Microsoft has launched new Windows 11 preview builds today that come with a very interesting change designed to make the OS lighter and less noisy. Starting with today’s preview build, the Widgets Panel will hide the MSN feed by default, instead prioritizing the dedicated and customizable Widgets interface.
“We’re working to make Widgets feel less distracting and overwhelming by making the experience quiet by default,” says Microsoft in a blog post published today.
Microsoft is also changing some of the default behaviors around the Widgets Panel too. No longer will the panel open automatically when you hover over the weather icon on the Taskbar, and the icon itself will only show the weather unless you specify that you want to to show other information such as stocks.
Here are the changes being made:
- Disabling Open on hover by default
- Turning off taskbar badging by default
- Opening to widgets experience on first launch
- Limiting taskbar alerts until you choose to open and engage with the Widgets experience
This change is part of Microsoft’s larger Windows K2 effort, which is a project that was put together in the second half of last year that’s tackling Windows 11’s biggest issues. Feedback from users is being addressed, and the company has confirmed that it’s moving to reduce ads, AI, and bloat across the OS as part of this initiative.
Making it so the MSN feed no longer appears by default will go a long way to helping reduce the number of ads that appear in the OS out of the box. Now, users will have to manually set the MSN feed to be the default view if they want to see ads or stories in the Widget Panel.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.