Widgets bring you closer to information you both want and need. Just click on the widgets icon on the Taskbar, swipe from the left using touch, or hit Win + W on your keyboard, and your widgets slide out from the left over your desktop. You can personalize your experience by adding or removing widgets, re-arranging, resizing, and customizing the content. The set of widgets we provide currently focus on your calendar, weather, local traffic, your Microsoft To Do lists, your photos from OneDrive, sports and esports, your stock watchlist, and tips.
In addition to your Widgets, you can stay up to date with an integrated feed of personalized news with the latest content from over 4,500 global brands like, The New York Times or BBC. The news feed will adapt to show stories of interest to you, and you can tune it to see more of the content you care about.
Widgets opens on the left side of the display, and cannot be moved around or resized. Widgets appear at the top above stories.
See also:
Windows Insider Program
Become an Insider: be one of the first to explore new Windows features for you and your business or use the latest Windows SDK to build great apps.
insider.windows.com
This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the widgets feature for all users in Windows 11.
You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable the widgets feature in Windows 11.
Contents
- Option One: Enable or Disable Widgets in Local Group Policy Editor
- Option Two: Enable or Disable Widgets using REG file
EXAMPLE: Widgets feature enabled and disabled
OPTION ONE
Enable or Disable Widgets in Local Group Policy Editor
The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.
All editions can use Option Two below.
1 Open the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc).
2 Navigate to the policy location below in the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor. (see screenshot below)
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Widgets
3 In the right pane of Widgets, double click/tap on the Allow widgets policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)
4 Do step 5 (Enable) or step 6 (Disable) below for what you would like to do.
5 To Enable Widgets
This is the default setting.
A) Select (dot) Not Configured, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)
6 To Disable Widgets
A) Select (dot) Disabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)
7 You can now close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.
OPTION TWO
Enable or Disable Widgets using REG file
1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.
2 To Enable Widgets
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Enable_widgets_feature_for_all_users.reg
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Dsh]
"AllowNewsAndInterests"=-3 To Disable Widgets
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Disable_widgets_feature_for_all_users.reg
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Dsh]
"AllowNewsAndInterests"=dword:000000004 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
7 Either restart explorer process, sign out and sign in, or restart the computer to apply.
8 You could now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
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