How to disable weather forecast in new Windows 10 update

Question

Hello,

I hate when Microsoft add features to Windows 10 that are annoying instead of being a real help.

Last update was adding of the forecast in the task bar and the interest Window that appears suddenly. How can I disable it completely?

Thanks

Jaime

Answer 1

Hi, I am Van. I'm an Independent Advisor and a Windows user like you. I'll be glad to help you today.

You can turn off the News and interests widget by right-clicking a space in the taskbar then select News and interests then click Turn off.

You can also disable it via group policy editor. Please follow the steps below.

1. Press Windows key + r then type gpedit.msc
2. Then navigate to this location Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > News and interests > Enable news and interests on the taskbar
3. Tick the radio button to disabled
4. Click Ok, close the group policy editor, then reboot your PC.

Best regards,

Van

Answer 2

Van Dennis' GPEdit instructions are correct, but the reboot isn't necessary.

1. Open Command Prompt as an Administrator, then type "gpedit" (you'll want to open it like that if you're not working from an Admin account. If you are on an Admin account, typing "gpedit" in the search bar on the taskbar opens it)
2. In the bar on the left, expand the trees for Computer Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Windows Components --> News and Interests
3. "Enable news and interests on the taskbar" should be listed on the body of the window.
4. Double Click "Enable news and interests on the taskbar", then click "Disabled"

To put this into effect you can restart your computer if you'd like. If you don't want to reboot and/or can't at the moment:

1. In Command Prompt as an Admin, type "gpupdate /force"
2. Once that completes, restart Explorer.exe. "Windows Explorer" in the Task Manager should have a restart button on the bottom right of the manager, otherwise you can taskkill /f /im explorer.exe in Command Prompt to kill it then just "explorer" (without the .exe) to start it in Command Prompt).

It should be noted, though, that this only hides the service from the taskbar. It does not actually remove the service. Because it's probably more bloat built into Cortana, I'm not sure if there's a good way to remove the service without bricking you toolbar and search capabilities.

Answer 3

How can this be disabled on a enterprise front? I have 1200 users who I need to disable.

Thanks

I'm also looking for this solution in GPMC, I downloaded the most recent ADMX templates for 20H2 and it seems this setting was not present. It only appears in local group policy

Make an user GPO with Registry key change on preferences with the following path and value.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Feeds

REG DWORD: ShellFeedsTaskbarViewMode

2 = disabled

0 = Enabled

yeah, it's weird that 0 enables that, but it works.

Microsoft should really be less intrusive with these changes (like asking to enable it after a new updated installed or something like that). Just noted it appeared at my notebook and for a moment I thought it was some type of Spyware.

Answer 4

Hi, I am Van. I'm an Independent Advisor and a Windows user like you. I'll be glad to help you today.

You can turn off the News and interests widget by right-clicking a space in the taskbar then select News and interests then click Turn off.

You can also disable it via group policy editor. Please follow the steps below.

1. Press Windows key + r then type gpedit.msc
2. Then navigate to this location Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > News and interests > Enable news and interests on the taskbar
3. Tick the radio button to disabled
4. Click Ok, close the group policy editor, then reboot your PC.

Best regards,
Van

What would be the difference from the instructions you laid out and simply right clicking the taskbar, going to "news and interests", and then turning the weather widget off?

Answer 5

How can this be disabled on a enterprise front? I have 1200 users who I need to disable.

Thanks