Windows 11 widgets; how to remove these annoying news feed windows in the Widgets panel?

Anonymous
2022-03-21T19:23:48+00:00

When hovering over or clicking on the Widgets shortcut the panel appears with ~50 of these stupid little windows all showing news feeds.

I don't mind the weather and a very few other widgets that show something useful but all of these news panels are pointless, annoying, and really leaning me more towards going back to Windows 10 where I can have real Live Tiles again without this excess junk.

How can we really customize this panel and remove all these unwanted news panels?

I have closed them with the upper-right 'X' which leaves them blank until the next time the panel opens.

I have chosen to 'Hide stories' from at least 100 different news agencies, but they continue to appear.

I have gone through the MS account 'personalize your interests' option to remove all possible genres of news.

Nothing removes the amount of windows shown or the genre of news that they continue to show.

I don't want to change what these little windows show, I want to delete the majority of the windows altogether so that only 4 or 5 at the most are there.

And why are these limited to these news feed type windows; weather, stocks, etc?

Why can't we create custom application shortcut widgets like in old Windows 7 & 8.1 add-ons with advanced options?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Settings

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

67 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2024-03-11T01:55:33+00:00

    The problem with this widget is that it's hard coded to MSN! Every piece of **** that is on MSN is used. 🤬

    I experimented with the Windows hosts file with little to no success.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2024-03-10T18:08:56+00:00

    apologies for an unhelpful answer, but I've found many reasons to upgrade from Windows 11 to Windows 10 (or Windows 7) - not including this one - and will be doing so at my earliest convenience

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Sumit 44,416 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-03-10T17:22:41+00:00

    https://www.yourwindowsguide.com/2024/02/hide-or-disable-news-in-windows-11-widgets.html

    • Open the Widgets Board, either by Win+W keysor clicking the icon on the left of the Taskbar.
    • Click the gear iconon the top right to open Settings.
    • OpenShow or Hide Feeds menu item.
    • Turn off the slider titled ” Microsoft Start”
    • Close the Widgets Board.

    Image

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2024-03-10T15:35:23+00:00

    I was recently able to go into settings, from the widget window, select "Show or hide feeds" and turn off Microsoft Start. The news feeds now no longer are displayed. Hope that works for some of you.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2024-03-08T23:25:45+00:00

    I went to the search bar, and typed in search settings

    selected search settings & privacy

    Scrolled to more settings

    toggled off show search highlights.

    No more news and game ads, and also, the annoying little icon that shows in the search bar with a holiday or something also disappeared.

    I hope it help someone else out there.

    I'm on the latest Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (OS Build 22631.3235) and the *only* item removed is the search highlights in the Search Bar; widgets are left as per money grabbing Microsoft's current settings.

    Solution: Disable widgets and turn off "Show search highlights" in Settings ~ Privacy & security ~ Search permissions

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments