toomuchpie
Member
Will the next version of NTLite have the option to remove or turn off the "News and interests" that was introduced in the recent cumulative updates?
News and Interests
- Thread starter toomuchpie
- Start date
toomuchpie
Member
There's a slight problem that is probably due to the order of which I do things.
The cumulative has to be integrated last for me because otherwise, if I do a fresh install and something else is integrated after the cumulative update, it will redownload and reinstall the cumulative update, despite it already being integrated. For this reason, I do 2 passes with NTLite:
For the first pass, I integrate all the other updates, features on demand (I have one, and if this is installed after the cumulative update, it also causes the latest cumulative update to be redownloaded and reinstalled), settings, etc - all except for the cumulative update and removal of components).
For the second pass, I basically reload the same settings, but with removals and also the latest cumulative update
When I tried to disable the "News and interests" feature today using this method (the setting was made from the first pass), it didn't seem to take effect, probably because the setting was applied from the first pass, prior to the cumulative update.
I took a closer look within NTLite, loading up an image that has already gone through my first pass. If I load a preset which definitely has "News and interests" already disabled (like the same one I used for the first pass), the setting for News and interests is set to default, rather than disable.
Are you able to make it so that it explicitly takes that setting directly from the preset and force it to configure it again? I noticed that the Meet Now widget that I disabled in the first pass was still set to disable when I loaded up the same preset (from my first pass), but the News and interests one was not.
For now, I am going to set my first pass to not disable that setting to get around this.
The cumulative has to be integrated last for me because otherwise, if I do a fresh install and something else is integrated after the cumulative update, it will redownload and reinstall the cumulative update, despite it already being integrated. For this reason, I do 2 passes with NTLite:
For the first pass, I integrate all the other updates, features on demand (I have one, and if this is installed after the cumulative update, it also causes the latest cumulative update to be redownloaded and reinstalled), settings, etc - all except for the cumulative update and removal of components).
For the second pass, I basically reload the same settings, but with removals and also the latest cumulative update
When I tried to disable the "News and interests" feature today using this method (the setting was made from the first pass), it didn't seem to take effect, probably because the setting was applied from the first pass, prior to the cumulative update.
I took a closer look within NTLite, loading up an image that has already gone through my first pass. If I load a preset which definitely has "News and interests" already disabled (like the same one I used for the first pass), the setting for News and interests is set to default, rather than disable.
Are you able to make it so that it explicitly takes that setting directly from the preset and force it to configure it again? I noticed that the Meet Now widget that I disabled in the first pass was still set to disable when I loaded up the same preset (from my first pass), but the News and interests one was not.
For now, I am going to set my first pass to not disable that setting to get around this.
toomuchpie
Member
It seems that I was wrong about the reason why it didn't work. Even when the News & interest setting was set to default on my first pass and disabled on my second pass, it was still enabled once Windows was loaded into a profile.
toomuchpie
Member
I tried integrating a registry on top of using that setting in NTLite and it still came up.
Did some more testing. I can't change the setting to Disable during a second pass of NTLite. However, I think it may be irrelevant, because even when I set it to just Icon without text, it still defaulted back to the original setting on icon with text after Windows installed. I can see the registry key is set to 0 instead of 1 or 2 as well.
Microsoft has obviously made it very difficult to change this setting by default. I do see this entry from the Registry that I tried to add in NTLite though:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Feeds
"ShellFeedsTaskbarViewMode"=dword:00000002
Does anyone know how to get rid of this thing from showing on new profiles?
Did some more testing. I can't change the setting to Disable during a second pass of NTLite. However, I think it may be irrelevant, because even when I set it to just Icon without text, it still defaulted back to the original setting on icon with text after Windows installed. I can see the registry key is set to 0 instead of 1 or 2 as well.
Microsoft has obviously made it very difficult to change this setting by default. I do see this entry from the Registry that I tried to add in NTLite though:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Feeds
"ShellFeedsTaskbarViewMode"=dword:00000002
Does anyone know how to get rid of this thing from showing on new profiles?
Last edited:
toomuchpie
Member
I've got it working with a Registry. I found the answer here:
I've attached the Registry that I integrated that hides "News and interests" by default.
Hide News and Interests for new users
Hello! How can I hide the News and Interests widget from taskbar but for new users ? Clarification I don't want to use a policy (neither Group Policy or HKLM\Software\Policies). For the current user
answers.microsoft.com
I've attached the Registry that I integrated that hides "News and interests" by default.
Hi,
thanks for the input.
The tool sets it correctly, it just gets reset if set on an image, on user creation.
Fixed by reapplying on user logon in the next update.
Until then you can add the REG file to the Post-setup User box.
Also fixed the readout of the second pass, nice catch.
thanks for the input.
The tool sets it correctly, it just gets reset if set on an image, on user creation.
Fixed by reapplying on user logon in the next update.
Until then you can add the REG file to the Post-setup User box.
Also fixed the readout of the second pass, nice catch.
layer8tech
New Member
I just wanted to report my usage on this.
I tried to disable news and feeds using LPO and the built-in feeds tweak as well as the registry key of "ShellFeedsTaskbarViewMode" and it would still appear. But adding the additional registry key of "HeadlinesOnboardingComplete" seemed to work to get rid of it for all accounts created.
Cheers
I tried to disable news and feeds using LPO and the built-in feeds tweak as well as the registry key of "ShellFeedsTaskbarViewMode" and it would still appear. But adding the additional registry key of "HeadlinesOnboardingComplete" seemed to work to get rid of it for all accounts created.
Cheers