How to Disable Widgets in Windows 11

Sadique Hassan•Updated Nov 25, 2021

In this guide, we will show you the detailed steps to disable widgets on your Windows 11 PC. There have been quite a few noteworthy additions to the latest OS build this time around. Among them, it’s the major re-design that has managed to grab away most of the limelight. Be it the Taskbar, Start Menu, or the Settings page, all of them have been blessed with some UI tweaks. Likewise, the Widgets section has welcomed a truckload of new and intriguing changes.

However, no matter how many revamp it undergoes, it would still remain unattended at one corner of my screen. And I guess I’m not the only one out there. Not only is it futile for most of the users, the fact that it ends up consuming an astronomical amount of system resources only makes the matter worse. In this regard, Windows has given an option to hide the widgets via the Settings > Personalization > Taskbar. However, doing so will only put the papers over the cracks.

This is because all the processes and services of Widgets would still be carrying out their functionalities in the background. And in the process, would continue to devour a major chunk of memory. So to overcome this, you have two different approaches in hand- either bid it adieu for good (aka uninstall) or disable it. As far as this guide is concerned, we will be focusing on the latter method. So without further ado, let’s get started with the steps to disable widgets on your Windows 11 PC.

Table of Contents

How to Disable Widgets in Windows 11

There exist two different methods through which you could carry out the said task- via Local Group Policy Editor and via the Registry Editor. We have listed both these methods below. You may try out the one that is in sync with your requirement. [Or if you wish to take a more aggressive approach, then check out our guide on How to Uninstall Widgets in Windows 11.]

Method 1: Disable Widgets Via Local Group Policy Editor

First off, if you are using the Windows 11 Home Edition, then you will have to enable Group Policy Editor on your PC. On the other hand, it might already be enabled in the Enterprise and Professional Editions, so they may directly move over to the next step.

To begin with, open the Run dialog box via Windows+R shortcut keys.
Then type in the below command and hit Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor on your PC
```
gpedit.msc
```
After that, go to the following location from the left-hand menu bar:
```
Local Group Policy Editor > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Widgets
```
Once you have reached the Widgets folder, double click on the Allow Widgets file situated on the right-hand side.
Then select Disabled from the list and click Apply > OK to save the changes.
Finally, restart your PC for the change to be implemented. To be on the safer side, let’s manually implement it as well.
So head over to the Start Menu, search Command Prompt and launch it as an administrator.
Now type in the below command and hit Enter to force implement the change to the policy that we have made:
```
gpupdate /force
```

That’s it. These were the steps to disable the widgets in Windows 11 using the Local Group Policy Editor method. Let’s now check how the same could be achieved via the Registry Editor.

Method 2: Disable Widgets Using Registry Editor

Bring up the Run dialog box via Windows+R shortcut keys.
Then type in the below command and hit Enter. This shall open the Registry Editor.
```
regedit
```
Now copy-paste the below location in the address bar and hit Enter:
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft
```
Right-click on the Microsoft key, select New > Key and name it Dsh.
Now select this Dsh key, go to the right-hand side, right-click in an empty location, and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Name this value AllowNewsAndInterests and click OK to save it.
After this, double click this file to open it, type in 0 in the Value Data field, and hit OK to save it.

That’s it. This is how you could disable widgets in Windows 11 via Registry Editor. If you have any queries concerning the aforementioned steps, do let us know in the comments. We will get back to you with a solution at the earliest.

How to Re-Enable Widgets in Windows 11

If at any point in time there’s a change in plan and you wish to re-enable the widgets on your Windows 11 PC, then there are again two different methods for the same. Refer to the one that you initially used to disable the widgets in the first place.

Method 1: Re-Enable Widgets via Group Policy Editor

Open Run via Windows+R shortcut keys, type in the below command, and hit Enter to open Group Policy Editor
```
gpedit.msc
```

Now go to the following location from the left menu of Group Policy Editor:

Local Group Policy Editor > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Widgets

Once you reach the Widgets folder, double click on the Allow Widgets file to open it.
Then select Enabled and click Apply > OK to save it. After that restart your PC for the change to take place.
Finally, launch CMD as an admin and execute the below command to manually force-implement the change right away
```
gpupdate /force
```
That’s it, these were the steps to re-enable widgets in Windows 11 via the Local Group Policy Editor. Let’s now check how it could be done via Registry Editor.

Method 2: Re-Enable Widgets via Registry Editor

To begin with, launch Registry Editor from the Start Menu.
Then copy-paste the below location in the address bar and hit Enter:
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft
```
After that, right-click on the Dsh file and select Delete.
Finally, click YES in the confirmation dialog box and the widgets stand enabled.

So with this, we round off the guide on how you could disable and re-enable widgets in Windows 11. If you have any queries on how to disable or re-enable Widgets in Windows 11, then do drop them in the comments section below.

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