The taskbar in Windows 10 is getting new weather and news widgets

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The taskbar in Windows 10 is getting some big changes soon, with new widgets for weather and news. If you’re a Windows Insider, you can get the new feature today, which brings feeds of stocks, news, and weather information straight from your taskbar, without needing third-party apps or opening a browser.

You can see it in action below, with a mini-feed that pops up, similar to the Start Menu but consisting of cards with news reports, weather, and other pertinent information.

Microsoft is leveraging its Microsoft News network to populate the headlines, which has over 4,500 sources to draw from. An AI curator that’s been trained over recent months picks the stories shown and will learn from which stories you open or dismiss so you get more relevant news from that point on.

If you’re a Windows Insider on the dev channel, you’ll likely see an update to bring the feature to you today, with a roll-out to all users worldwide later this year. During the testing phases, it will be limited to Windows Insiders in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and India.

Any link you click in the taskbar widget will open in Edge, with content opening in the reading view by default. It’s not clear if you’ll be able to set the widget to open in other browsers at this time, but you will be able to disable the widget if you prefer an uncluttered taskbar.

There is one prerequisite to using the new feature, the presence of Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browser. That shouldn’t be an issue for any user who keeps their system up to date, as the October 2020 update brought the Chromium-based Edge browser by default, removing the older, legacy version of Edge.

Have any thoughts on this? Would you use this feature on the Windows 10 taskbar? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.