[Tip] Completely Disable and Remove “News and Interests” Feature in Windows 10
In previous article, we told you about “News and Interests” feature introduced in newer versions of Windows 10 operating system. This new feature adds a new icon or button to Windows 10 Taskbar which displays weather forecast updates and latest news feed in form of a flyout panel as shown in following screenshot:
If you don’t like this new feature addition and want to disable it, Microsoft provides a way to hide the icon from the Taskbar. You can right-click on Taskbar and select “News and Interests -> Turn off” option to hide or remove the icon from Taskbar.
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There might be some Windows 10 users who want to completely get rid of News and Interests feature. They want to completely remove or disable the new feature so that it stop running in background and doesn’t consume system resources and Internet bandwidth.
Fortunately, Microsoft provides group policy as well as Registry tweaks to permanently turn off News and Interests feature in Windows 10.
In this tutorial, we are going to share both methods to help you in disabling and removing News and Interests feature completely in Windows 10.
Once you follow these methods, News and Interests icon as well as its options in Taskbar context menu will disappear forever.
Let’s discuss both methods one by one:
METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type gpedit.msc and press Enter. It’ll open Group Policy Editor.
2. Now go to following key:
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Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> News and interests
3. In right-side pane, look for following option:
Enable news and interests on the taskbar
4. Double-click on the option and select Disabled option.
Click on Apply and OK buttons.
You’ll need to restart computer or restart Explorer to apply changes.
After restart, you’ll no longer see News and Interests widget or icon on Taskbar. Also if you right-click on Taskbar, you’ll not find News and Interests option in context menu.
NOTE: In future, if you decide to restore News and Interests feature in Windows 10, set the above mentioned option to Default in Group Policy Editor.
METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (regedit)
If you are using Home edition of Windows 10, you’ll not be able to run gpedit.msc command because this edition doesn’t come with Group Policy Editor.
If you can’t use or don’t want to use Group Policy Editor, you can take help of Registry Editor for the same task. Just follow these simple steps:
1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type regedit and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.
2. Now go to following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
3. Select Windows key and right-click on it and select New -> Key option. Set the new key name as Windows Feeds
4. Now select Windows Feeds key and in right-side pane, right-click on empty area and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value option.
5. Set the new DWORD name as EnableFeeds and set its value to 0 to disable News and Interests feature.
Close Registry Editor.
You’ll need to restart computer or restart Explorer to apply changes.
After restart, you’ll no longer see News and Interests widget or icon on Taskbar. Also if you right-click on Taskbar, you’ll not find News and Interests option in context menu.
NOTE: In future, if you decide to restore News and Interests feature in Windows 10, delete the above mentioned DWORD from Registry Editor.
Also Check:
[Tips] Customize or Remove “News and Interests” (Weather) Widget in Windows 10 Taskbar
Man, you are a god send!! And soon I saw it with the new update, I was looking for ways to get rid of it, and DuckDuckGo answered the call!! I hope you get many more links. Microsoft should focus on making a better OS, not where I get my news. Maybe they’ll crash less and be more reliable when they do!
Works perfectly! Thank you.
Thank you, works no problems, I think its not fair that Microsoft force these things on us without asking.
I am sure hoping this works, since I turned off “News & Interests” in taskbar settings- and lo & behold, ALL my taskbar icons disappeared! Then sometimes they’d reappear, but only two at a time, with a L & R end arrow which scrolled through the rest, two at a time. Driving me mad, this is! I want all my taskbar icons back the way they used to be.
So now I’m going to try the first option, which I can do because I have Win 10 Pro, and if that doesn’t work then I’ll try the regedit option. Fingers crossed!
IT WORKED! Used the Group Policy Editor option. Thank you thank you thank you!
This is neat, thanks. But…
How can I remove this gadget completely?
This works a treat. It’s a shame Microsoft forces us to go hardcore in disabling this nonsense.
Thanks!
I’ve had just about enough of this constantly being added to Windows. Thank you for the information.
Just downloaded the admx and adml files may 2021 release and import to the GPO’s.
Created a new GPO to disable this and applied. Had to reboot but it is now gone from taskbar ui and taskbar.
Thanks
both methods don’t seem to work on windows 10 home. for method 1, there is not group policy editor. methods 2 does not produce any changes. is there a method 3?
Thanks very much for this. Implemented *both* of your methods to the letter — just in case. The feed itself is now gone. However, a “ghost” News and Interests entry remains listed for optional checkmarks when right-clicking on Notifications in the Taskbar. So, consider that a 95 % expunging of this unwanted feature ?
The registry entry method above did not work for me.
Going to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Feeds
and setting ShellFeedsTaskbarViewMode to “2” did work.
Thanks for the great tutorial.
But FYI – If the second method doesn’t work for you, be sure you’re naming the DWORD correctly. I used, “Enable Feeds” instead of the correct, “EnableFeeds” It took me a few times to catch that little mistake.
On guest users, feed is disabled with REG_DWORD IsFeedsAvailable= 0x0 and DisabledReason=DisabledForTempUserProfile.
Maybe that works for windows home?
Desktop – used gpedit – cleared the news and interests icon but also cleared my entire systray.
Laptop – used regedit – same result.
Can’t they even set it up so it can actually disable it without clearing the systray.
And yes I rebooted after restart of explorer didn’t work.
Thanks for the info.
for anyone not seeing the group policies you need to update your policy definitions since Microsoft released new ones with the release of the new versions of Win 10 21H1
microsoft.com/en-us/download/103125
They turned off the gpedit.msc. It tells me that I didn’t type it correctly when I enter this. (I did type it correctly since I copied and pasted it.)
Thanks for your instructions. I think new and feed are not necessary for window 10.
Will this still work? I’ve had News & Interests turned off from the day I first set up my computer, but I’ve just noticed in the last day or two that Feeds is active in my Task Manager, and repeatedly turning itself back on when I turn it off. I’m also seeing a lot of complaints online about memory usage from people who have N&I turned on, so I think Microsoft might have changed something in the last few days. Will this registry tweak still work to kill it off for good?
I do not want any news on my msn web page anymore. Please stop showing the news please.
Taskbar didn’t stop it for me Checked the turn off and it had no effect.. Had to go to settings and then turn it off there. I think it stopped. Nuisance.
The above may stop News and Feeds working, but the app remains a TSR (terminate and stay resident) using DRAM. Can the app be removed?