Microsoft has fixed the blurry weather widget in the Windows 10 taskbar

Earlier this year, Microsoft introduced a new feature to the Windows 10 taskbar called News and Interests. It’s a widget that acts much lik...

Earlier this year, Microsoft introduced a new feature to the Windows 10 taskbar called News and Interests. It’s a widget that acts much like the Google Discover feed on Android phones, so unsurprisingly, some may find it useful while others will think it’s bloatware. Even among those who are making good use of it, though, the taskbar icon may be a bit of an eyesore due to how blurry it looks on some setups. Thankfully, a new Windows 10 update is available that addresses the problem.

So what’s the deal with this blurry weather widget? Why is it blurry? Why didn’t anyone care before it was pushed to everyone? Why does it open the wrong browser?

— garry (@garrynewman) June 11, 2021

The blurry weather widget may not be noticeable to all users, but the higher your display’s resolution and the lower your UI scaling, the more you’re likely to notice it. Windows 10 Insiders have complained about this issue for months now, but thanks to the feature reaching the mainstream earlier this month, enough of a stink was raised to get Microsoft’s attention. The optional Windows 10 build 19043.1081 is now available to install, and it includes the following line in the changelog: “Updates an issue that causes blurry text on the news and interests button on the Windows taskbar for some screen resolutions.”

The weather widget in the taskbar of Windows 10. It looks fine on my QHD monitor.

I’m happy this issue has finally been fixed, but I’m questioning how this wasn’t noticed before it rolled out to everybody. The blurry icon sticks out like a sore thumb in the many screenshots I’ve seen online, so I’m surprised the issue wasn’t spotted before the stable rollout. In any case, it’s now fixed, but for those of you who don’t know, you can hide the icon entirely by right clicking on the taskbar and selecting “turn off” under “News and interests.” If you open the News and Interests widget and select “manage interests”, you can also disable certain components like the stock tracker, weather, and more.