Windows 10: Windows 11 - Widget panel customization

Can the widget panel be made smaller - not the widgets themselves? I’d prefer only one column running the full height of the screen. Thanks for your help.

:)

 

Widgets in Windows 11

One of the new features in Windows 11 is Widgets, coined by Microsoft as a place for content and entertainment where you can see information at one go. Widgets feature is the next evolution of the News and Interests feature that was introduced with Windows 10, where you can quickly check News, Calendar, weather, etc, without interrupting your workflow.





How to use Widgets in Windows 11

To invoke the widgets screen, simply press Win+W keys on the keyboard. You can also press the

button on the Taskbar.

Available Widgets in Windows 11

There are multiple widgets in Windows 11 that are available, and the list would be updated over time. As of now, the following Widgets are available:

• Weather: As the name suggests, it allows you to see the weather in your area. Clicking at the three dots menu to customize and resize the widget. Unlike Windows 10, you cannot see Temperature on the taskbar though.
  
• News: This widget shows News, which is powered by MSN, just like News and Interests in Windows 10.
  
• Outlook: To see your upcoming events added to your Calender of Microsoft account.
  
• Stock Watchlist/Movers: This widget is for stocks that you wish to watch. To add a stock to the watchlist, click the 3 dots menu and click customize.
  
• Photos: Photos widget shows the recent photos from your Microsoft Account synced to Onedrive.
  
• Windows 11 Tips: This widget gives tips regarding Windows 11.
  
• To do: The to-do widget helps you in Tasks management, synced to your Microsoft Account.
  
• Family Safety: This widget is helpful for those who have added a Child to their Family. It allows you to see recent activity from members of your Microsoft family group.
  
• Traffic: To see Traffic in your area - Location access must be given.
  
• Sports: The Sports widgets show live scores of the sports you are interested in.
  
• Office 365 for Enterprise customers only: This widget brings relevant documents, news, and meeting recordings to enterprise users. This widget will only be available if you are signed in with your AAD account on your PC running Windows 11.
  
• Entertainment: Only available in US, UK, CA, DE, FR, AU, JP.
  

The top bar has a web search option as well, which allows you to quickly search if you want.

Customize Widgets

To customize the Widgets screen, click your profile picture at the top right to open Widget Settings.





If you want to customize the news, you need to open MSN settings, which are located on this page. MSN News is now referred to as Microsoft Start.

Microsoft Start (msn.com)

Common questions Regarding Widget Board:

1. Widget opens Microsoft Edge instead of my browser for Settings: This is by design. Like News and Interests, Widgets settings and everything else open in Microsoft Edge instead of your default browser.
   

• Can I add multiple accounts in the Calendar widget: You cannot add multiple accounts as of now.
  
• Can I add 3rd party widgets: No, as of now 3rd party widgets are not supported.
  
• Cannot remove a Stock from the watchlist widget: This is by design. Microsoft is looking into it.
  
• Watchlist Widget does not sync with MSN watchlist: This is by design. You need to create a separate watchlist.
  
• Make the widget board full screen: It is not supported yet.
  

Troubleshooting Windows 11 widgets

At certain times, the Widgets feature may not work properly. In that case, the following troubleshooting may help:

Reinstall Windows Web Experience pack: Microsoft delivers content in Widgets through an app from Microsoft Store, called Windows web experience pack. Basically, this app is responsible for web content inside the Operating system. If WWEP is missing, the Widgets feature would disappear. If this is the case for you, please perform the steps below:

• Right-click Start>Windows Powershell(admin).
  
• Type the following command to remove traces of the Windows web experience pack: winget uninstall "windows web experience pack"
  
• Wait for the process to complete. When it is done, go to the following page
  
• Windows Web Experience pack from Microsoft Store.
  
• Click Get>Install.
  
• When the installation is complete, restart your computer and see if the issue is resolved.
  

Reinstall Edge Webview2: Widgets board uses EdgeWebView2 to render content. If in case the same is crashing, you can try reinstalling the EdgeWebView2 component from here. Choose Standalone installer. Also, make sure Edge is installed on the machine.

• Webview2 - Microsoft Edge Developer
  

Reinstall Display drivers: In certain scenarios, the display driver may be causing issues for the Widget board to load. Please try reinstalling them from the manufacturer and try again. Make sure to install the latest ones. For troubleshooting purposes, you can remove the display driver and see if the widget board opens with the basic display driver.

Check Microsoft Store for available updates: Make sure all the apps, specifically the Web experience pack and else are updated in the Microsoft Store.

To send Feedback about Widget features to the Windows team, press Windows key+F. The relevant category is Desktop environment>Widgets.

You can know more about Widgets in this video:



Also read:

• Repair Install Windows 11 using an ISO file (yourwindowsguide.com)
  
• Windows 11: FAQ (microsoft.com)
  
• How to: Use Snap Layouts and Snap groups in Windows 11 (microsoft.com)
  
• Check Windows 11 compatibility using these tools - Your Windows Guide
  
• How to change the default apps in Windows 11? - Your Windows Guide
  

Sumit (@_sumitdhiman) / Twitter

 

Widget tab & customization of it.

Is there a way to completely remove all of the news articles from the widget tab on Windows 11? I tried using the interest customization thing to block every interest listed, yet upon refreshing the page they were all unblocked. I tried uninstalling the "Windows News" app, but after restarting my computer, the app was back and the news remained. I do not want to see news when I try to check the weather. I am not interested in any of the interests that are listed. I want to use widgets NOT read articles. The fact that these are linked is so completely frustrating. Why add a useful feature only to use it shove current events down peoples throats?

 

Windows 11 widgets; how to remove these annoying news feed windows in the Widgets panel?

not looking to deny the Widget panel from working, just to make it actually useful to me.

i've already removed this useless OS "upgrade" that is Windows 11 and gone back to the much more useful Windows 10.

if something improves further down the road of development with 11 that makes the Widget panel and the dumbed-down Start 'panel' more useful i will consider using it again, but for now it is just a terrible GUI compared to Windows 10 for my uses.