Today, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will soon receive a news and weather widget integrated into the taskbar, giving you quick weather and news information with a floating interface that provides a more detailed overview. The new feature is part of Microsoft’s Sun Valley effort to reinvigorate Windows UX with new features and designs.
The feature is officially called “news and interests” and can be found to the left of the system tray on the taskbar. When minimized, the widget shows the current weather and news alerts. Clicking on it will open a flyout with an ad-free experience displaying the latest news, detailed weather information and more.
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Today, the feature is available on the Windows Insider Dev Channel (Build 21286) and will be released to the public later this year.
Microsoft highlights the following features as part of the news and interests widget:
- Stay up to date: Take a quick look at your news and interests right from the taskbar. Stay on top of the latest headlines, weather, sports and more, then get back to what you were doing without interrupting your workflow. You have convenient access to news and interesting content from more than 4,500 global brands, such as The New York Times, BBC or The Verge, and beautiful live weather maps. Select an article to open a simplified reading view with fewer distractions, so you can save time and stay focused.
- Customize your feed: You can tell us what content you like or dislike (select More options … and choose “More stories like this” or “Less stories like this”) and, over time, more stories about the things you like appear in your feed, including those you might miss. You can also use emoji to react to stories.
- You are in control: At Microsoft, we believe that privacy starts with putting you in control and providing the tools and information you need to make informed choices. Through news and interests, there is quick access to the Microsoft Privacy Panel. Through the Microsoft Edge browser, there are built-in controls to limit tracking of advertisers and third parties. And if news and interests are not of interest to you, you can easily disable them by right-clicking on the taskbar.
Users can choose to hide the feature if they prefer not to have an information ticker on the taskbar by right-clicking. Interestingly, the feature requires that the new Microsoft Edge be installed to work. Without it, the new feature does not work. We expect many more features to appear for Windows 10 in the coming weeks, including an updated design with rounded corners and more.
In the meantime, what do you think of the news and interests widget that will come to Windows 10? Let us know in the comments.
You can learn how to join the Windows Insider Program in our handy guide and more about today’s announcement from Microsoft.
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