Microsoft is rolling out the taskbar notification system for its Windows 11 widgets this week. While the weather widget made its way back to Windows 11 earlier this year, it’s largely been a static experience that displays a sunny icon when the weather is fine and an umbrella icon when it’s raining and nasty outside. All of that will change this week, as Microsoft is now adding live animations to this taskbar widget.
All Windows 11 users will start seeing these new gadget notifications in the coming days and weeks, thanks to an update to the Windows Web Experience Pack that supports Microsoft’s gadget feature. Notifications appear as live animations on the weather widget on the taskbar and include thunderstorm alerts and even stock alerts when the stock you’re tracking goes up or down.
“When something important happens involving one of your other widgets, you may see a notification from that widget on your taskbar,” Microsoft explains in a support article. . “These notifications are meant to be quick and viewable, and if you don’t interact with them, the taskbar will revert back to showing you the weather.”
I’ve seen some of these notifications in recent days on my Windows 11 machine, and they can be quite distracting – especially if you put the taskbar in the middle. While weather information is useful for alerting you to thunderstorms and other natural elements that you want to avoid, in my experience, stock warnings are much less common. You can just ignore the notifications and the taskbar widget will revert to a static weather state, but the animations are sure to grab your attention if you’re in the middle of a meeting or you’re busy searching. understand why my VLOOKUP table is not working in Excel.
Microsoft also doesn’t seem to offer a way to disable these notifications easily. I want to keep the weather alerts but get rid of the built-in animations and any other notifications so that my taskbar is a little less distracting. Since we can fine-tune the news content inside the main widget panel, I’m hoping that a setting to tweak the widget notifications is on the way.
Speaking of future Windows 11 updates, Microsoft is also planning to release the next major operating system update on September 20. Windows 11 22H2 will include new application folders in the Start menu. head, drag and drop on the taskbar, new touch gestures and more.
