Skip to main content

Microsoft just made your Windows 10 Taskbar a lot more useful

Your Windows 10 taskbar is about to get a new look and feature that will help benefit your productivity. Coming over the next several weeks to Windows 10 is News and Interests, a feature that is designed to help you stay up to date by taking a glance at all the information that matters most to you.

Just like when it was in beta testing with Windows Insiders over the past few months, News and Interests lives in a new hover-over hub in the Taskbar that contains the weather. Hovering over the hub will reveal a curated mini collection of tiles with things that matter most to you, including the full weather forecast, top news stories, stocks, traffic, and even sports scores.

You don’t even need to click an app or open it — everything you need to know is right at your fingertips. That’s why Microsoft says the feature is the fastest way to stay up to date on your Windows 10 PC.

“It should be easy to catch up on the things we care about. Yet we’re often stuck juggling devices, jumping between websites, and looking across sources before getting what we’re looking for. News and interests on the Windows taskbar simplifies this process with a convenient and personalized experience centered around you,” said Microsoft’s Aaron Woodman.

Like the rest of Windows 10, News and Interests is fully customizable and can even be turned off. You can adjust the information cards in your experience, as well as how weather updates are shown. You can even opt to see the weather as an icon, or just as text.

Introducing news and interests on the Windows taskbar

For even more customization, you also can adjust which information cards you see, such as finance, sports, or traffic, to ensure that you only see what you care about. Customization options are available via the Microsoft News interests manager, which you can tweak to indicate which topics interest you, or which sources you want to follow.

Microsoft made some tweaks to News and Interests in the taskbar since it was first revealed and tested with Windows Insiders, including more personalization options, improved design, and expanded markets. Microsoft says it welcomes additional feedback from those who are using it.

Editors' Recommendations

Arif Bacchus
Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…
I hope Microsoft adds this rumored AI feature to Windows 11
A Windows 11 device sits on a table.

From smart speakers to ChatGPT and Bing Chat, AI has slowly crept into our lives, but not all instances of AI are as prominent as those three examples. Sometimes, the effect is subtle, but still pretty nice. It appears that Microsoft is working on one such instance of AI-enhanced tech that could make using Windows 11 just a little more pleasant. We're talking about AI-powered live wallpapers, and they might be coming soon.

First spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft is readying an AI-powered desktop that could make the whole user experience feel a lot more interactive. The idea is to adjust depth perception and make some backgrounds appear more "alive" when moving your cursor or the entire device. The wallpaper might move or shift, depending on what you're doing on the desktop.

Read more
Microsoft just made Outlook a lot easier to use
Outlook running on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 cover screen.

The Outlook app on the Z Flip 5 cover screen Joe Maring / Digital Trends

Microsoft’s popular email client and organizer Outlook will soon be getting an update that should allow users to send large files without encountering any errors. We first heard about the update last month, and per the Microsoft 365 road map website, Feature ID 156100 is going to enable Outlook users to upload files seamlessly, even when they come across email size restrictions.

Read more
Microsoft is removing a Windows app that’s almost 30 years old
Computer user touching on Microsoft word icon to open the program.

Microsoft is saying goodbye to WordPad, its long-supported rich text application, which will no longer receive updates as of September 1.

The brand recently announced that the app is now among its list of deprecated Windows features. Microsoft explained the difference between deprecation and removal, noting that the former is when a feature is at the end of its life cycle and is no longer in active development, and the latter is when a feature is removed after having been deprecated.

Read more