Windows 11 Widgets is a panel of information cards accessible from the taskbar’s Widgets button (the weather/wind icon, or hovering over the left edge of the taskbar). It shows news, weather, sports scores, stock prices, Microsoft To-Do tasks, and calendar events in a scrollable feed. When it works well, it’s a useful glance-able information surface. Many users find the news feed intrusive and the panel hard to customise to match what they actually want to see. For the bigger picture, our Windows 11 How-To Guides pulls everything together.
This guide covers: setting up Widgets to show what’s actually useful to you, reducing the noise from unwanted content, and deciding whether to keep or remove it entirely.
Opening and closing Widgets
Click the Widgets button (the icon in the taskbar showing a weather symbol or other content) to open. Or: Win+W opens the Widgets panel. Hover over the left edge of the screen on some configurations to trigger it automatically — disable this if it’s being triggered accidentally.
To disable the hover trigger: right-click the taskbar → Taskbar settings → Widgets → the toggle controls whether the button shows at all. There’s no separate “disable hover open” — the presence of the Widgets button determines whether hover-open works. Disabling the button (turning the Widgets toggle off in taskbar settings) removes both the button and the hover trigger.
Configuring which widgets show
Inside the Widgets panel: the “+” icon in the top-right corner → opens the widget picker. Available widgets include:
- Weather: current conditions and forecast for your location
- News: personalised news feed from Microsoft Start (MSN)
- Microsoft To-Do: your task list from To-Do
- Calendar: upcoming events from your Microsoft calendar
- Sports: follow specific teams and see scores
- Finance/Stocks: stock prices for companies you follow
- Traffic: commute time to saved locations
- Tips: Windows tips and suggestions
- Entertainment/Gaming: Xbox Game Pass and gaming content
- Family Safety: screen time and activity from Microsoft Family Safety
Remove any widget: click the three-dot menu on a widget card → “Remove widget.” Add by clicking the “+” → selecting from the list. Rearrange by dragging widget cards. This customisation creates a Widgets panel that shows only the information you actually look at.
The news feed — managing what it shows
The news widget is the largest contributor to the “I don’t want this” reaction to Widgets. It’s driven by Microsoft Start (formerly MSN), personalised based on browsing history and clicked articles. The feed learns over time — the more you click on certain topics, the more it shows similar content. Avoiding click-through on content you don’t want more of is the most effective long-term filter.
For immediate content control: click the three-dot menu on any news card → “Show less stories like this” or “Block source” (removes that news source entirely from your feed). Block consistently for a week or two and the feed shifts meaningfully toward what you prefer. Microsoft Start also has a web interface (msn.com) where you can configure interests, followed topics, and blocked sources more systematically than through individual card interactions.
To see no news at all in Widgets: remove the News widget entirely — three-dot menu on the News widget header → “Remove widget.” The remaining widgets (Weather, Calendar, To-Do) show without the news feed.
Widgets and Microsoft account sign-in
Some Widgets features (personalised news, Finance, Calendar, To-Do) require a Microsoft account signed into Windows. Without a Microsoft account: Widgets shows anonymous news content and weather but can’t show calendar events, tasks, or personalised feeds. If your Windows account is a local account (not Microsoft account): Widgets is limited to generic content.
Signing into a Microsoft account for Widgets specifically (without syncing everything): this isn’t cleanly supported — Widgets uses the Windows account sign-in. If you have a local Windows account but want full Widgets features: the account change involves converting to a Microsoft account in Settings → Accounts.
Our guide on Windows 11 notifications management covers similar content filtering controls for notifications, and our guide on Windows 11 taskbar settings covers disabling the Widgets button alongside other taskbar configuration. For the Microsoft Start content personalisation system that powers Widgets news, Microsoft Start’s personalisation settings at msn.com provide more comprehensive content preferences than the in-panel controls.
Weather widget configuration
The Weather widget shows your local weather based on Windows’ location settings. Click the weather widget → opens the MSN Weather app or a browser weather page. The three-dot menu on the weather card → “Edit widget” → configure location (automatic via location services, or manual entry of a city name), temperature units (Celsius/Fahrenheit), and layout size.
If location isn’t being detected correctly: Settings → Privacy & security → Location → ensure Windows is allowed to access location, and that Weather (and Widgets) specifically has permission. Alternatively: set a manual location in the widget’s Edit settings to override automatic detection.
Widgets performance considerations
Widgets runs background network activity — fetching news, weather updates, sports scores, and stock prices. On metered or slow connections: this background activity consumes data and may slow other connections. Settings → Personalisation → Taskbar → Widgets toggle → Off stops all Widgets background activity.
On machines where every bit of performance matters: the Widgets process (Windows.Widgets.exe and related processes) uses some CPU and memory, particularly when the panel is visible or recently closed. Check Task Manager → Processes → “Widgets” to see current resource consumption. For users who never open Widgets: disabling the feature through taskbar settings eliminates this background consumption entirely.
Third-party widgets — alternative approaches
Windows 11 Widgets doesn’t support true third-party content integration (you can’t add a widget for your RSS reader, a custom dashboard, or a specific website’s data). The available widgets are Microsoft-curated. For more flexible desktop information widgets: Rainmeter (free, long-established) provides fully customisable desktop widgets — system monitors, weather from any source, calendar integrations, media players — that overlay on the desktop rather than appearing in a side panel. Rainmeter has a large community of themes and widget configurations, providing far more flexibility than Windows 11 Widgets at the cost of more complex setup.
| Widget goal | Action |
| Add a widget | Widgets panel → “+” icon → select widget |
| Remove a specific widget | Three-dot menu on widget → Remove widget |
| Stop news from a specific source | Three-dot menu on news card → Block source |
| Remove news feed entirely | Three-dot menu on News widget → Remove widget |
| Remove Widgets from taskbar | Taskbar settings → Widgets → Off |
| Open Widgets via keyboard | Win+W |
| Fix location not detected | Settings → Privacy → Location → enable for Widgets |
Widgets occupies an interesting position in Windows 11 — it’s a genuinely useful information aggregator for people who want weather, news, and task information at a glance, but it defaults to a news feed-heavy configuration that many users find intrusive rather than useful. The difference between “Widgets is annoying” and “Widgets is useful” is usually 10 minutes of removing unwanted cards, blocking unwanted news sources, and adding the widgets that match what you actually want to see. For users who don’t want any of it: one toggle in taskbar settings removes it entirely.
Widgets and privacy
The Widgets panel sends information to Microsoft: your location (for weather), browsing activity (for news personalisation), and interaction data (which articles and widgets you engage with). This data is used to personalise the feed. For users with strong privacy preferences: the Widgets panel’s data collection is an additional reason to disable it via taskbar settings rather than just configuring it.
The privacy settings for Widgets are partly in Settings → Privacy & security → Location (for weather) and partly in Microsoft’s account privacy settings at account.microsoft.com/privacy. Activity from the news feed personalisation is logged in Microsoft’s privacy dashboard, where it can be reviewed and cleared. If you use Widgets and want to minimise data collection: signing out from the Microsoft account in Widgets settings changes it to anonymous mode, though with correspondingly reduced personalisation.
Widgets in full-screen mode
Widgets can be used in a full-screen layout, not just the sidebar panel. In the Widgets panel: click the expand icon (if available) to open a full-page view. This provides more space for each widget and shows more content simultaneously. The full-page view is better suited for a dedicated information display (a secondary monitor showing live information, for example) than the sidebar panel which is designed for quick glances.
Sports and Finance widgets — following specific content
The Sports widget lets you follow specific teams: three-dot menu on the Sports widget → Edit → add teams by searching for club names. Once followed, scores and schedules for those teams appear prominently in the sports section. The Finance widget similarly allows adding stock tickers and currency pairs you want to monitor. These two widgets are among the most useful in Widgets because they’re about specific, curated information rather than a broad feed — the less noisy, more targeted approach that makes Widgets genuinely useful rather than generically informative.
Using Widgets without clicking news
A practical habit for keeping the Widgets experience clean: only click news articles you’d genuinely seek out — not just what catches your eye in the moment. The personalisation algorithm is aggressive and interpreting “clicked” as “interested in more like this.” One click on a sensationalist headline trains the algorithm to show more of that content. Treating news cards as genuinely consequential choices about what you want to see more of makes the feed converge on actually useful content over time rather than defaulting to engagement-optimised noise.
The patience required: 2-4 weeks of consistent feedback (blocking sources you dislike, favouring topics you want) before the feed reflects your preferences accurately. For most users who configure Widgets intentionally and train it appropriately: the news feed becomes genuinely relevant. For users who interact with it randomly or not at all: it remains generic MSN content that has little connection to their interests.
Windows 11 Widgets ultimately delivers on its premise — a glanceable information panel — for users who configure it to match their actual information needs. Weather, calendar, tasks, and a curated news feed that’s been trained over time represent a useful daily information surface. The default configuration, heavy with generic news, gives the opposite impression. Ten minutes of initial setup and a few weeks of feedback transform the feature considerably. Or: one toggle removes it if it’s not useful to you. Both are valid choices.
Microsoft’s plans for Widgets
Microsoft has been developing third-party widget support — allowing developers to build their own widgets for the Windows 11 panel, similar to how Android and iOS allow third-party home screen widgets. As of 2025, some third-party widgets have become available through Windows 11 updates, with more developers participating over time. Check the “+” widget picker for any new additions not listed in earlier versions of Windows 11 — the available widget library expands with Windows Updates rather than requiring a specific app installation in all cases.
For IT administrators: Widgets configuration is manageable via Group Policy. The DisableWidgets policy (Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Widgets) controls whether Widgets is available to users on managed machines. In environments where the news feed and personalisation features conflict with company policy or data handling requirements: Group Policy provides the administrative control to disable Widgets organisation-wide without requiring individual user action on each machine.
Widgets is the Windows 11 feature with the widest gap between its potential (contextual, personalised information at a glance) and its default experience (news feed that feels more like a news portal than a productivity tool). Closing that gap requires intentional configuration — but once configured, it’s one of the few Windows 11 features that provides new information rather than just providing access to existing tools. For users who want a weather check, task review, and news digest without opening a browser: a well-configured Widgets panel delivers that effectively.
One final practical tip: Win+W as the keyboard shortcut for Widgets is worth memorising if you decide to keep the panel. Opening it by keyboard and scanning the weather/calendar/tasks without moving to the mouse, then pressing Win+W again to close, makes the Widgets check a sub-5-second information review. This quick-open, scan, close workflow — without clicking anything in the panel — avoids accidentally training the news algorithm with unintended clicks while still making use of the information the panel provides. Related: Windows 11 Start Menu.
