Complete Guide to Disabling Widgets in Windows 11

Essential Information

• In Windows 11, you have the option to completely disable widgets, preventing them from appearing in the taskbar, lock screen, or with the Win+W shortcut.
• To do this, launch the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft. Right-click on ‘Microsoft’, create a new Key named Dsh, then create a DWORD (32-bit) value within it, setting its value to 0. Finally, restart your computer.

Windows widgets can be quite frustrating, particularly on the lock screen, where you may see all four Widget cards (Weather, Sports, Traffic, and Market data) or none at all. Disabling these widgets on the lock screen is straightforward; however, if your goal is to eliminate them completely from Windows 11, a simple registry adjustment can achieve that.

Steps to Completely Disable Widgets on Windows 11

Regardless of whether Widgets are activated in your taskbar settings, you can still access them using the Win+W combination. Accidental shortcuts can be bothersome, which makes a thorough removal of widgets preferable. Here’s a step-by-step method to disable widgets entirely on Windows 11.

Step 1: Access the Registry Editor.

Step 2: Navigate to the following path: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

Step 3: Right-click on the Microsoft key, choose New, and then select Key.

Step 4: Name the new key Dsh.

Step 5: Right-click in the empty space on the right side, select New, and then choose DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Step 6: Name this value AllowNewsAndInterests.

Step 7: Set the value data to 0.

Step 8: Restart your computer.

With these adjustments, widgets will no longer appear on your Windows 11 system; they will be absent from the taskbar and lock screen, and the Win+W shortcut will have no effect.

If you wish to restore the widgets at any point, simply revisit the Registry Editor and delete the Dsh key.