The new Weather&News taskbar feature in Windows 10 is awesome

 I will be honest with you, the first time I read about Microsoft introducing a weather&news feature in the taskbar I was quite skeptical about it. I mean, I already had quick access to the dedicated News app and to the dedicated Weather app just by clicking the start button in taskbar. 

But boy was I wrong! I had recently installed the latest optional update for Windows 21H1, which comes with the taskbar weather&news functionality. In my head, I wouldn't have seen it as something practical, but that took a 360 turn once I saw it being there with my own eyes. It's perfect! 

Why is this taskbar widget so useful?

I no longer have to unlock my smartphone or open my room's window to see current weather conditions. Now I can take a quick glance at my laptop's screen while dressing up, so that I never have to wear again shorts when it's about to rain or wear heavy jeans when the temperature outside is 30C+. 

Going further than the Weather

The built-in News app of Windows 10 is very useful and entertaining, but it's also quite complicated to set up and browse through. However, with the help of this little widget, you no longer have to interact with the standalone News app. Now you can just hover your mouse or click on the weather widget and you will see the hottest recent news from various sources such as National Geographic, MSN, plus traffic information for your area, stock market details and many more. It's truly a blessing.

Top international news

Right now I just came across a News headlight that read "Autonomous Robots already started killing people in wars" and thought to myself "Oh boy, we kind of got too far". Oh yes, and you can react to News articles with various emojis including Anger, Surprise or Upset.

Final words

I can see this new Windows 10 widget being extremely useful for anyone out there, even for those who are only beginners regarding English language. Being able to see temperature, weather conditions and traffic information in your taskbar is truly excellent to have. 

I noticed some people having issues with this recent update, so if you know that your laptop struggled with updates in the past, I suggest waiting few months before installing this update. But if you never had update issues or your laptop is relatively new (1-2 years old), then I definitely recommend installing this new optional update.

Please note that you will have to first install Feature Update to 21H1, and only after that you will see an Optional Cumulative Update for 21H1. This last optional cumulative update is the one your laptop needs to display weather and news in taskbar. Some laptop models and countries are not supported yet, so if you don't see it, then you will have to wait for a while more.