This article explains how to disable weather widget on the Windows 11 taskbar. How to turn on or off the widget buttons on the left side of the Windows 11 taskbar The “Widgets” icon in Windows 11 can show the weather as well as alerts for sports, currency, and breaking news. Also, when you move your cursor over the icon, the Widgets dashboard opens, which is similar to the “News and Internets” widget on Windows 11.
You only have to hover over the icon for it to appear, and it may conflict with the workflow, in particular if you move the Start button to the left corner. The good news is that you can enable or disable the weather widget on Windows 11. Here’s how.
If you think the weather widget makes your taskbar too busy, you can turn it off in the taskbar settings. You can also disable the weather widget in Windows 11 via the Group Policy Editor and Registry Editor. Here, we’ll show you how to remove the weather widget from your computer.
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Remove Widgets icon from Taskbar
If you don’t like widgets, there are different methods to disable and remove them from the taskbar.
Turn Off Feature from Widgets Settings
To remove the Widgets weather icon from the Windows Taskbar, follow these steps:
Click on Windows button and open Settings.
Click on Personalization, and click on the Taskbar on the right side.
Under the “Taskbar Items” section, disable the Widgets toggle switch to disable the feature.
Turn on the Widgets toggle switch to enable the widget feature.
Once you finish the steps, the widget icon on the left side of the taskbar that shows the weather, sports, finances, and news will be removed. But you can still access the widgets via the keyboard Windows key + W shortcut.
How to Remove Weather Widget with Registry Editor
If you don’t want others to be able to turn on the weather widget on your computer, you can edit the Windows registry to disable it permanently. This will keep the Widget option grayed out in Windows Settings, which makes it impossible for other people to turn it on or off.
Note: Modifying the entries in the registry is risky. Make sure you create a restore point before you move on to the next steps.
To remove the weather widget via Registry Editor:
Press Win + R to open the Run box, type regedit, and choose OK to open the Registry Editor.
In the Windows Registry Editor, go to the following location:.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\
Right-click on Microsoft and choose New and then Key.
Rename the key as Dsh, right-click on Dsh, select New, and then DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Rename the new key as AllowNewsAndInterests.
Right-click on the AllowNewsAndInterests key and choose Modify.
Enter 0 under the Value data field and choose OK to save the changes.
Close the Registry Editor and reboot your computer. After rebooting, the weather widget will not appear anymore.
How to Disable Weather Widget with Group Policy Editor
The Group Policy Editor is another way to disable the weather widget. You can use it to set up and modify group policy settings for multiple users on Windows 11 pro and higher.
Using the Group Policy to turn off the Widgets icon from the Taskbar, follow these steps:
Open run command and type gpedit.msc to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
Go on the following path:
Computer Configuration / Administrative Template / Windows components / Widgets
Double-click on the “Allow widgets” policy from the right side.
Select the disabled option, click the Apply button, and then click the OK button.
Once you complete the steps, widgets will disappear from the Windows 11 Taskbar.
You can always revert the modification and turn on User Account Control again by following the same steps but changing the setting to “Not Configured.”
Refer to this article to learn more about how to turn off the weather widget.
