Microsoft removes MSN and most ads from Windows 11's Weather App
Microsoft released an updated Weather application for Windows 11 last month to development channels.
The updated version turned the, rather basic, weather app of the operating system into a totally different product. The weather functionality was improved in the new version, and most users might have been satisfied with the update, if Microsoft did not decide to integrate MSN news and advertisement as well.
The homepage of the updated Weather app for Windows 11 looked like this. Users who scrolled down would get to the MSN news part quickly.
For some users, the update felt more like its main purpose was to push MSN news to yet another app.
Microsoft appears to have had a change of heart though. As our colleagues over at Deskmodder spotted, a new update for Windows 11's Weather app changed things again.
The two main changes affect the display of advertisement and MSN news in the app. Microsoft removed all traces of MSN news from the Weather app again. Users who scroll down won't see news articles anymore powered by MSN when they do so.
Even better, the advert that the Weather app displayed on its main page has been replaced by information about sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset.
The new homepage of Windows 11's Weather application looks the following now after the update has been installed.
Advertisement has not been removed completely from the application. The hourly forecast page still shows an advert and so do some of the other subpages of the Weather app.
The latest version of the Weather app is 4.53.51253.0. It is only available for development builds of Windows 11 currently, but will be pushed to stable versions of the operating system eventually.
Closing Words
Did Microsoft listen to feedback? When the company launched the updated Weather app, it received a lot of criticism for it on various blogs, sites and in videos. The integration of MSN news in the Weather app made little sense and felt out of place to many users of the app.
It is unclear whether Microsoft listened to feedback or had another reason for adjusting the changes that it made. The effect, however, is that the app's usability has been improved as a consequence, and that is something that most users will certainly appreciate.
Now You: do you use the Weather app on Windows 11?
The ads can be blocked via the hosts file…
Add these:
0.0.0.0 ups.analytics.yahoo.com
0.0.0.0 25.ras.yahoo.com
0.0.0.0 web-prem.ssp.yahoo.com
0.0.0.0 prod-m-node-1112.ssp.yahoo.com
0.0.0.0 service.idsync.analytics.yahoo.com
0.0.0.0 mediago.io
0.0.0.0 tag.idsync.analytics.yahoo.com
0.0.0.0 trace.mediago.io
I used Nir Soft’s DNS Query Sniffer when opening the Weather app to capture these.
@Albert_Mc, do you know any uBlock Origin filter with all these DNS blocked ads? I have been searching for a while, however no success has been found.
where do we “add these” to block them on the system? genuine question
Windows/System32/Drivers/etc
Open the HOSTS file with Notepad and add these entries, then click save.
https://www.yr.no/en/
There, I fixed it.
It makes no difference. Everyone should still uninstall this crap app right now. It’s only a web wrapper. It went from running with only 11MB of memory to 260MB. It doesn’t work nicely with touch screen, its laggy, and the UI looks like trash. The original app had a low bar to begin with, and this latest version lowers it even further. There is no one left at Microsoft who has any skills or talent. This is equivalent to a 12-year-old developing their first app in computer class.
Windows 10 had the weather app changes also. Last week ads were displayed. Now they’re not. Microsoft’s addiction to annoying users is getting old.
Yes, they removed it so that they would get nice reviews about it. The MSN garbage will be back worse than ever the very second users have returned to this s**t app again.
The ads were removed from the Home section, but the other sections like Month forecast, those still have ads.