Windows 10: KB5003173 enables Windows 10 taskbar feed, but there’s a catch

One of the most notable steps Microsoft took last year for the Windows 10 taskbar is “News and Interests”, an MSN feed built-in into the taskbar. With the KB5003173 update, Microsoft has now enabled support for the “News and Interests” feed for more users running the October 2020 Update and May 2020 Update.

News and Interests or taskbar feed is part of the company’s efforts to surface MSN articles without users actively having to ask for them. As the name suggests, it surfaces articles based on your interests from different topics available on MSN, such as technology, entertainment, politics, etc.

Microsoft previously said that this feature will be rolled out gradually and it would be included in the May 2021 Patch Tuesday. Taskbar feed has been very slowly rolling out to those already using the latest cumulative updates, but it looks as though more users are seeing the option on their devices.

KB5003173 enables taskbar feed in Windows 10


For those on Windows 10 version 20H2/2004, the feature is now being rolled out with KB5003173, which is a security-focused cumulative update. In our tests, we also observed that the feed is enabled immediately after the patch is installed and we’re seeing the option on multiple accounts and devices right now.



As you can see in the above screenshot, News and Interests feed surfaces news stories in a feed of cards that appear above the taskbar, similar to the Google Discover app on Android and iOS. Below each story is a menu that lets you react to the story, and there’s also a thumbs up icon that can be clicked to see more related articles.

However, the taskbar feed is far from perfect and there are at least three problems. Some users are reporting that the weather icon pinned to the taskbar is blurry.



In addition, it also appears that the feed works only when your taskbar is pinned to the bottom. If you’ve changed the location of the taskbar, the option will not work.

The third problem with the taskbar feed is that the widget can stop working and display a blank window or loading animation. This issue has been flagged by some users on social media and observed by us on our devices.

Fortunately, there’s an easy fix for the broken feed. To fix the issues, you need to open Task Manager, right-click “Windows Explorer” and select “Restart”.

If you don’t like the feature, you can always right-click on the icon and turn it off, and it won’t run in the background.

The post KB5003173 enables Windows 10 taskbar feed, but there’s a catch appeared first on Windows Latest

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Enable Back Taskbar

Possibly you are referring to
Enable or Disable Pinned Apps on Taskbar in Windows
Enable or Disable Pin and Unpin Apps on Taskbar in Windows

A searchable list is useful to bookmark:
Windows 10 Tutorial Index

Also note that most tutorials have a list of related tutorials immediately following the main text. Thus if you find one on 'taskbar' you can go the the list in that tutorial and find relevant ones quickly.

 

Windows 10 Taskbar is not working and "fixes" don't fix it.

Hi Carole,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community and being a part of Windows 10.

I understand your concern about accessing Taskbar on Windows 10. We will help you with resolving the issue.

Provide us the additional information to understand the issue and assist you better:

• What exactly happens when you press Alt+Tab keys from the keyboard to switch between the apps?
• Have you made any changes to the operating system prior to this issue?
• What are the troubleshooting steps you have tried to resolve the issue?

As you said Taskbar is not working, and you will minimize all the opened apps to access the one you wish to from Taskbar. Be clear with how exactly you are trying to accessing the apps from Taskbar.

Step 1: I suggest you to check if you have enabled the Auto-hide option for Taskbar, if so try to disable and check if it helps.

Steps to enable auto-hide Taskbar:

• Right click in the empty space on the Taskbar, click on
  Properties,
• Under Taskbar tab, uncheck the Auto-hide the Taskbar option, click on
  Apply and Ok.

Step 2: I suggest you to install all the pending updates on your device.

• Connect to the internet.
• Press Windows key and type
  updates.
• Click on Check for updates.
• Under Windows Updates, click on
  Check for updates.
• Try to install the updates being shown.

Hope it helps. Get back to us with an updated status of this issue and brief description for further assistance.

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

As you may already know, Windows 10 (as well as Windows 8) allow you to log in with a valid Microsoft account, instead of creating a local account that only works on your machine. However, you may prefer to keep a local account for privacy reasons. If you do, though, some Windows 10 features—like Cortana—may not work. Despite the default behavior, the Windows 10 Store is not one of them. You can still log in to your Microsoft account for just the Store without switching to a full Microsoft account. The process, however, is not terribly obvious. To do so, follow these steps:

• Launch the Store from your Start menu.
• Click the user icon next to the search box.
• Click “Sign-in” from the menu that appears.
• Choose “Microsoft account” and log in like normal.
• When the “Make it yours” box appears do not enter your password. Instead, click “Sign in to just this app instead.”

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