Microsoft is finally giving up on the MSN news feed that has been clogging up the widgets feature in Windows 11 like an unwanted subscription to a 1990s AOL newsletter. After allowing users to manually disable the feed more than two years ago - a move that required the kind of deep-dive menu navigation usually reserved for configuring obscure network settings - Microsoft says it will now hide it by default as part of an effort to make widgets “quiet by default.”

“We’re working to make Widgets feel less distracting and overwhelming by making the experience quiet by default,” said Microsoft, in what sounds like a belated apology for years of digital noise pollution. To achieve this, the company is testing a new set of default settings designed to reduce unexpected alerts and visual interruptions - basically, they're finally listening to the millions of users who screamed “get this out of my face” into the void.

Specifically, Microsoft is planning to disable the widgets panel from opening when you hover over its taskbar item, turn off distracting taskbar badges by default, and ensure the widgets panel opens to actual widgets instead of the MSN feed. They’ll also limit taskbar alerts until you choose to engage with the widgets experience, which is corporate-speak for “we’ll stop shoving stock updates and weather notifications at you like a pushy street vendor.”

These changes should make the taskbar a little less annoying, especially since the widgets section often featured notifications for stocks, weather, or MSN news by default. Hopefully, this will transform widgets into a useful part of the operating system rather than something users actively avoid like a relative who only forwards chain emails. The improvements are part of Microsoft’s broader effort to polish Windows 11, which also includes removing unnecessary Copilot buttons from apps, modernizing the Run prompt, fixing File Explorer performance, and reducing the memory footprint of Windows. The changes will roll out monthly throughout 2026, giving users plenty of time to practice patience.