Widgets

Windows 11 includes a news feed feature called Widgets that consists of a Widgets button on the Taskbar with a live weather forecast and a widget board that displays widgets and news content cards.

Widgets appear above the news content cards on the widget board. They are cards of dynamic information culled from Microsoft's online services. These widgets and news content cards are configurable, and while the latter may seem superfluous at first, you can customize the content types and sources you see, and the widget board can become more useful the more you use it.

Widgets is an evolution of the News & interests feature from Windows 10.
The problem with Widgets
Before we discuss how to use and configure Widgets, we need to take a step back and examine how Microsoft is using this feature to drive the usage of its products and services. Unfortunately, this is the real reason that Windows 11 includes Widgets.

Widgets removes choice in these areas:

Web browser. You cannot configure Widgets to open new stories in any browser other than Microsoft Edge.

News and content sources. You cannot configure Widgets to access news stories and other content from any other source other than Microsoft Start, which is part of Microsoft MSN.

Consider the following scenario: you installed Google Chrome and configured it as the default browser in Windows 11, and you rightfully expect it to appear whenever you click a web link. But when you click a new story in Widgets, that story will open in Microsoft Edge, and not in Chrome.

If you find this behavior objectionable, you will need to balance your usage of Widgets with the knowledge that Microsoft is using this feature to gain an unfair advantage over its web browser, web search, advertising, and content aggregator competition. Or, you can simply choose to not use Widgets.

We explain how you can remove the Widgets icon from the Taskbar at the end of the chapter.
View the weather forecast, news bulletins, and widget notifications
The Widgets icon can be found on the far left of the Taskbar and while it typically displays the local weather forecast, it can also display breaking news or other announcements and notification badges.

Open the widget board
To open Widgets and display the feed in the widget board, mouse-over or select the Widgets icon on the Taskbar. Or, type WINKEY + W.
You can disable the mouse-over behavior. This is described at the end of this chapter.
Display the widget board in Full View
By default, Widgets appears as a pane on the left side of the Desktop. But you can expand this view and display Widgets full screen in what's called Full View mode instead. To do so, click the "Full View" icon in the upper right of the pane.

When you do, Widgets appears full-screen.

Widgets will remember this change and display in Full View every time it's opened in the future.
To reverse this change, select the "Collapse to Half View" in the upper-right of Full ...