Why Use Widgets on Windows 11
Widgets are small panels that show you live information without making you open a full app. The weather, your next calendar appointment, the score of the match you are following, your to-do list — all of it sits on one board that slides in from the left side of the screen, ready for a quick look, and gone again with one keypress.
Out of the box, though, the board is a mixed bag: a Microsoft Start news feed takes up most of the space, and the widgets are the ones Microsoft chose, not you. Nearly all of it can be changed: add and remove widgets, resize and rearrange them, turn the news feed off, and choose what the taskbar icon shows. This guide walks you through it all, step by step.
Before You Start
Before you start rearranging the board, it helps to know a few things about how widgets work, so you do not waste time looking for options that do not exist.
Step 1: Check that you are running Windows 11. Press Windows key + I to open Settings, then go to System, then About, and look at the Edition line. Windows 10 has a different news and interests panel on its taskbar, and the steps in this guide do not apply to it.
Step 2: Make sure Windows is up to date. Microsoft has changed the Widgets board several times through feature updates: settings have moved, the news feed toggle has been renamed, and new widgets have been added. Go to Settings, then Windows Update, and click Check for updates, so the menus you see match the ones described here.
Step 3: Sign in with a Microsoft account. Many widgets, including Calendar and To Do, show your own data, which only works when you are signed in to Windows with a Microsoft account. The weather widget and the news feed work without signing in, but they will not be personalized.
Step 4: Decide what you actually want to glance at. The best Widgets board is a short one. Pick three to six things you check often — the weather, your calendar, your tasks, a sports score — and keep just those. A board crammed with widgets you never look at is no faster than opening the apps themselves.
How to Open the Widgets Board
The Widgets board lives off the left edge of your screen. It slides in over your desktop, shows your widgets and your feed, and slides away again when you are done. There are several ways to open it, and the keyboard shortcut is by far the fastest.
Step 1: Press Windows key + W. This is the quickest way to open the board, and it works from anywhere: from the desktop, from inside an app, even while a game is running in a window. Press the same shortcut again, or Esc, to close the board.
Step 2: Click the Widgets icon on the taskbar. By default, the Widgets icon sits at the far left end of the taskbar, and it usually shows the current weather and temperature for your area. Click it once and the board slides open. Click it again to close it.
Step 3: Swipe in from the left edge of the screen. On a touch-screen laptop or tablet, swipe inward from the left edge of the display. Swipe it back to the left, or tap outside the board, to close it again.
Step 4: Close the board by clicking outside it. You do not need a close button. Click anywhere on your desktop or on another window, and the board slides away. Whatever you were doing is still there underneath, exactly as you left it.
How to Add Widgets to Your Board
A fresh Windows 11 install comes with a handful of widgets already on the board, usually Weather, Calendar, and a few others Microsoft picked. Adding more is simple: the board offers a short list of widgets from apps already installed on your PC.
Step 1: Open the Widgets board. Press Windows key + W or click the Widgets icon on the taskbar.
Step 2: Click the Add widgets button. Look near the top of the board, above your current widgets, for a button with a plus sign, labelled Add widgets. Click it and a panel opens showing the widgets you can add.
Step 3: Browse the list of available widgets. The panel lists widgets by name, with a short description of what each one shows: Weather, Calendar, To Do, Photos, Watchlist, Sports, Entertainment, and Traffic, depending on which apps are installed.
Step 4: Click the plus sign next to a widget to pin it. Each widget in the list has a small plus button beside it. Click it, and the widget is added to your board straight away. You can add several in one visit: the panel stays open until you close it.
Step 5: Close the panel and check your board. Click outside the panel, or press Esc, to go back to the board. Your new widgets appear at the bottom of the widget area, below the ones that were already there.
Step 6: Look in the Discover widgets section for more. Some versions of the board show a Discover widgets area at the bottom of the add panel, listing widgets from apps you have installed. This is where widgets from third-party apps first appear.
How to Remove, Resize, and Rearrange Widgets
A widget you never look at is just clutter, and a widget that is too small to read is not doing its job. Every widget has a small menu of its own, where you remove it, change its size, and set its options. Moving a widget is even simpler: you just drag it.
Step 1: Open the Widgets board. Press Windows key + W or click the Widgets icon on the taskbar.
Step 2: Click the three-dot menu on the widget you want to change. Move your mouse over a widget and a small three-dot button appears in its top-right corner. Click it.
Step 3: Choose a size: Small, Medium, or Large. Small is a compact card that shows one or two lines of information, Medium shows more detail, and Large turns the widget into a wide panel with the most information. Not every widget offers all three sizes.
Step 4: Drag a widget by its header to move it. Click on the widget’s title bar, hold the mouse button down, and drag the widget to a new spot. The other widgets shuffle aside to make room. Release the mouse button to drop it in place.
Step 5: Remove a widget you do not want. Open the widget’s three-dot menu and choose Unpin widget. The widget disappears from the board immediately. Removing a widget does not uninstall the app behind it, and you can add the widget back any time from the Add widgets panel.
Step 6: Put your most useful widget at the top. The widget at the top of the board is the first thing you see every time you open it, so give that spot to the one you check most often, usually the weather or the calendar.
How to Customize the Weather and Other Widgets
Most widgets have a few settings of their own, behind the same three-dot menu you used to resize them. The weather widget lets you change its location and temperature units, the Watchlist widget lets you pick which stocks it follows, and the Calendar widget shows your upcoming events.
Step 1: Open the Widgets board. Press Windows key + W or click the Widgets icon on the taskbar.
Step 2: Open the weather widget’s menu. Click the three-dot button in the top-right corner of the Weather widget, then choose Customize widget. There you can change the location it reports on and switch between Celsius and Fahrenheit.
Step 3: Change the location if the weather is wrong. If the widget shows the weather for the wrong city, type the correct place name in the location box and select it from the suggestions. The widget and the taskbar weather will both update.
Step 4: Set up the Watchlist widget with the stocks you follow. Add the Watchlist widget, open its three-dot menu, and choose Customize widget. Type a company name or stock symbol to add it to the list, and remove any symbols you do not follow.
Step 5: Check the Calendar widget is showing your events. The Calendar widget pulls events from the Microsoft account you are signed in with. If it looks empty, open the Calendar app once and confirm your events are there, then come back to the board.
How to Turn Off the News Feed
The biggest complaint about the Widgets board is the news feed underneath the widgets. Powered by Microsoft Start, it fills most of the board with headlines, and for many people it is the reason they never open Widgets at all. The good news is that you can turn the whole feed off and keep only your widgets. The setting has been renamed more than once, so the exact label depends on how up to date your PC is.
Step 1: Open the Widgets board. Press Windows key + W or click the Widgets icon on the taskbar.
Step 2: Click the settings button on the board. Look at the top-right corner of the board, on the navigation bar, for a small gear icon. Click it to open the Widgets settings. Do not confuse this with the Settings app: this gear belongs to Widgets itself.
Step 3: Find the feed setting. On current builds, the settings page shows a Dashboards section with a toggle labelled Discover. On slightly older builds, the same setting appears as Show or hide feeds, with a toggle labelled Feed. Both control the Microsoft Start news stream on your board.
Step 4: Turn the Discover toggle off. Click the toggle next to Discover so it switches to Off. If your board shows the older wording instead, turn the Feed toggle off under Show or hide feeds. The change applies immediately.
Step 5: Close the board and open it again to check. Press Esc or click outside the board to close it, then press Windows key + W to open it again. The news stories should be gone, leaving only your widgets. If a few stories are still showing, open the settings again and confirm the toggle stayed off.
How to Control Notification Badges and Announcements
Even when the board is closed, Widgets can still make itself known on the taskbar. The icon can show small notification badges — little dots that flag breaking news, a weather change, or a sports result — and short rotating announcements, where the icon briefly shows a headline instead of the weather. Both are on by default, and both can be switched off.
Step 1: Open the Widgets board. Press Windows key + W or click the Widgets icon on the taskbar.
Step 2: Click the settings button on the board. Click the gear icon at the top-right corner of the board to open the Widgets settings.
Step 3: Open More settings, then Notifications. In the Widgets settings, look for More settings and click it, then open the Notifications section, where all the badge and announcement options live.
Step 4: Turn off Show notification badges on the taskbar. This toggle controls the small dots on the Widgets icon. Switch it off and the badges stop appearing. You may also see a toggle for badges on the navigation bar, which controls similar dots inside the board itself.
Step 5: Turn off Show announcements on the taskbar. This toggle controls the rotating headlines that replace the weather on the taskbar icon from time to time. Switch it off if you want the icon to show only the weather, calmly, all day long. Both changes take effect immediately, with no restart needed.
How to Show or Hide the Widgets Button on the Taskbar
The Widgets button is the weather icon at the far left of your taskbar. If you never use widgets, you can hide the button entirely. If the board keeps popping open when your mouse drifts over the icon, you can stop that too. Hiding the button does not remove Widgets from your PC: the board still opens with Windows key + W.
Step 1: Right-click an empty part of the taskbar. Find a blank stretch of the taskbar, away from any icons, and right-click it. A small menu appears.
Step 2: Choose Taskbar settings. Click Taskbar settings in the menu. This opens the Taskbar page in the Settings app.
Step 3: Find Widgets under Taskbar items. Near the top of the page is the Taskbar items section, with a toggle for each icon Windows can show on the taskbar, including Search, Task view, and Widgets.
Step 4: Turn the Widgets toggle off to hide the button. Click the toggle next to Widgets so it switches to Off. The weather icon disappears from the taskbar immediately. Turn it back on any time to bring the button back.
Step 5: Turn off Open Widgets board on hover if the board pops open by accident. If the board slides open whenever your mouse passes over the icon, open the Widgets board, click the gear icon, and switch off Open Widgets board on hover. After that, the board only opens when you click the icon or press Windows key + W.
How to Get Third-Party Widgets from the Microsoft Store
Microsoft’s own widgets are only the start. Apps from other developers can offer widgets of their own, and once you install such an app from the Microsoft Store, its widget appears in your Add widgets list like any other. The choice is still smaller than on a phone, but it now includes widgets for music, messaging, email, and phone link apps.
Step 1: Open the Microsoft Store. Click the Microsoft Store icon on the taskbar, or press the Windows key, type Microsoft Store, and press Enter.
Step 2: Find an app that offers a widget. Apps that provide widgets include Spotify, Facebook Messenger, Phone Link, and Outlook Calendar. Search for the app by name in the Store.
Step 3: Install the app. Click Get or Install on the app’s Store page and wait for the download to finish. Signing in to the app is usually needed before its widget can show your own data.
Step 4: Open the Widgets board. Press Windows key + W or click the Widgets icon on the taskbar.
Step 5: Click Add widgets and look for the new widget. The widget from the app you just installed should now appear in the list. Click the plus sign next to it to pin it to your board. If it does not appear straight away, open the app once so it can finish setting itself up, and then check the list again.
Can You Pin Widgets to the Desktop
This is the question almost everyone asks sooner or later, and the honest answer is no. On Windows 11, widgets live on the Widgets board and nowhere else. There is no built-in way to pin a widget to the desktop, no setting that lets one float over your wallpaper, and no option to keep the weather visible on the desktop itself. The board slides in when you open it and slides away when you close it, and that is the whole design.
This is a real difference from the desktop gadgets of Windows Vista and Windows 7, which did sit on the desktop, and from Android phones, where widgets live on the home screen. Microsoft chose a different approach for Windows 11, keeping the desktop clean and putting everything on a single board. If you see a video claiming you can put Windows 11 widgets on the desktop with a built-in setting, it is mistaken: it is almost certainly showing a third-party desktop widget app, which is separate software, not the Windows 11 Widgets board.
Common Problems and How to Fix Them
The Widgets board will not open at all. Press Windows key + W and nothing happens, or the board flashes and closes again. First, check that the Widgets button is turned on: right-click the taskbar, choose Taskbar settings, and confirm the Widgets toggle is on. If it still does not open, the board itself may need updating. Open the Microsoft Store, go to Library, and install any available updates, particularly for the Windows Web Experience Pack, which powers the board. Restarting Windows Explorer can also help: press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, find Windows Explorer, right-click it, and choose Restart.
Widgets are blank or show old information. A widget that never loads usually means it cannot reach the internet, or it is waiting on a sign-in. Check your connection first, then make sure you are signed in to Windows with a Microsoft account, or to the app that provides the widget. If one widget is stuck while the others work, remove it and add it again, which forces it to fetch fresh data.
You turned the news feed off but stories keep appearing. First, confirm the change actually stuck: open the board, click the gear icon, and check that the Discover toggle is still off. If it has switched itself back on, a Windows update may have reset it, so turn it off again. Also check that you turned off the right setting: the toggle controls the Discover news stream, while individual widgets such as Weather can still show a headline of their own inside the widget card itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do widgets slow down my PC? Not in any way you are likely to notice. Widgets only fetch small amounts of information, and the board itself only runs while it is open. If your PC is very old or short on memory, keeping the board closed when you do not need it is enough.
Can I use widgets without a Microsoft account? Partly. The weather widget and the news feed work without signing in, because they only need your location. Widgets that show your own data — Calendar, To Do, Outlook Calendar, and most third-party widgets — need you signed in to the Microsoft account, or to the app that provides them, before they can show anything useful.
Will turning off the news feed remove the weather from the taskbar? No. Turning off Discover, or the Feed toggle on older builds, only removes the news stories from inside the board. The weather on the taskbar icon is part of the Widgets button itself, and it stays put. If you want that gone too, hide the Widgets button in Taskbar settings instead.
Final Thoughts
Widgets on Windows 11 are at their best when the board is small, personal, and quiet. Pick the handful of widgets you actually check — the weather, your calendar, your tasks, maybe a score or a stock — and remove everything else. Turn off the news feed if you do not want it, and switch off the badges and announcements if you would rather your taskbar stayed calm.
None of these changes is permanent, so experiment. Try the board with only three widgets for a week and see whether you open it more often. The setup that works is the one that matches how you use your PC, not the one Microsoft shipped.
And remember the one honest limitation: widgets live on the board, and the board lives on the left edge of your screen. Once you learn the Windows key + W shortcut, the board becomes what it was meant to be — a quick glance at the things that matter, and nothing more.
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