Hide News icon from taskbar on Windows 10 and above

On your Windows 11 devices when you select or hover your mouse on the Weather app icon in your taskbar, it opens the News and Interests window. From here you can see content covering the news, weather, traffic, and more.

You can use the following Custom Settings Payload to hide the News icon from the Windows taskbar so as to prevent the users from being distracted by this option and /or accessing any unauthorized websites through News and interests window.

Step 1: Create the Custom Payload

Copy the XML snippet below to a text editor like notepad++ or to any text editor.

<Replace>
  <CmdID>COMMAND_ID</CmdID>
  <Item>
    <Target>
      <LocURI>./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Feeds/FeedsEnabled</LocURI>
    </Target>
    <Meta><Format xmlns="syncml:metinf">int</Format></Meta>
    <Data>0</Data>
  </Item>
</Replace>

Step 2: Add Custom Settings to Device Profile

Use our document here to add the custom settings to the device profile and once the profile is updated, the configuration will be pushed to all managed devices in that profile.