7 ms·

It's just three clicks to disable widgets, "Right click taskbar, select taskbar settings, click on slider to turn widgets off".

by mikub 4y ago

LoganDark 4y ago
That does not disable widgets. That only hides the button that toggles it. (Edit 29 minutes after, because I can't seem to post anymore:) It still runs its webview in the background and can be toggled with the keyboard shortcut, Win+W, even if the button is hidden. In order to fully disable it you need a Group Policy or a registry hack.
- binbag 4y ago
  What's the practical difference?
  - numbsafari 4y ago
    Having a web view loading garbage in the background consuming resources and probably leaking your data vs. …none of that?
    - recfab 4y ago
      It consumes a fair amount of resources just idling. I'm currently using a laptop that was mid-to-low spec when I got it a couple years ago. It was chugging, especially during video calls. Uninstalling the Widgets feature was enough to make it useable again.
  - makeitdouble 4y ago
    You still get the widgets in some interactions (like left swipe from the edge of the screen). There must be a way somewhere to customize those as well, but getting rid of widgets altogether is a lot faster.
- mikub 4y ago
  Good to know, thanks for that.
- crimsontech 4y ago
  As a mac user it’s super frustrating because this is the shortcut to close a window so I see this widget flyout constantly. I need to figure out a way to remap it but not having admin on my corporate machine I have little hope.
  - LoganDark 4y ago
    As another macOS user, it's absolutely insane how much worse Windows has been allowed to get over the years, and I sincerely wish that my mid-2015 MBP had never broken, because this is still absolutely awful even after almost 2 years of getting re-acquainted with an OS that I had already used for 7 years before my first Mac. macOS was just too good.
skrebbel 4y ago
I’ve seen those screenshots too, I spent hours googling for this. But that setting is not available on my Windows. Maybe a pro vs home thing? I’m on the latest version. I don’t believe that this is by accident, I think MS decided that I’m in some customer segment that’s not allowed to not know that Jimmy Fallon might be depressed. And even then, I can’t get the widgets feature, a pretty decent idea, without the news. I want to turn off the news, not the feature.
- mikub 4y ago
  I have Win11 Pro and it really is just those three clicks.
  - skrebbel 4y ago
    I’m not going to pay MS even more just to get a version that has a “please disable this one specific bit of crap” toggle. This has got to be the worst upsell ever. It’s like you book a hotel room and the TV is on Fox News and you can’t turn the TV off. You ask around but everybody says that they can turn it off just fine, must be you. Turns out that they’re all in the executive suite and they also have Fox News on the TV, turned on by default when they enter the room, but for them the hotel didn’t hide the remote.
    - grugagag 4y ago
      Can’t stop laughing, it’s a funny analogy. Im trying to find a case where the user would be okay with that but not even the staunchest fox news fan would be okay with it. I really hate this model where windows is free but infested by ads you can’t get away from. The other day someone came over to me asking if they should get a windows laptop upgrade and I recommending them getting a mac
      - RajT88 4y ago
        Fox News fans would love it if a hotel (or all hotels) turned Fox News on and hid the remotes. If you have a TV in a public place people are always trying to put Fox News on. It is not because of those businesses.
flir 4y ago
Do you happen to know how to disable the page of clickbait I get every time I open a new tab in Edge? I tried setting my "Home" to Google, but that doesn't seem to do it.
- sphars 4y ago
  This worked for me when I used edge > 1 year ago, it may still work: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/new-tab-redirect/icpgjfneehieebagbmdbhnlpiopdcmna https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/new-tab-redirect/i... and set my new tabs to https://aboutblank.page https://aboutblank.page Also it's open source: https://github.com/jimschubert/newtab-redirect https://github.com/jimschubert/newtab-redirect The only way AFAIK to change the new tab is an extension
  - pseudalopex 4y ago
    You can't set it to about:blank?
    - sphars 4y ago
      It's been a while since I've used the extension (I use FF now) and I can't recall if you can set it to about:blank. Disclaimer, I created https://aboutblank.page https://aboutblank.page because in some browsers, about:blank was a default white page, and ignored the OS dark mode setting. My site respects the prefers-color-scheme setting, or you can set it to whatever color you want via a query string (see https://github.com/sphars/about-blank/#usage https://github.com/sphars/about-blank/#usage)
    - flir 4y ago
      You can set "Home" to anything you want, but apparently Home isn't what happens when you open a new tab any more, it's what happens when you click the Home button. It's pretty icky, and being stuck on this Windows work laptop is shortening the time I'll spend in this gig.
- rr808 4y ago
  Agree this is a bigger problem for me. Its usually temping clickbait and I end up clicking some of the links and getting distracted.

It's just three clicks to disable widgets, "Right click taskbar, select taskbar settings, click on slider to turn widgets off".

by mikub 4y ago

It's just three clicks to disable widgets, "Right click taskbar, select taskbar settings, click on slider to turn widgets off".

LoganDark 4y ago

That does not disable widgets. That only hides the button that toggles it. (Edit 29 minutes after, because I can't seem to post anymore:) It still runs its webview in the background and can be toggled with the keyboard shortcut, Win+W, even if the button is hidden. In order to fully disable it you need a Group Policy or a registry hack.

binbag 4y ago
What's the practical difference?
- numbsafari 4y ago
  Having a web view loading garbage in the background consuming resources and probably leaking your data vs. …none of that?
  - recfab 4y ago
    It consumes a fair amount of resources just idling. I'm currently using a laptop that was mid-to-low spec when I got it a couple years ago. It was chugging, especially during video calls. Uninstalling the Widgets feature was enough to make it useable again.
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  You still get the widgets in some interactions (like left swipe from the edge of the screen). There must be a way somewhere to customize those as well, but getting rid of widgets altogether is a lot faster.
mikub 4y ago
Good to know, thanks for that.
crimsontech 4y ago
As a mac user it’s super frustrating because this is the shortcut to close a window so I see this widget flyout constantly. I need to figure out a way to remap it but not having admin on my corporate machine I have little hope.
- LoganDark 4y ago
  As another macOS user, it's absolutely insane how much worse Windows has been allowed to get over the years, and I sincerely wish that my mid-2015 MBP had never broken, because this is still absolutely awful even after almost 2 years of getting re-acquainted with an OS that I had already used for 7 years before my first Mac. macOS was just too good.

skrebbel 4y ago

I’ve seen those screenshots too, I spent hours googling for this. But that setting is not available on my Windows. Maybe a pro vs home thing? I’m on the latest version. I don’t believe that this is by accident, I think MS decided that I’m in some customer segment that’s not allowed to not know that Jimmy Fallon might be depressed. And even then, I can’t get the widgets feature, a pretty decent idea, without the news. I want to turn off the news, not the feature.

mikub 4y ago
I have Win11 Pro and it really is just those three clicks.
- skrebbel 4y ago
  I’m not going to pay MS even more just to get a version that has a “please disable this one specific bit of crap” toggle. This has got to be the worst upsell ever. It’s like you book a hotel room and the TV is on Fox News and you can’t turn the TV off. You ask around but everybody says that they can turn it off just fine, must be you. Turns out that they’re all in the executive suite and they also have Fox News on the TV, turned on by default when they enter the room, but for them the hotel didn’t hide the remote.
  - grugagag 4y ago
    Can’t stop laughing, it’s a funny analogy. Im trying to find a case where the user would be okay with that but not even the staunchest fox news fan would be okay with it. I really hate this model where windows is free but infested by ads you can’t get away from. The other day someone came over to me asking if they should get a windows laptop upgrade and I recommending them getting a mac
    - RajT88 4y ago
      Fox News fans would love it if a hotel (or all hotels) turned Fox News on and hid the remotes. If you have a TV in a public place people are always trying to put Fox News on. It is not because of those businesses.

flir 4y ago

Do you happen to know how to disable the page of clickbait I get every time I open a new tab in Edge? I tried setting my "Home" to Google, but that doesn't seem to do it.

sphars 4y ago
This worked for me when I used edge > 1 year ago, it may still work: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/new-tab-redirect/icpgjfneehieebagbmdbhnlpiopdcmna https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/new-tab-redirect/i... and set my new tabs to https://aboutblank.page https://aboutblank.page Also it's open source: https://github.com/jimschubert/newtab-redirect https://github.com/jimschubert/newtab-redirect The only way AFAIK to change the new tab is an extension
- pseudalopex 4y ago
  You can't set it to about:blank?
  - sphars 4y ago
    It's been a while since I've used the extension (I use FF now) and I can't recall if you can set it to about:blank. Disclaimer, I created https://aboutblank.page https://aboutblank.page because in some browsers, about:blank was a default white page, and ignored the OS dark mode setting. My site respects the prefers-color-scheme setting, or you can set it to whatever color you want via a query string (see https://github.com/sphars/about-blank/#usage https://github.com/sphars/about-blank/#usage)
  - flir 4y ago
    You can set "Home" to anything you want, but apparently Home isn't what happens when you open a new tab any more, it's what happens when you click the Home button. It's pretty icky, and being stuck on this Windows work laptop is shortening the time I'll spend in this gig.
rr808 4y ago
Agree this is a bigger problem for me. Its usually temping clickbait and I end up clicking some of the links and getting distracted.