Hands on with Windows 10’s brand new taskbar feature update

After one month break, Microsoft has finally started experimenting with new features for Windows 10. With Windows 10 21H2 Build 21286, Microsoft is bringing a new feature called “News and Interests” to the taskbar, which means that you can soon start reading news headlines in a matter of clicks.

The “News and Interests” feature is built on top of Windows Search and Cortana, and it is supposed to deliver content personalized for each user.

This feed can be accessed when you hover over the weather icon on the taskbar and it would be enabled by default in Windows 10. Also, the news feed cannot be removed or disabled completely because it’s built into the Windows Shell and it has roots in Windows Search/Cortana.

A closer look at taskbar’s new feature

This new taskbar provides access to “dynamic content” when you hover over the icon and you can click on the link to open the website in Microsoft Edge.

You can choose to hide the weather report on the taskbar and use a small icon to access the news feed, or you can also remove the icon.

Microsoft says users can browse the feed to view headlines on popular topics, such as sports, weather, entertainment, politics, and more. If you don’t like your current feed, you can open MSN and change your content preference.

While Microsoft account is not required, it’s still recommended for the best experience.

As you can see in the above screenshot, you can also seamlessly customize your content preference by clicking on the three dots button. For example, you can choose “More stories like this” or “Fewer stories like this”. You can also click on the ‘x’ button to quickly close the news tile and block all news contents from a particular publisher.

You can use emoji to react to stories, too.

The taskbar feed is still in the early phase of development and Microsoft is currently experimenting with at least 7 variants that would change the interface, feed, and animations.

It’s likely that this feature will be shipped to everyone via a monthly mandatory cumulative update or new feature experience pack if it passes the quality standards.