Microsoft is finally ditching the junk MSN feed in Windows widgets

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. News Close News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All News Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech Microsoft Close Microsoft Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Follow Follow See All Microsoft Microsoft is finally ditching the junk MSN feed in Windows widgets The widgets feature in Windows 11 will soon only show widgets by default. The widgets feature in Windows 11 will soon only show widgets by default. by Tom Warren Close Tom Warren Senior Correspondent Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Technical Details

Follow Follow See All by Tom Warren May 5, 2026, 9:46 AM UTC Link Share Gift Image: Microsoft Tom Warren Close Tom Warren Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Tom Warren is a senior correspondent and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft is finally giving up on showing the junk feed of MSN news when you open the widgets feature in Windows 11.

After allowing Windows 11 users to disable the MSN feed more than two years ago , Microsoft says it will soon hide it by default as part of an effort to make widgets “quiet by default. ” “We’re working to make Widgets feel less distracting and overwhelming by making the experience quiet by default,” says Microsoft . “To do this, we’re testing a new set of default settings designed to reduce unexpected alerts and visual interruptions.

” Microsoft is planning to disable the widgets panel opening when you hover over its taskbar item, alongside turning off distracting taskbar badges by default. The widgets panel will open to widgets instead of the MSN feed by default, and Microsoft will also limit “taskbar alerts until you choose to open and engage with the Widgets experience. ” These changes should make the taskbar a little less annoying, especially as the widgets section would often have notifications for stocks, weather, or MSN news by default.

Industry Implications

Hopefully it will make widgets in Windows a more useful part of the operating system, instead of something that many users have avoided. The changes are part of Microsoft’s ongoing effort to improve Windows 11 . Microsoft is removing “unneccessary” Copilot buttons from apps, modernizing the Run prompt , fixing File Explorer performance, and improving the memory footprint of Windows.

The changes are rolling out each month throughout 2026. Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Tom Warren Close Tom Warren Senior Correspondent Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.