How I made my Windows 11 widgets truly useful: 8 simple tweaks to try before you hide them

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Close Home Tech Services & Software Operating Systems Windows Windows 11 How I made my Windows 11 widgets truly useful: 8 simple tweaks to try before you hide them The Widgets feature can be annoying but it's also able to provide useful news and info. Here's how I tweak it to be less intrusive and more helpful.

Written by Lance Whitney, ContributorContributor May 12, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. PT

The Widgets pane in Windows 11 has been a contentious feature from the get-go. That's partly due to the content it offers but also because of how easy it is to accidentally trigger it. By default, just hovering over the Taskbar icon causes the Widgets pane to fly out, interrupting whatever you're doing.

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Yes, you can restrict and even hide the taskbar icon -- and I'll show you how to do that. But not so fast. You can also tweak the Widgets feed to show stories that are more useful and interesting to you. That's what I've done, and that's why I find the Widgets of value whenever I want to get the latest news, weather, notifications, stock quotes, and more. Here's how you can do the same.

Hide the Widgets taskbar icon

Maybe you just don't want to see or access the Widgets at all. You want it out of your Windows life completely. OK. Go to Settings, select Personalization, and click Taskbar. Under Taskbar items, turn off the switch for Widgets, and poof, the Taskbar icon vanishes.

1. Stop accidentally triggering the Widgets pane

Ah, but there's another way. This is the method I use since I want to keep the Widgets pane accessible. Instead of triggering it by hovering over the icon, click it to open the pane. To do this, launch the Widgets pane and click the Settings icon in the upper-right corner of the window. Turn off the switch for "Open Widgets board on hover." Close the Settings window and then click anywhere to close the Widgets pane. Now try hovering over the Taskbar icon and you'll see that nothing happens. Click the icon, and that's when the pane flies out.

2. Browse the Widgets pane

With the Widgets pane visible, you may want to review the available info before customizing and personalizing it. The feature offers two main feeds -- a Discover feed for MSN content and another feed for your actual widgets. In the MSN feed, the pane displays three menus at the top -- Discover, Watch, and Play. You have to switch among the three to segue from news to videos to games.

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In an effort to make Windows 11 more user-friendly, Microsoft has been tweaking several features in the OS, including Widgets. The newest look dispenses with the three separate menus in the Discover feed and instead includes all the content in one place. Depending on your Windows 11 version, you should be able to switch between the old and new looks.

Open the Widgets pane. Turn on the switch for "Switch to new look" to get rid of the three separate screens. You can then jump between the Discover feed and the Widgets feed.

Browse the Widgets pane — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

3. View stories and other content

Scroll up and down the Discover and Widgets feeds to see all the stories and other content available. You'll see that the Discover feed displays one column with weather, stock quotes, and more on the left and another column with news items on the right. Click a particular story or other item to view it in full. To see a new batch of stories, click the Refresh button at the top.

You can indicate whether you like an individual story. Hover over the story's card and click the thumb's up icon to give it a like.

The Widgets feed displays individual cards with daily information or access to certain built-in tools. Click the Widgets icon and then select a particular item to view it or work with in a separate web page.

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4. Customize the Discover feed

In the Discover feed, you can add, remove, and change the individual cards that appear. On the left side, hover over one of the cards and click the ellipsis icon. Depending on the card's content, you can usually hide the card and sometimes tweak it to personalize the information. For example, you're able to change or manage the location for the Weather card.

5. Add or remove a news source

Next, you can add or block a news source or channel. Click the ellipsis icon for a particular story. Select Follow to add the source to your list and see more stories from it. Select Block to stop seeing stories from that channel.

To add or remove individual cards, click your profile photo or icon at the upper right. At the Personalize screen, select the heading for Info cards. Click each card and flip the switch to turn it on or off.

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6. Personalize the Discover feed

You can tweak the Discover feed to personalize it even more. Click your profile icon again. Select the heading for Discover. Review the recommended topics and publishers and click the plus icon for any you wish to follow.

Select the heading for Following. Here, you can review all the channels you're following. Click Unfollow for any you want to remove.

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Select the heading for Blocked to review all the channels you've blocked. Click Unblock next to any you wish to allow back in your feed.

Select the heading for Notifications. This list shows you the topics for which you'll receive notifications. Turn off the switch for any to stop its notifications. Turn off the switch for Get Notifications to stop them all.

7. Customize the Widgets feed

Next, you can tweak the Widgets feed. Click the icon on the left for Widgets. To remove a widget, click its ellipsis icon and select Remove.

To add a new widget, click the plus icon in the upper right. Select each of the categories on the left. If the Add widget icon is grayed out, then that widget is already in your feed. Otherwise, click the Add widget button to add it.

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You can customize certain widgets. For example, click the ellipsis icon for Weather and select Customize Widget. You can then change the location to a different city and the temperature unit between Fahrenheit and Celsius.

8. Adjust the layout of the Widgets feed

After you've set up all your widgets, you can fine-tune the layout of the feed. Click the ellipsis icon for any widget and you may see options for Small, Medium, and Large. Select the size you want.

To move a widget, again click its ellipsis icon. From the menu, you're then able to move it up, down, left, or right depending on its current position.

You can also manually move widgets by dragging and dropping them. Press down on a widget with your mouse or trackpad or with your finger on a touch screen, move it to its new spot, and then release when it's in place.

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Though the Widgets pane sometimes feels like a real pain, don't dismiss it so easily. By tweaking how it works and what content it shows, you may find it more useful than you expect.