Microsoft rolls out an update to your taskbar - Weather and News

[wall03]

It moved from Release Preview to the branch outside of that since the above was posted. Does it really deserve it's own post? Don't want to be a party pooper.

[WhitetailAni]

I've run into a bit of a problem with this - I don't have it!
I installed the update, it didn't appear.

So I restarted, still no.

Any thoughts? My Windows 10 install is MBR which has affected things before, but...

[Quackers101]

it's just like, "oh cool they will integrate systems into apps or tabs?" *moves you to bing all the time even when you don't want to*

Thanks microsoft, also for making the MAC OS just seem better and more useful.

[Guest]

Well now you know why your benchmark scores suck. XD

[starry]

What a time to be a linux user

[GoodBytes]

2 hours ago, duncannah said:

I'm guessing clicking on the news articles open them in Edge, no matter what you have installed. The same company that planned to hijack other browser installers... Now they added a constant reminder for Edge on the settings menu now.

Correct. It will open with Edge web browser. Whichever channel (release, dev, canary) you have installed and set as default.

 

[jagdtigger]

1 minute ago, starry said:

What a time to be a linux user

Yup, i have many vm's/machines with unattended upgrades enabled but none of them broke over the years from that (me poking around on the other hand, well thats a different story... ). Windows on the other hand needs 'sc delete wuauserv' to make sure it wont bork itself.....

[bcredeur97]

are they making any GPO's for this? 

[GoodBytes]

12 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

are they making any GPO's for this? 

Microsoft says that it is under:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > News and interests > Enable news and interests on the taskbar 

 

Source: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/group-configuration-news-and-interests-on-the-windows-taskbar/ba-p/2281005

I didn't find it on my side, but this is probably because I am under Insider program, and probably will show up in the coming up build, if it were my guess.

Or it is Enterprise/Education only GPO, not sure.

 

You will not lose your job for having the weather on the task bar, if that is what you wonder. XD

 

[bcredeur97]

2 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Microsoft says that it is under:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > News and interests > Enable news and interests on the taskbar 

 

Source: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/group-configuration-news-and-interests-on-the-windows-taskbar/ba-p/2281005

I didn't find it on my side, but this is probably because I am under Insider program, and probably will show up in the coming up build, if it were my guess.

Or it is Enterprise/Education only GPO, not sure.

 

You will not lose your job for having the weather on the task bar, if that is what you wonder. XD

 

no I won't. But It'll just cause a stir @ work lol. We keep windows very minimalistic

Guess they'll roll that policy out when they roll the next edition of WIndows Administrative templates out? Because like you said, windows definetly won't have it yet until they make it available to download/embed it in a new edition.

[GoodBytes]

49 minutes ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

Sounds better than it really is, just like People/Contacts on the taskbar. 
If we could remove the news section or at least select/blacklist sources it could have been better/more useful. 

You can blacklist news source. Just hit "..." on the news item and pick "Hide stories from <source name>".

They will never show up again.

 

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

Now try doing that for most media outlets they have listed. Way too much trouble. There should be an option list, where you just select/unselect everything and then pick the ones you want.

That is your opinion. Many sources it suggests on my side are those I trust. I only had to remove some crap garbage sources, set my interests, and that was about it... at least in my region.

[jagdtigger]

And as usual they screwed something simple as this.....

 

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, jagdtigger said:

And as usual they screwed something simple as this.....

 

It's amazing how bad Microsoft are at writing programs.

I don't really have sympathy for people who use their desktop as a dumping ground for random files, but since it's such common you'd think that Microsoft could optimize it a bit.

 

I am not sure if I'm missing something but that person is face palming at "News and Interests" doing queries to the web server synchronously. Why is that bad? I'd think that's the way to do it. 

[jagdtigger]

11 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Why is that bad?

You have to ask the dev about that one. If i had to guess knowing MS they probably botched it and somehow halts the boot process while this thing downloads things from a web server.....

 

[WolframaticAlpha]

On 4/22/2021 at 9:59 PM, GoodBytes said:

Microsoft is too excited to wait until the end of the year to release this new feature to all.

The company is releasing the Weather and News widget to Windows 10 users. It is an item on the taskbar showing you the current weather. Clicking on it will reveal a panel with additional information, as well as traffic information in your area, stocks information (you can set what you want to follow) and news.

 

News can be customized and sources can be filtered out via picking "..." button on each tile or clicking on "Manage Interest" button.

 

If you are not interested, you can remove it by simply right-clicking on the task bar and pick "News & interest" and pick "Turn off"

 

The update is coming to all in the coming month.

 

The Verge reports:

 

Microsoft reveal video:

 

Sources

https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/22/22397237/microsoft-windows-10-taskbar-weather-news-widget-feature-available-now

 

I have been using it since a few months, and I personally quite like it. I find it nice to have the convenience of the having the weather on the task bar, and while these days I care less about it due to work from home, I do like the fact that it gives your local traffic information around your area so that you can quickly plan out your outing ("Oh I should leave now, heavy traffic!", for example).

 

 

looks cool. More resource consumption though.

[GoodBytes]

4 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

And as usual they screwed something simple as this.....

 

No issue for me, and I have a 12 year old computer. I would have felt it, big time.

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

No issue for me, and I have a 12 year old computer. I would have felt it, big time.

It doesn't have to do with how new or old your PC has. It has to do with how many icons you got on your desktop.

The algorithm Windows uses to sort desktop icons (even if they are hidden for some reason) does not scale linearly. Going from 10 icons on your desktop to 20 icons on your desktop results in a 400% CPU usage increase.

 

Some people, quite a lot actually, uses their desktop as a dump for random files and once you start getting a somewhat decent amount of files in there, performance goes to shit. The sorting algorithm for icons also seems to be tied to explorer in some weird way where any lock up in sorting icons will impact other parts as well of the GUI, such as opening the start menu or, now apparently, seeing the weather and news.

 

So sorting icons on the desktop scales horribly poorly, and while Windows is sorting its icons it will lock up things like the start menu and weather and news.

That's the gist of it at least.