br></p><p>Edited: Although I've got the build, fortunately I haven't got this rubbish – perhaps they are still Z/Z testing !!</p>

  • winner

    20 April, 2021 - 1:47 pm

    <p>…because we all need a little bit of flyout in our OS!</p>

  • dxtremebob

    Premium Member
    20 April, 2021 - 3:00 pm

    <p>I've always wanted to see the temperature at a glance in the taskbar! N&amp;I provides it! </p><p>I can turn off the hover activation, and click it if I want to see something.</p><p>Works for me. I like it.</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    20 April, 2021 - 3:29 pm

    <p>More places to disable/hide it.</p><p>Why couldn't this appear in Programs &amp; Features so that one could DISABLE the @#$%&amp;*! thing?</p>

  • mdlynam

    20 April, 2021 - 4:37 pm

    <p>I can't help but be reminded of Castanet &amp; Marimba (circa 1996).</p>

  • SaintKaze

    20 April, 2021 - 5:24 pm

    <p>Not sure i care been used to using pop out on phone I don't mind on my desktop. </p>

  • justme

    Premium Member
    21 April, 2021 - 4:34 am

    <p>One more thing to immediately disable. I hope there is a Group Policy setting for this as well so it can be turned off from there.</p>

  • whistlerpro

    21 April, 2021 - 4:47 am

    <p>Love the Microsoft promo image, everything is in the UK except the maps or weather! </p>

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