Widgets are (sort of) a new feature of Windows 11. The Widgets tool allows you to create a pop-out panel that contains weather, news and other information based on your interests. A similar feature was quietly added to Windows 10 in one of the latest incremental updates, and could be viewed by clicking the weather summary that appeared on the right side of the Taskbar. In Windows 11, that existing News & Interests panel has been turned into a more prominent and expanded feature.
In This Lesson…
- How to Customise Your Widgets
- Using The Widget Panel News Feed
- Manage Your Interests in the News Feed
- Searching from the Widget Panel
How to Customise Your Widgets
You can open the default Widgets panel by clicking the weather display on the left side of the taskbar, or by pressing the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + W. You will see that it already contains several separate widgets, including a news section that you can see by scrolling down. Everything you see can be customised to at least some degree. There are numerous widgets already available, and more are sure to be added as Windows 11 matures.
1 – At the top, you should see a weather widget. If this is not displaying the correct weather for your location, you may need to change location details in the main Windows 11 settings, or you can click on the edit icon (the pencil) next to the location shown in the widget and add your location manually. This widget controls what the small weather display in the Taskbar shows.
2 – You may also see widgets for Calendar, stock watchlist, and Photos. All of these can be moved, replaced and edited to some degree. To move a widget to a different position in the panel, hover the mouse pointer over the top part of it, click and drag. The other widgets will move to allow the widget to be placed where you want it. To change the size of a widget, click on the More Options button (three dots) on any widget and select small, medium or large from the menu.
3 – To add new widgets to the panel, click the Add widgets button just below the default widgets. Click the + button next to any widgets you want to add from the new window that opens. You should see them being added in the background as you do this.
4 – Many Widgets pull data from a corresponding app or Windows service, but that doesn’t mean you need to open the app to change what is displayed in the Widget panel. Click the More options button on any widget, and if you see “Customise widget” you can edit it directly from the panel. Exactly what you can edit will depend on the widget.
Using The Widget Panel News Feed
The news feed below the widgets is a fixed element of the widgets panel and while it can be edited, it can’t be removed. At the top of the feed is a widget containing six “Top Stories”. These will change based on the news sources popular in your country, as well as how you edit the news feed.
1 – Below the Top Stories box is the main news feed, which you can scroll down through to see more and more stories. Again, this news feed will vary between users and locations. As you use and edit the feed, Windows will learn the types of news stories and sources you prefer and display more content according to these preferences.
2 – To edit the main news feed, hover your mouse pointer over any news story. You will see an X appear, which can be clicked to hide the story. You will also see a More options button on each story. Clicking this will allow you to upvote (show more stories like this) or downvote (show fewer stories) each story, letting Windows learn the types of news you are more or less interested in seeing in the future.
3 – You can also choose to hide stories from any particular source. For example, if you are tired of seeing stories about celebrity homes from Hello Magazine, you can simply click “Hide stories from Hello Magazine”.
Manage Your Interests in the News Feed
Another way to customise the news feed (both in the Widget panel and in the Start Page of the Edge browser) is to manage your interests in your Microsoft account. To do this from the Widget panel, either click on the account icon at the very top of the panel, or click the More options button on a news story and then choose “Manage interests”.
Your browser will open to the My Interests page of your Microsoft account. You can then add or remove the types of news stories that you want to see. There are lots of categories, from sports and entertainment to politics and science. Just click the + button on any subjects you want to see more of in your news feeds.
Searching from the Widget Panel
You will also notice a search bar at the very top of the widget panel, further adding to the usefulness of the tool. This search box is different to the main Windows 11 search tool as it only allows online searches, not system searches. When you type in the search field and tap Enter, the search results will open in a new window of your default browser (Edge, Chrome, etc).