Windows 11 Widgets can be distracting or helpful. Here are eight tweaks to make the feed more useful—or hide it entirely.
Windows 11 Widgets can either be a handy command center or a constant annoyance, depending on how you set them up. If you’ve been tempted to hide them, first consider adjusting how the pane opens and what it shows, because the difference can be surprisingly big.
The Widgets pane has been controversial since its launch, and not just because of the content it surfaces.. The bigger frustration for many people is how easy it is to trigger it by accident: hovering over the taskbar Widgets icon can cause the pane to pop out and interrupt whatever you’re doing.. You can even remove that icon entirely if you want the feature out of your day-to-day.
If you’d rather not see the Widgets icon at all, head to Settings, then go to Personalization, and select Taskbar. Under Taskbar items, turn off the switch for Widgets. After that, the taskbar icon disappears, effectively removing the quick entry point.
For those who still want access to Widgets but don’t want it triggered by hover, there’s another approach.. Instead of letting the pane fly out, you can make it open only when you click.. Start by launching the Widgets pane, then use the Settings icon in the upper-right corner of the window.. Turn off the option labeled “Open Widgets board on hover,” close the Settings window, and then dismiss the pane.. After this change, hovering does nothing—clicking is what brings the pane up.
Once the pane is behaving the way you want, the next step is deciding what you actually see inside it.. Windows 11 Widgets includes two main areas: a Discover feed that pulls in MSN content. and a Widgets feed that focuses on the widgets themselves.. In the Discover feed. older layouts present three separate menus—Discover. Watch. and Play—so switching between news. videos. and games requires bouncing among those sections.
Microsoft has been adjusting Widgets to make it easier to use. and a newer look consolidates what used to be those separate Discover menus into a single place.. If your Windows 11 version supports it. you can enable this by opening the Widgets pane and turning on the “Switch to new look” switch.. With the updated presentation enabled. you can move between the Discover feed and the Widgets feed without the same extra menu switching.
You can also actively browse and refresh the content. Scroll through both the Discover and Widgets feeds to see what’s available. Stories and other items can be opened by clicking them to view the full content. If you want a fresh batch, there’s a Refresh button at the top that pulls up new items.
To make the feed feel less random, Windows gives you ways to indicate preferences. In the Discover feed, you can hover over a story card and use the thumb’s up icon to like it—an attempt to align what appears with what you pay attention to.
Beyond liking, the Discover feed can be tuned at a more granular level.. You can add, remove, and change individual cards that appear in that feed.. From the left side, hover over a card and select the ellipsis icon.. Depending on the card. you can often hide it and sometimes tweak it to personalize the information—for instance. adjusting the Weather card’s location.
You can also manage which publishers or sources you want to see. For any story in the Discover feed, open the ellipsis menu and choose Follow to add that source to your list so you see more from it, or select Block to stop seeing stories from that channel.
If you want to curate more broadly, there’s a personalization screen tied to your profile icon in the upper-right.. At the Personalize screen, select Info cards and toggle individual cards on or off.. Returning to your profile again lets you go deeper into the Discover feed preferences by reviewing recommended topics and publishers and following any you want to add.
The same Personalize options also let you manage what you’ve chosen to follow or block over time.. Under Following, you can review all the channels you’re subscribed to and unfollow any you don’t want.. Under Blocked. you can review channels you’ve blocked and unblock specific ones to allow their stories back into the feed.
Notifications are another lever for reducing interruption. In the Widgets personalization area, notifications can be controlled by topic. You can turn off switches for specific items, and there’s also an option to stop all notifications by turning off “Get Notifications.”
The Widgets feed works differently, but it also offers customization. Click the Widgets icon on the left to view widget cards. To remove a widget, open the ellipsis menu for that widget and select Remove.
To add more, use the plus icon in the upper-right, then pick categories on the left and add widgets. If the “Add widget” option is grayed out, that usually means the widget is already in your feed, while the Add widget button adds it when it’s available.
Some widgets can be customized after you add them. For example, the Weather widget can be adjusted by using the ellipsis menu to choose Customize Widget. From there, you can change the city and switch temperature units between Fahrenheit and Celsius.
Finally, you can reshape the look of the feed itself.. For each widget. open the ellipsis menu and choose a size option such as Small. Medium. or Large. depending on what’s offered.. You can also rearrange widgets by using the ellipsis menu to move them in different directions based on their current position.
If you prefer direct control, Windows also supports dragging widgets to new locations.. Press down on a widget with your mouse or trackpad. or with your finger on a touch screen. move it to the new spot. and release when it’s placed.. Once the layout and content match how you use your PC. the Widgets pane can feel less like clutter and more like a quick dashboard for news. weather. notifications. stock quotes. and more.
Windows 11 Widgets Widgets customization taskbar hover popup Discover feed weather widget notifications settings personalize MSN content
Widgets pop up way too easy. I don’t need my computer thinking for me.
So you can just turn the Widgets icon off? Finally. I swear it shows random news like it’s my job.
I thought Widgets were like the Windows 10 news thing, but apparently it’s just a pane that opens when you hover? That seems like something they could’ve fixed in the first update. Also does turning it off stop the notifications too or nah?
Windows 11 keeps adding stuff I didn’t ask for and then calls it “useful.” I tried hiding it before and it still somehow comes back when I update. I don’t get why the hover thing is a feature at all, like my mouse doesn’t already have enough to do. Anyway, I’d rather just remove the whole thing but I bet Microsoft will sneak it back in again.