Microsoft knows what the Windows 10 taskbar really needs: News and weather. That My People icon didn’t work, but certainly all Windows users want one-click access to the latest news – right?
Microsoft is already testing this change in Windows 10 Insider builds. Starting January 6, 2021, with Insider build 21286, people who are testing unstable versions of Windows 10 will start seeing the widget.
It will appear to the left of your notification area (often, but incorrectly, called a “system tray”). It will show the current weather in your area – right on the taskbar. If you click on it, you will see news headlines, more information about the weather, stock market movements and sports results. Microsoft calls it “an integrated feed of dynamic content, like news and weather, which is updated throughout the day.”
Of course, you can customize what you want to see in the feed and you can hide this weather and news widget, just as you can hide the My People widget today. All you have to do is right click on the taskbar and deselect it.
Microsoft is testing variations of this feature, so it may not look identical when it comes to your PC. Based on Microsoft’s development schedule, we hope to see this feature reach stable Windows 10 PCs with a major update scheduled for the fall of 2021 – or, if Microsoft is really in a hurry, the spring of 2021.
