How to remove the Weather widget from the taskbar in Windows 10 and Windows 11. How to customize News and Interests in Windows 10

 

New updates for Windows are gradually preparing users for the changed appearance of the operating system announced in Windows 11. One such innovation is widgets. You may already have noticed the weather data that appears on the taskbar. In this guide, we will tell you how to configure or disable this widget altogether.

How to customize the News and Interests widget

Demonstration of the weather is just one of the widget's functions. It is called “News and Interests” in its entirety, so when you click on the desired place in the taskbar, a rather large window will open with the latest information summary of what the Microsoft Edge browser considers your interests. Yes, aside from the cumbersome look, you will also encounter forcible binding to the OS's built-in browser, no matter which one is selected by default.

You can customize the language, content, and location. To do this, open the widget and select the "three dots" symbol in the upper right corner. Then you need to click on "Language and Content" or "Change Location", respectively. In the content settings, you have the option to turn off or turn on certain cards based on your interests. For example, if you don't care about finances, you can remove them from the widget altogether.

As for the location, it directly affects the weather that you see. You can switch from automatic detection to a fixed location.

Turn off the News and Interests widget

In case Microsoft innovations do not appeal to you at all, the widget can be turned off. It is very easy to do this:

1. Right-click on the News and Interests icon on the taskbar;
2. In the submenu that opens, select News and Interests;
3. Then click disable.

To restore the widget, right-click on an empty space on the taskbar, select News and Interests, and then either show icon and text or show only icon.

How to choose the default browser in the News and Interests widget

As we already wrote, the widget looks for news in Microsoft Edge, completely ignoring your default browser. A third-party application - EdgeDeflector will help to solve this problem. The app runs in the background and intercepts URI requests that force Internet links to open in Microsoft Edge, redirecting them to the browser you're using.

To make it work, do the following:

1. Download and install the application by selecting "yes" in the User Account Control prompt;
2. Go to Settings> Apps, then select Default Apps;
3. At the very bottom of the list, click on "Select standard applications for protocols";
4. From the list of applications that opens, find the Microsoft Edge browser and click on it - you will see a new list in which you need to select EdgeDeflector.

To roll back your changes, simply uninstall the EdgeDeflector app. If you find that links suddenly stop opening altogether, you need to make sure that MICROSOFT-EDGE is set to Microsoft Edge under Select Standard Applications for Protocols.

How to disable widgets and remove them from the Windows 11 taskbar

If you have already installed a new operating system, then you have noticed one of the main changes - widgets. In Windows 11, they serve exactly the same function as News and Interests in Windows 10.

As we already wrote above, not all users like such innovations. Therefore, it is logical that widgets can be disabled.

There are two ways:

• Right-click "Widgets" in the taskbar and click "Unpin from taskbar";
• Via taskbar options.

To remove widgets via options, follow these steps:

1. Open the options;
2. Go to the "Personalization" section and select "Taskbar";
3. Toggle the "Widgets" switch to the inactive position.

Even after disabling, widgets will still open when using the Windows + W keyboard shortcuts.

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That was all the information about the new "News and Interests" widget in Windows 10. Write how you like the innovations in the OS and whether you are waiting for Windows 11.