News and interests on the taskbar will begin rolling out to Windows 10 users on April 22, 2021.

UPDATE 5/25: News and interests on the taskbar is now available to anyone who installs the KB5003214 update.

News and interests on the taskbar provides easy access to information that’s important to you, without the distraction of switching between apps, websites, and other devices. View your location’s current weather conditions directly on your taskbar and hover over the icon to see concise, scannable information from sports and stocks to local news and breaking headlines.

The information shown in news and interests is personalized for individual users. Users can customize the content they see, enabling scenarios like the following:

• Keep an eye on nearby weather and traffic that may impact a commute.
  To change the location shown for weather and traffic updates, select More options (…) on the Weather or Traffic card, and select Edit Location.
• Follow a topic related to professional or personal interests.
  Follow a specific topic related to an industry, job role, or subject to learn more about. To follow a specific topic, select Manage Interests and select or search for a topic.
• Get personalized updates on stocks.
  Keep an eye on major market indicators, see top gainers or losers, or create a watch list of stocks to see updates throughout the day.
• Share, save or see more stories.
  Select More options (…) on headlines and articles in news and interests on the taskbar to share them with others or save them to read later. Users can also request to see more or fewer stories like the ones shown.

In addition, the appearance of news and interests on the taskbar can be customized. Users can choose to right click or long press a blank space on the taskbar and select News and interests to customize. They can choose Show icon and text or, to save taskbar space, select Show icon only. Users can also select Turn off to unpin news and interests.

See also:

• Stay up to date with news and interests | Microsoft Support
• Personalized content at a glance: Introducing news and interests on the Windows 10 taskbar | Windows Blogs
• Group configuration: news and interests on the Windows taskbar | Windows IT Pro Blog
• Policy CSP - NewsAndInterests | Microsoft Docs

Microsoft has made a Enable news and interests on the taskbar group policy setting available that specifies whether news and interests is allowed on the device.

• Not configured - Default setting. Same as Enabled.
• Enabled – News and interests will be allowed on the taskbar. The News and interests settings UI will be present in the Taskbar context menu, and users will be able to turn it on or off or switch modes.
• Disabled – News and interests will be turned off (disabled) completely, and the News and interests settings UI in the Taskbar context menu will be removed.

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the news and interests on taskbar feature for all users in Windows 10.

The GPO in this tutorial will only work if you already have the News and interests feature available.

To access the policy for news and interests on the taskbar, on a device that has installed the April 2021 Cumulative Update Preview (or May 2021 quality update), navigate to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions and locate the file called Feeds.admx. For your convenience, we have also published an updated version of the Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10, version 20H2 to the Microsoft Download Center.

You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable the news and interests feature.

The News and interests feature requires the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser to be installed on your PC.

News and interests is only available on the primary monitor taskbar and where the taskbar is aligned to the bottom of the screen.

If you are using a 3rd party firewall, you will need to allow: C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy\SearchApp.exe

Contents

• Option One: Enable or Disable News and Interests on Taskbar in Local Group Policy Editor
• Option Two: Enable or Disable News and Interests on Taskbar using a REG File

EXAMPLE: News and Interests on taskbar

OPTION ONE

Enable or Disable News and Interests on Taskbar in Local Group Policy Editor

The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Two below.

1 Open the Local Group Policy Editor.

2 In the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor, click/tap on to expand Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and News and interests. (see screenshot below)

3 In the right pane of News and interests, double click/tap on the Enable news and interests on the taskbar policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4 Do step 5 (enable) or step 6 (disable) below for what you would like to do.

5 To Enable News and Interests on Taskbar for All Users

A) Select (dot) Not Configured or Enabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

Not Configured is the default setting.

6 To Disable News and Interests on Taskbar for All Users

A) Select (dot) Disabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

7 When finished, you can close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.

8 Either restart the explorer.exe process, sign out and sign in, or Restart the computer to apply.

OPTION TWO

Enable or Disable News and Interests on Taskbar using a REG File

1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.

2 To Enable News and Interests on Taskbar for All Users

This is the default setting.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Enable_News_and_Interests_on_taskbar_feature_for_all_users.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\NewsAndInterests\AllowNewsAndInterests]
"value"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Feeds]
"EnableFeeds"=dword:00000001

3 To Disable News and Interests on Taskbar for All Users

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Disable_News_and_Interests_on_taskbar_feature_for_all_users.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\NewsAndInterests\AllowNewsAndInterests]
"value"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Feeds]
"EnableFeeds"=dword:00000000

4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 Either restart the explorer.exe process, sign out and sign in, or Restart the computer to apply.

8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.[/INDENT]


That's it,
Shawn Brink

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