With the February update to Windows 11 - you have the option to disable MS start to feed from the Widget Settings. Requires Windows 11 23H2 at least.
How to disable news and interest in Windows 11 widget
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Anonymous
I want to keep the widget on my task bar, however I don't want the new stories to show. I've hide a bunch of them and they still end up showing, but I'm constantly having to hide them all since there are sooooo many. How do I disable the top stories, and the news and interest without turning off my widgets. I ONLY want the weather to show.
I've uninstalled microsoft news but I'm still seeing the news stories.
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Settings
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Anonymous
I would suggest that you completely remove the the Widgets app from your taskbar - see here -and pin the Weather App to Start / Taskbar.
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Anonymous
2022-08-16T09:12:28+00:00 I feel your pain. It's probably the case that the clickbait news stories that appear in the apparently infinite newsfeed are not able to be switched off without disabling the entire widget, which means you'd lose weather, traffic and photos as well. It sounds like Microsoft and the MS fanboys don't want to admit that the newsfeed cannot be switched off without losing the other stuff, presumably because of the free money that Microsoft can make from it.
Guys, if it's not possible, JUST SAY SO.
I have just hidden the widget entirely (even though I understand it is still busily downloading **** on to my PC in the background.
Apparently an alternative is to uninstall the Windows Web Experience Pack (at the command line), but I'm not entirely sure what else would be lost in doing so.
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Anonymous
2022-08-16T11:14:48+00:00 I got seriously annoyed and uninstalled the web experience pack - frankly no great loss, edge still works as does weather and calculator and pictures and never found any use for the other bits. It's a massive relief not to have the rubbish keep downloading in background and my laptop's performance has improved considerably. I'm using the stardock 11 alternative rather than the travesty that start had become (though none of their other stuff ) and am enjoying my quietly customised and much improved interface.
The intrusive nature of cortana and inking was such that I'd already disabled it for privacy reasons, keeping only the non-internet search facilities and I find I don't miss cortana and bing either ! DuckDuck and google are far more accurate search engines anyway - though google is slipping a lot and can't find some material/innocuous images from even a few weeks ago. It becomes ever harder to exclude sponsored items from searches. In Amazon, Bing and Google searches I find that the NOT and ! and - operators are frequently disregarded altogether when it comes to sponsored items.
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Anonymous
2022-08-16T14:15:52+00:00 I will give that a go. It sounds like the way forward.
The only reason I use Bing is to accumulate Microsoft Rewards Points; it's okay, but I always feel it's not showing me everything,
Thanks for the post!