How to Disable Windows News and Interests Using Microsoft Intune

Start by logging into the Microsoft Intune admin center where you'll create the configuration profile to disable News and Interests across your organization.

Open your browser and navigate to the official Intune portal:

https://endpoint.microsoft.com

Sign in with your Global Administrator or Intune Administrator credentials. Once logged in, you'll see the main dashboard with various management options.

Navigate to the configuration profiles section where you'll create a new policy to manage the News and Interests feature.

In the left navigation pane, follow this path:

Devices > Configuration > Create > New policy

You'll be presented with a policy creation wizard. Select the following options:

• Platform: Windows 10 and later
• Profile type: Settings Catalog

Click Create to proceed to the next step. The Settings Catalog is the modern approach for configuring Windows policies and provides better search capabilities than traditional administrative templates.

Set up the basic information for your configuration profile with a clear, descriptive name that will help you identify it later.

Fill in the following fields on the Basics tab:

• Name: Disable News and Interests - Enterprise Policy
• Description: Centrally disables Windows News and Interests taskbar feature to maintain clean user interface across all managed devices
• Platform: Windows 10 and later (already selected)

Click Next to proceed to the configuration settings.

Now you'll search for and configure the specific policy setting that controls the News and Interests feature on Windows devices.

On the Configuration settings tab, click the + Add settings button. In the search box that appears, enter:

News and interests

From the search results, look for and select:

• Enable news and interests on the taskbar (for Windows 10)
• Allow widgets (for Windows 11, if managing mixed environments)

Once selected, you'll see the setting appear in your configuration. Set the value to:

• Not allowed or Disabled

If you're managing both Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices, add both settings and disable them both.

Assign the policy to specific groups of users or devices to control which systems receive this configuration.

Click Next to reach the Assignments tab. Here you have several options:

• Include: Select "All devices" for organization-wide deployment, or choose specific groups
• Exclude: Optionally exclude specific groups (like executives who might want to keep the feature)

For most enterprise deployments, you'll want to select:

Include: All devices

If you need more granular control, create device groups first by going to Devices > Device groups and then return to assign specific groups.

Review all your configuration settings before deploying the policy to ensure everything is configured correctly.

Click Next to reach the Review + create tab. Verify the following details:

• Policy name and description are correct
• Platform is set to "Windows 10 and later"
• News and Interests setting is disabled
• Assignment groups are correct

Once you've confirmed everything looks correct, click Create to deploy the policy.

The policy will now appear in your configuration profiles list with a status of "Pending" initially, then "Succeeded" once deployed.

Track the deployment status to ensure the policy is successfully applied to your target devices.

From the Configuration profiles list, click on your newly created policy to view its details. You'll see several tabs including:

• Overview: Shows deployment statistics
• Device status: Lists individual device compliance
• User status: Shows per-user deployment results

Monitor these sections to track deployment progress:

Succeeded: X devices
Error: X devices
Conflict: X devices
Not applicable: X devices

Click on any status category to see detailed information about specific devices.

Test the policy on actual Windows devices to confirm the News and Interests feature has been successfully disabled.

On a target Windows device, check the following locations:

Visual Verification:

• Look at the taskbar - the News and Interests widget should no longer be visible
• Right-click the taskbar - the "News and interests" option should be grayed out or missing

Settings Verification:

Open Windows Settings and navigate to:

Settings > Personalization > Taskbar

The "News and interests" toggle should be disabled and grayed out, indicating it's managed by policy.

Registry Verification:

Open Registry Editor and check:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Feeds\EnableFeeds = 0

Or for per-user settings:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Feeds\ShellFeedsTaskbarViewMode = 2

Address common problems that may prevent the policy from applying correctly to your managed devices.

Policy Not Applying:

• Verify devices are properly enrolled in Intune
• Check that devices are Entra ID joined or hybrid joined
• Confirm the policy is assigned to the correct groups
• Force a manual sync from the Intune portal

Manual Device Sync:

In the Intune admin center, navigate to:

Devices > All devices > [Select device] > Sync

Windows 11 Widgets Persist:

If managing Windows 11 devices, ensure you've also disabled the "Allow widgets" policy or use this OMA-URI setting:

OMA-URI: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Dsh/AllowNewsAndInterests
Data type: Integer
Value: 0

Registry Fallback for Testing:

For immediate testing, run this command as administrator:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Dsh" /v AllowNewsAndInterests /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f