Widgets pop open by accident
How do I stop widgets from launching automatically when I move my mouse to the corner?
Written by The CommonFixes team · fact checked by CommonFixes review desk
Last updated
Short answer
Windows 11 opens the widgets board when the pointer simply rests over the weather button on the taskbar, with no click needed. That is on by default. There is a setting to require a click instead, and a separate one to remove the button altogether, and both live in different places, which is why people struggle to find them. The quickest thing to try first: stop it opening on hover — Right click the taskbar, choose Taskbar settings, expand Taskbar behaviours, and untick Open Widgets board on hover. If you still want widgets, this alone fixes the problem, because you then have to click the button on purpose. Most people are done in about 5 minutes.
Full walkthrough below: 6 steps for Windows, rated easy.
Sounds like this
- •A weather and news panel slides out when the pointer touches the corner of the taskbar
- •It covers what you were working on
- •It happens several times an hour and is thoroughly annoying
Why it happens
Windows 11 opens the widgets board when the pointer simply rests over the weather button on the taskbar, with no click needed. That is on by default. There is a setting to require a click instead, and a separate one to remove the button altogether, and both live in different places, which is why people struggle to find them.
Work through these in order
0% done- 1
Stop it opening on hover
Right click the taskbar, choose Taskbar settings, expand Taskbar behaviours, and untick Open Widgets board on hover. If you still want widgets, this alone fixes the problem, because you then have to click the button on purpose.
- 2
Remove the button completely
In the same Taskbar settings page, at the top under Taskbar items, switch Widgets off. The weather disappears from the corner and nothing can slide out any more.
- 3
Turn off the notification badges as well
Open Settings, Personalisation, Taskbar, and if you kept widgets on, click the widgets entry to turn off Show notification badges and Show announcements. These are what make the button flash with news headlines and tempt you into hovering over it.
- 4
Uninstall the widgets app if you never want it back
Right click Start, choose Terminal (Admin), and run winget uninstall MicrosoftWindows.Client.WebExperience. It removes the widgets feature entirely. A future Windows feature update may put it back, in which case run the same command again.
- 5
Block it on a work or Pro machine
Press Windows and R, type gpedit.msc, then go to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Widgets, and set Allow widgets to Disabled. Restart. This keeps it off through updates, which the other methods do not always manage.
- 6
Check it is not the news taskbar feed on Windows 10
On Windows 10 the same nuisance is called News and interests. Right click the taskbar, hover News and interests, and choose Turn off. There is also an Open on hover option in the same menu you can untick instead.
If none of that worked
If the panel comes back after a big Windows update, the settings were reset rather than ignored. Redo the taskbar switch, and if you use Pro, the group policy setting is the one that survives updates.
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