If you follow Windows 10 development process, you are probably well aware of a new News and Interests widget. It is a small taskbar panel that shows a weather forecast, news headlines, finances, traffic, and other information when expanded. Since December 2020, this feature is available on the taskbar for those running Windows 10 preview builds from Dev Channel. In a somewhat surprising move, Microsoft announced that News and Interests is coming soon to older Windows 10 versions, including Windows 10 21H1, 20H2, and 2004.
Microsoft no longer ties new features in Windows 10 preview builds to some specific release. Thus, it is difficult to say when a particular feature will be available in the stable channel. Still, many believed that the News and Interests widget would come as a part of Windows 10 21H2.
News and Interests is now available for Windows Insiders in the Beta and Release Preview channels. In other words, this interesting feature will come to stable versions much sooner than expected.
Here is what the company said in the official changelog notes:
We are rolling out news and interests on the Windows taskbar to Beta and Release Preview rings. This has been available in the Dev Channel, with ongoing improvements based on Insider feedback. News and interests on the taskbar make it easy to stay up to date with information at a glance, and we look forward to hearing what you think.
If you want to try it out, be sure to install the latest updates in the Beta and Release Preview channels. You can find the changelog for these releases here.
After installing the updates, you can enable or disable News and Interests. It will automatically open when you hover a cursor over the weather on the taskbar. If case you dislike this behavior, you can turn it off. Interestingly, Microsoft Edge has a similar, if not identical, widget. It is currently hidden by default, but you can create a shortcut to News Widget in Microsoft Edge using a dedicated guide.
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Thank you for the warning.
Thanks Sergey! I installed the cab on 20H2 latest but the widget didnt show up. Even tried the Vivetool but no joy. Any idea?
It must be a gradual roll-out.
Oh ok! Thanks Sergey! Appreciate your response and help.