Windows 10: Customize your taskbar to get the latest on weather, stocks, traffic and more
Your Windows 10 taskbar can provide quick access to all the information you'll need. Here's how to personalize your taskbar before Windows 11 arrives.
- National Silver Azbee Award for Impact/Investigative Journalism; National Gold Azbee Award for Online Single Topic Coverage by a Team; National Bronze Azbee Award for Web Feature Series
Keep up with news you're interested in with Microsoft's Windows 10 taskbar update, rolling out now.
Microsoft's Windows 11 is on its way, but don't miss out on the opportunity to personalize your Windows 10 taskbar in the meantime. With a feature called news and interests, you can quickly access a feed of content relating to news, weather, stocks and traffic right from your taskbar. It will also update you automatically throughout the day.
You'll see a widget-like icon on your taskbar, and can hover over it to get more information, without opening an app or switching devices. You can adjust what type of information you see, and how it's displayed. The feed will also learn your preferences over time -- you can tell it which items you like or don't like seeing. If you have a Mac, it's similar to the widgets feature in MacOS Big Sur.
The taskbar news and interests update first rolled out to Windows Insiders in January.
Read more: You can still download Windows 10 for free, here's how
How to personalize your Windows 10 taskbar with news and interests
1. Once the update rolls out for you, you'll see an icon and text with the current weather in your area, along with other icons on news, sports, stocks and traffic. Hover over each to see more information.
2. To customize the topics you care about and which information cards you see, on each card, select More options and click More stories like this or Fewer stories like this. Use emoji to react to stories as well. You can also use the interest manager to directly indicate which topics you're interested in, as well as the sources you'd like to follow.
3. To turn off any of the icons, hover over the card and select the three dot menu, and then select Hide from the drop down. To bring the icon back, you'll need to go to Manage interests and then choose Manage Interests > Experience Settings. To see the changes, hit the Refresh button.
For more, check out how to use three of the newest Windows 10 features and our roundup of the best Windows 10 tips and tricks.