Microsoft is testing a fresh update to the Windows 11 widgets panel that replaces the traditional MSN feed with a new AI-powered feature called Copilot Discover. This innovative redesign aims to deliver a cleaner, faster, and smarter news and information experience right on your desktop.
AI-Curated Stories for a Personalized Feed
The core enhancement in Copilot Discover is its AI-driven curation. Stories shown in the feed are tailored based on users’ interests and their interactions with Microsoft’s Copilot assistant. Unlike the previous MSN feed, Copilot Discover presents news in large, legible boxes with clear text and smooth animations that make scrolling more enjoyable.
Although the articles still link to the MSN website, the refreshed layout significantly reduces clutter and improves readability. Users can interact with each story through options such as upvoting or downvoting content relevance, bookmarking for later reading, and choosing to follow or block specific media outlets. Videos embedded in stories play automatically when users hover over them, providing a more engaging preview.
Enhanced Notifications and Customization
A new Notifications button sits at the top of the feed, highlighting breaking news, weather updates, and stock market changes. Users can customize these alerts, enabling or disabling notifications according to their preferences—such as turning off stock market updates if they prefer.
Future Improvements and Widget Management Changes
Microsoft’s testing also includes reading stories directly within the widget panel, eliminating the need for opening a separate browser window. This feature promises a smoother, faster reading experience.
Additionally, the widgets themselves are being reorganized. A dedicated Widgets tab, accessible from the panel’s top left corner, now hosts most widgets, moving them out of the main feed. The only widget that remains on the main page is the weather widget, which no longer supports resizing or repositioning.
Excitingly, Microsoft is also exploring the ability to customize and pin widgets directly on the Windows 11 lock screen, offering more functionality and encouraging developers to expand the widget ecosystem.
The widgets panel itself can no longer be expanded to full screen; it now appears as a tall, narrow sidebar sliding out from the left, somewhat similar to widget layouts found on MacBooks (although Macs place the panel on the right).
Early Testing and Expected Rollout
This Copilot Discover redesign is currently in early testing among a limited group of users. If the feature is well-received, Microsoft plans a wider rollout in a future stable update. Following an announcement in May, the changes reflect Microsoft’s renewed focus on enhancing how users interact with Windows 11 widgets to make them more relevant and user-friendly.
Overall, this AI glow-up makes the Windows 11 widgets panel cleaner, more interactive, and intelligently personalized—an encouraging sign for users who want quick, curated content without leaving their desktops.