Microsoft on Thursday announced that it would soon begin rolling out its new “News and Interests” Taskbar feature to Windows 10 users on version 1909, 2004, 20H2, and 21H1 in the coming weeks.
“As people spend more time on their Windows PCs, working, learning, connecting, and creating, we’re making it easier to access personalized content that is available at a glance and updated throughout the day,” Microsoft said in the announcement.
“News and interests on the Windows taskbar simplifies this process with a convenient and personalized experience centered around you.”
The feature will provide live updates about the current weather conditions on the taskbar. For more details at a glance, simply hover over the weather icon to see additional details on the weather.
It will also show concise as well as “snackable” updates on news, sports, stocks, and traffic without requiring users to open any apps.
You can click on a story to open a streamlined reading experience to save time and stay focused. If you see something you are interested in but don’t have time to read through it, you can save it for later or share it.
Further, you can adjust which information cards are included in your experience and how weather updates are displayed. The weather can be shown as an icon with text or as an icon only if you want to save taskbar space. You can also adjust which information cards – weather, finance, sports, traffic – are included, ensuring you are just seeing content you care about. In case, if you are not interested in any of this information, you can simply turn off the icon.
You can manage your interests by personalizing the content that is displayed. Using the interest manager, you can directly indicate the topics you are interested in, or select the content sources from our content ecosystem that you would like to follow. Once you are done, you will see changes reflected within news and interests.
Although news and interests on the Windows taskbar will begin rolling out to customers over the next several weeks, Microsoft says it will be taking a “phased and measured approach”. This means it will take a few months before it is made broadly available.
