[German]The "News and interests" feature, recently introduced in Windows 10, is not only annoys some users. The feature is also so broken, and now Microsoft has confirmed some issues. Here's a look at the the detail of this topic.
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Review: "News and Interesting"
The new Windows 10 feature "News and interests" (often referred to as the Weather app) has been rolled out by Microsoft since April 2021 in Windows 10 (first in version 21H1, later in 20H2) via update. At first, Microsoft still tested the whole thing with Windows Insiders. But with preview update KB5003214 on May 26, 2021 for Windows 10 version 2004, 20H2, 21H1 and the Windows Server counterparts, all users who installed the update received this feature. With the June 8, 2021 cumulative (security) updates (update KB5003635 for Windows 10 V1909 and update KB5003635 for Windows 10 V2004 to 21H1, see Patchday: Windows 10 updates (June 8, 2021)), the feature forcefully landed on all systems (even Windows 10 Enterprise).
News and interests on the Windows taskbar, Source: Microsoft
An icon in the notification area of the taskbar displays the weather forecast and a feed with current headlines from news magazines. Within my German the blog there have already been controversial discussions regarding this feature, if I remember correctly, hardly anyone has welcomed this feature enthusiastically.
Bugs upon bugs annoy the users
Unfortunately, the new feature annoyed some users quite a bit due to the numerous bugs it contained. I had reported in the blog post June 2021 updates disrupt taskbar with 'News and Interests' as well as in other blog posts linked at the end of the article, how the new feature may cause the icons in the tray area of the taskbar to disappear.
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I had not addressed it here in the blog, but the days I stumbled upon the above tweet from Winbeta. In the associated article it was clearly expressed: the news and weather feed in the taskbar of Windows 10 is the purest mess. Besides the collateral damage issue in the taskbar mentioned above, the display is also garbage. Users complain that the weather icon in the taskbar is blurred. In the feedback hub, one user wrote:
The new feature is cool, but for some reason the text is very blurry at 100 percent scaling, but it's fine at 150%, along with 175% and 200%. The problem does not occur on my laptop with 125% scaling.
But the feature has other problems. Some users face localization problems, so information is displayed in the wrong language. Winbeta quotes one user as follows:
I'm in Finland and when I change the language it changes to English, but after a while it reverts back to Finnish. My device is set to English-US, the region from the Windows settings is the United States and there is no Finnish language pack or keyboard layout installed.
The Winbeta editorial team observed that the weather display was spinning and differed significantly from the weather that was visible when looking through the window. Of course, this could be because the weather services are wrong. According to WinBeta, other weather apps displayed the prevailing weather correctly. It fits perfectly: Microsoft lives in a parallel universe, where the weather is also different.
Microsoft admits to the bugs
Microsoft has acknowledged the bugs in the Windows 10 status area (thanks to my German user for the hint). They write now:
News and interests button on the Windows taskbar might have blurry text
After installing KB5001391 or later updates, the news and interests button in the Windows taskbar might have blurry text on certain display configurations.
Affected are all Windows 10 clients from version 1909 up to version 21H1. Microsoft is are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release. Well done.
Similar articles:
Disable and configure Windows 10 feature News and interests
Patchday: Windows 10-Updates (June 8, 2021)
Windows 10 21H1: StrangeTaskbar issues after update KB5003214
June 2021 updates disrupt taskbar with 'News and Interesting'
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news and interests problems recently fixed for 1909 with KB5003698 update.
for 2004, 20H2 & 21H1 users – the upcoming KB5003690 update will resolve that problem but is currently in the beta & RC channels for insiders.
deskmodder.de recently mentioned about the KB5003690 preview update:
https://www.deskmodder.de/blog/2021/06/18/kb5003690-manueller-download-nicht-sicherheitsrelevantes-update-fuer-windows-10-21h1-20h2-und-2004-1904x-1081/
it's still broken Windows 10 22H2 in 10/04/2023