In recent updates, Microsoft added a dynamic Weather and News widget to the far left corner of the Windows 11 taskbar. While some users appreciate seeing the temperature at a glance, hovering over the icon accidentally opens a massive panel filled with distracting news articles and advertisements. If you prefer a clean, minimalist desktop, you can easily disable this widget entirely.
How to Disable the Widgets Button
Windows 11 treats the weather icon as a core taskbar element, meaning you can toggle it off directly from the Taskbar settings menu.
- Right-click on any empty, blank space on your Windows 11 Taskbar.
- Select Taskbar settings from the small context menu that appears.
- The Settings app will open directly to the Personalisation > Taskbar page.
- Look for the section labelled Taskbar items at the very top of the window.
- Find the toggle switch next to Widgets.
- Click the toggle switch to turn it Off.
The weather icon will immediately vanish from your taskbar. By removing this icon, you also disable the background processes associated with fetching the news feed, which can slightly improve your system’s performance and reduce idle network usage.