How to customize windows 10’s news app

As the title asks, how do I change the sources for news within the bundled News app. There seems to be many news articles from what I would consider unreputable sources and no way to pick places like the BBC or Guardian.

Thanks in advance.

Replies (3) 

In order for us to assist you with your concern, we would like to verify if you are referring to the MSN News app. If you are, have you visited this support link already? This link contains some helpful tips on how to manage the news application. You may proceed and click the link to begin accessing useful information.

We look forward to your next post.

1 person found this reply helpful

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

It’s the News app which is bundled with Windows 10, I don’t see any reference to MSN. In the About section the application is simply called “News” if it helps I’m currently on version 4.22.3254.0.

Here’s a screen grab if it helps. Right clicking (as mentioned in your link, thanks for that) anywhere doesn’t seem to do anything.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Thank you for responding. Here is a screen shot of the MSN news app installed in Windows 10.

The ability to select and delete news source is not available in the News application yet as this support link shows. You may suggest this feature to our Feedback hub to notify our software developers. To start utilizing the Feedback hub app, kindly follow these steps:

1. On your Windows 10 device, search for Feedback Hub in Cortana, then launch the app.
2. Navigate to Feedback in the left menu, then press Add new feedback.
3. Select the Problem, and share any details you think are relevant, and choose an appropriate category and subcategory.
4. Important: If possible, reproduce the problem(s) after clicking Begin monitoring (or Start capture) near the end of the form; Stop monitoring when you’re done.
5. Once you’ve completed the form and monitoring, click Submit.
6. Click Continue using Feedback Hub.
7. Click My feedback at the top, then find the item you submitted (it may take a while to appear).
8. Open the item you submitted, then click Share.
9. Click Copy link, then paste the link here in your response.

Feel free to post should you need further assistance.

You can control which particular app or browser launches when you open a program in Windows 10. Here’s how.

Do you have Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Google Chrome all installed in Windows 10? You can use any of them to open Web pages, but you must specify which specific browser opens what.

Meanwhile, Windows has always allowed you to set a default app to launch particular files, but Windows 10 offers some handy and helpful new features to do so. Let’s see how this works.

To set the default apps for your key software programs, click on the Start button > Settings > System > Default apps.

The right pane of the Default apps screen lists some of your core Windows 10 app categories with the name of the app currently set as the default. For example, your default email app may be the built-in Mail app. Your Music Player may be Groove Music. And your Web browser may be Microsoft Edge.

To change the default app for any of these categories, click on the category, and from the pop-up list, select the app you wish to use. For example, you may want to change your default Web browser from Edge to Internet Explorer.

Further, you can search for an app not listed by clicking “Look for an app in the Store.”

Doing so launches the Microsoft Store app, which displays a list of apps that can open the associated file type.

From there, you can click on and install a particular app, which then becomes available if you want to set it as the default.

Let’s go back to the Default apps screen. Should you change your mind and wish to revert back to all of the core Windows 10 default apps, click the Reset button.

Okay, well, that takes care of the core apps in Windows. But what if you want to set the default apps for other file categories. You can do that a number of ways. Click on the link to “Choose default apps by file type.”

You’ll see a looooong list of file extensions and descriptions along with their current default apps. To change the default app for a particular file type, click on the current default app and choose another one from the list. If you’re not sure about a specific file type and app, search for them on the Web to make sure you choose a suitable default app.

Next, go back to the Default apps screen and click on the link to “Choose default apps by protocol.”

This is a more widespread way of setting a default app by category. Most of these you won’t want to change. But with some, such as your Web browser, just click on the existing default app to change it to a different one.

Finally, jump back to the Default apps screen and click “Set defaults by app.”

Here, you can choose the app that you want to set as the default for a particular type of file. Click on the name of an app, and you have two choices.

“Set this program as default” sets the default app for all file types associated with a particular category. For example, setting Paint as the default means it will open all graphic file types, including GIF, JPG, PNG, and TIF.

“Choose defaults for this program” lets you choose the file types you want to open with this app. For example, you can choose to open GIF and JPG files with Paint but open PNG and TIF files with the Windows Photo Viewer.

For more, check out these other Windows 10 tips:

The Microsoft News app allows you to view the latest news and headlines in one place. You can customize it to show news that interests you, local and worldwide, as well as hide news sources you dislike.

It’s usually included with a Windows 10 installation but, if it isn’t, you can download and install the app from the Microsoft Store.

Add or Remove News by Interest in Microsoft News

Whether you love sports, politics, or entertainment stories, the News app lets you save your particular interests to help shape your news feed. This means you’ll only see the kind of stories that you’re interested in.

When you first launch the Microsoft News app, you’ll be asked to select what type of news stories you want to see in your “My News” feed.

Search through the categories in the left-hand menu or by using the search bar at the top. When you find an interest you like, click on the star icon in the bottom-left of each interest card.

Once you’ve selected the type of stories you’re interested in, click the “Done” button at the top.

If you want to add (or remove) interests after setting up the app, you can do that from the “Interests” section. To access it, click the “Interests” tab found on the left-hand side menu.

As before, click on the star icon on each interest card to add (or remove) it from your “My News” feed.

Add or Remove Specific News Sources from Microsoft News

You can also add your favorite news sources to Microsoft News, or remove news sources you dislike. News sources you prefer will appear in your “My Sources” list.

To add or remove a news source, open the Microsoft News app on your computer and then click on the “Sources” tab in the left-hand menu.

You can look through the individual categories or search for a news source (for instance, “BBC”) using the search bar.

When you find your chosen news source, click the star icon in the bottom-left of the news card. To remove a source you dislike, click on the star again to remove it.

The news sources you choose will then appear in the “My Sources” tab and will also appear as part of the selections in the “My News” tab.

Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to completely hide any news sources you dislike from the Microsoft News app. Specific sources may still appear as prominent news stories and in other sections of the app.

To avoid seeing them, you can stick to reading news stories from sources you prefer in the “My Sources” and “My News” tabs instead.

How to Display Local News in Microsoft News

For local news, the “Local” tab can be configured to display news stories for your current or favorite locations.

Click the “Local” tab in the left-hand menu to access it.

To add a location to the app, click anywhere within the “Local” tab to bring up the search panel.

From there, type in a location and click on it to configure the News app to show stories about that location.

Once configured, if you want to switch the “Local” panel to another location, click on the “Locations” button found next to the search bar.

From here, search for the new location and click on it.

The “Local” tab will then update with stories and categories for the new location.

Windows 10 is a vastly more open platform than its competitors and you can do almost whatever you want within reason. There are a variety of free, paid and open-source apps that can modernize your Windows experience.

To customize Windows 10, you can install themes from the Microsoft Store, change the solid colour, pick a different picture or slideshow, and change the appearance of the desktop.

There are a variety of other ways to customize your Windows 10 device. In this article, we’ve highlighted the best customization apps that you can download and install to modernize your Windows 10 experience!

TaskbarX

TaskBarX is a popular app that sits calmy at the system tray of Windows 10 and it’s designed to hold your icons, shortcuts, and open apps at the bottom of your screen.

Windows 10’s TaskbarX app allows you to center your taskbar icons and alter the look of your taskbar with blur effects, transparency, or Fluent Design-like acrylic effect.

You can download TaskBarX from the links given below. If you want to support the developers, you can pay $1 and purchase the app on the Microsoft Store.

EarTrumpet

EarTrumpet is a volume control app with modern, clean and friendly UI. EarTrumpet replaces the default taskbar-based volume controls on Windows 10 and it makes navigating your various audio devices on Windows 10 machine much simpler.

EarTrumpet also comes with built-in volume mixer, which allows you to manage default audio devices and change the volume on individual apps.

In addition, the developers have also included the option to quickly mute web browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge when the websites start playing in the background.

EarTrumpet places a volume controller in the taskbar and you can access it by clicking on the sound icon.

When EarTrumpet is installed, you can turn off the default volume control feature that comes in Windows 10.

To turn off the default controls, open Windows Search and search for “turn system icons on or off” and turn off the volume controls feature.

Quick Look

Apple’s Quick Look feature for macOS is pretty convenient and it offers a great way to take a quick peek at something without launching an app.

The Quick Look feature allows you to press the space bar to preview the photograph, contents of a document, etc. You can also get macOS-like Quick Look feature on Windows 10 with a Microsoft Store app.

You can download one app called ‘QuickLook’ from the Microsoft Store, and preview most files on Windows 10 without loading an actual app.

QuickLook, which is completely free, allows you to preview .jpg, .png, .txt, documents, and other files types. When the app is installed and running in the background, you can hit the spacebar to open up a preview and tap the spacebar again to close the preview.

By default, the app adds itself to the Startup programs list and it will launch every time you start Windows.

Spotlight-like immersive search experience

Microsoft’s PowerToys adds a new search box to Windows 10 to help you quickly find and open apps, folders or files. PowerToys Run is similar to macOS Spotlight search and it can be launched by typing Alt+Space keyboard shortcut.

Unlike Windows search, this search tool also allows you to search for processes. You can even use it as a calculator and it works faster than Windows Search.

You can download PowerToys from Github.

Files UWP

Files UWP is a modern replacement for the File Explorer on Windows 10. It uses Fluent Design with complete support for light and dark mode, and it also utilizes icons that match the rest of the Windows 10 operating system.

In addition to the modern user interface, Files UWP also comes with tab support, which allows you to open new tabs of multiple folders and file locations at the same time.

Unfortunately, the only problem is that the app gets slower when you frequently load multiple locations, folders or access files at times.

Microsoft News App is one of the main attraction to the latest Windows 10 Operating System. Unlike other News Apps, Microsoft News App is having a better design and Live Tile feature so that it can even be read from the Start menu itself. The Live Tile is flashing different headlines of the hour as per our choices. It is a convenient feature so that we can read the headlines from these live tiles without opening the App.

The content of the App can be chosen by an individual user to suit with various interests. It is a simple procedure and we will see how to change the “interested topics” in Microsoft News App.

Open Microsoft New App to start with. In the first launch, the News App will ask you for your location and content choices. Here you can select your location and interesting news topics in the first launch itself.

If you have already selected your topics and wants to change that, we need to start with the “Settings”. Open “Settings” from the menu to select or change the choice of country.

You can change the interested country from these settings. After changing the country of choice, we need to close the App and re-open it to take the changes effect. After re-opening, the App will load the latest news topics from the selected country.

Now we can change the interested Topics by opening the “Interests” from the menu. It will with all the selected topics presently. Here we can add or delete the topics of our interest.

To Add a topic, click on the “ * “ button on that topic. That button will change as highlighted star as shown in the picture, once selected. If you want to remove an already selected topic, then click again on the “Star” mark of the topic and it will change back to “deselected” star which can be selected later. Accordingly, we can identify which are the topics we have selected by looking at the Tick mark on them.

You can also add different topics that are not offered in the initial screen. For that, Select any of the main topic from left side menu of the App. If we want to add “NFL” new in the App, select “Sports” from the Menu.

It will show all the available topics under category “Sports” for the moment. From these available topics, select the desired topic by Tapping or Selecting the “Star” button. Here we will Tap on “NFL” topic so that it will be added.

We can also change the selected topics by one more easy method. For that, Tap on the “Edit” button as shown below. It will open the selected topics window directly.

Now we can use the “Search” bar to add a new topic. Here we will search for “International Space Station” to add the topic to our News App. Select the choice or enter the required keyword and Tap on the Search button. News App will find the topic and add to your interests so that you will be updated with that news regularly.

You can check the added topic by Taping on that interest from the Interests screen. It will open the related topics under that interest and you can verify that the added topic is relevant.

Now you can select as many topics from various categories as explained above. Choose as many topics as you like and after that Tap on “My News” which will show all the news from these selected titles.

Normally it will take a small time to sync with the latest news to display. From next restart of your device, the Live Tile feature will be enabled and all the headlines from your selected topics will flash on your device start menu. It is much convenient to the users to look for the important and interested news without opening the App.

Original title: News app

How do I remove a source from the News app?

Replies (4) 

We realize the inconvenience you are experiencing with removing source from News app. We will certainly help you.

It’s easy to add or remove content to suit your interests, and change the order of sections exactly as you’d like. You can add topics, such as articles about companies, celebrities or issues in the news.

You can also add stories from the news sources you trust most, the top news from the best sources chosen by our editors or news from more countries.

Here are the steps to add or remove the sources:

1. In Bing Daily, swipe up from the bottom of the screen or right-click with your mouse.
2. Tap or click Customize.
3. Click the + button next to the type of content you’d like to add: Topics, Sources, Editor’s Picks or News from more countries.
4. Drag and drop to reorder sections, or remove a section by tapping or clicking the section’s red X button.

Note: Be aware that this feature might not be available in every locale.

For more information on the Bing News app, refer to the link.

Let us know if it helps. We will be happy to assist you further.

Earlier today, Microsoft announced that developers can now start submitting their apps to the new Windows Store. If you’re a Windows 10 user and want to create an app for your own use, there’s a great tool that lets you create an app for Windows 10 pretty easily – and that is, App Studio.

How to create the app

Creating an app using App Studio is pretty easy. Here’s how to do it:

• Head over to App Studio’s website and login with your Microsoft account
• After that, you’ll be redirected to the dashboard
• Click on the “Windows 10” section from the seocondary navigation block
• After that, from the Content Templates section, choose Empty App or My App W10
• Then you will be asked to name the app – simply type in the name of your app and click on “Start with this one!”
• After that, you will be navigated to the app creation dashboard where you will creat the app
• On the Content section, you will be able to add the “actual” content to your app – you can add RSS Feeds, HTML, Facebook feed, Twitter feed, etc.
• In our example we’re using RSS, so go ahead and click on RSS
• Then, you will be asked to give the RSS feed a name, so, just use any name you want and click on Confirm
• To edit how the RSS section looks, just click on Edit and you will be able to make changes there.
• To change how the app looks, click on Themes section and there you can customize most of the elements of the app
• The tool also lets you customize the Live Tile for your app – to do that, go to the Live Tile section
• After you’re in the Live Tile section, you will be able to choose between the three different live tile templates and all of them look pretty nice. So choose the template you want.
• Next, go to the Settings section where you will be able to change things like the App Name, Langauge, Description, Enable Ads, etc.
• After you are done customizing the app and you’re happy with it, click on Finish
• Then you will be redirected to a page where you will get a good preview of how the app will look on a phone, tablet and desktop
• If you’re not happy with it, you can go back to edit it. But if you’re happy with it, click on Generate to create the app
• Wait until it Generates the app (it may take a while, so be patient)
• After it’s done generating the app, you will be redirected to the Gneeration Detial page where you can download the app package or download the source code of the app to take it even further — but we’re not gonna do that, so just download the App Package
• After downloading the app package, unzip it and open up the unzipped folder
• Then, right click on the Add-AppDevPackage file and click on Run with Powershell and follow the on-screen instructions
• Keep in mind that you will have to enable the Developer Mode by going to Settings>Updates & Security > For Developers
• After following the on-screen instructions, you will be able to open up your app

See? It’s that easy. Here’s the screenshots of how we created the app:

As you can see from some of the above screenshots, the apps created on App Studio does indeed look pretty good. If you want to take this a step further, App Studio also lets you download the source code of the app which you can improve using Visual Studio.

What do you think of App Studio? Discuss in the comment section below.

Some links in the article may not be viewable as you are using an AdBlocker. Please add us to your whitelist to enable the website to function properly.

• By Wayne Williams
• Published 6 years ago

Microsoft’s operating systems have always been easy to customize, and Windows 10 is no exception. We’ve already shown you how to make changes to the Start menu, modify Windows 10’s title bar color, automate login and bypass the lock screen, and more. But what if you want to go way beyond the basics? Well there are already third-party tools available that will let you make much bigger design changes to Windows 10 than Microsoft usually allows.

With the right apps you can customize the look of the tiles in the Start menu (not simply resize them and toggle the Live Tile feature on or off) and even redesign the icons of built-in apps and use your own artwork (or someone else’s).

If you want to create your own custom Start menu tiles, there’s TileCreator. This isn’t as easy to use as it could be. Firstly you need to grab the Windows app, and then the TileCreatorProxy which will bypass certain Windows 10 restrictions (you need to run it as an Administrator).

The app is very much a work in progress, and at the moment will only let you make changes to square apps (Small and Medium), but support for other sizes is coming soon. The TileCreator XDA Developers page will tell you everything you need to know to get started.

Another option to consider is Better StartMenu. This costs $2.99 although there is a trial version available with no limitations.

Like TileCreator you need to download the app and a Helper program. You don’t need to install the latter. Just unzip and run it. The Helper is used to handle tile clicks.

This app does allow you to create and customize tiles of any size.

If you’re not particularly artistic you can grab tile images to use from the web. Better StartMenu has a list of resources here.

Watch the video below to see how to get started.

If you have any recommendations for alternative customization apps, please share them in the comments below.

With just a little bit of effort, you can make Windows 10’s lock screen more functional and visually appealing to you. Learn how you can change the background image, remove the ads, add app status reports, and put Cortana on the lock screen.

The lock screen is the first thing you see after you launch Windows 10 or wake it up from sleeping. With a few simple tweaks, you can make this screen more visually appealing and more functional. Specifically, you can:

Change the background image

Remove the ads that are displayed by default

Add information about the status of certain apps

Put Cortana on the lock screen

Changing the Background Image

By default, Windows will display a new image on the lock screen every day. Windows chooses the photo, but you can have it display images that better meet your personal taste by using the “Like what you see?” feedback tool located on the lock screen.

Leaving the lock screen at this default “Windows spotlight” setting is nice if you want to see a new image every day. However, there is a catch. You won’t be able to remove the ads from the lock screen.

If you do not want ads on your lock screen or you would rather have it display one of your own pictures or a slideshow of them, you can customize the background image. Follow these steps:

Click the Start menu and select the gear icon to open the Settings app.

Select “Lock screen”.

Change the “Background” option to either “Picture” or “Slideshow”.

Select the photo or the album (i.e., the folder containing the slideshow images) you want to use.

Scroll down to the “Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen” option. By default, the lock screen’s background image is displayed on the sign-in screen as well. If you would rather have your sign-in screen display a solid color, move the slider to “Off”.

Close the “Settings” page.

Removing the Ads

Windows 10’s lock screen displays ads. For example, it might contain an ad for an app or movie available for download from the Windows Store. If you selected the “Picture” or “Slideshow” option for the screen’s background image, you can disable these ads. Here is how to do so:

Click the Start menu and select the gear icon to open the Settings app.

Select “Lock screen”.

Make sure the “Background” option is set to “Picture” or “Slideshow”.

Move the “Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen” slider to “Off”. (You will not see this slider if the “Background” option is set to “Windows spotlight”.)

Close the “Settings” page.

Adding App Status Reports

If you want your lock screen to be more functional, you can have it display status reports for up to eight apps. Apps that can display these reports include Calendar, Mail, and Weather. You can have one app provide a detailed status report; the rest will display quick status reports. The difference between the two is best illustrated with an example: A quick status report for the Calendar app would show how many appointments you have that day, while the detailed status report would show information about them.

Here is how to take advantage of the app status feature:

Click the Start menu and select the gear icon to open the Settings app.

Select “Lock screen”.

Choose the app for which you want a detailed status report in the “Choose an app to show detailed status” section. If you do not want any app to display a detailed report, select “None”.

Choose the apps for which you want quick status reports in the “Choose apps to show quick status” section.

Close the “Settings” page.

Putting Cortana on the Lock Screen

If Windows 10’s Anniversary Update has been installed on your computer, you can put Cortana on the lock screen. She will be able to perform basic tasks such as performing searches and making appointments without you having to unlock your computer. The lock screen’s background image must be set to “Picture” or “Slideshow” option for this feature to work.

To get Cortana working on your lock screen, follow these steps:

Click the Start menu and select the gear icon to open the Settings app.

Select “Lock screen”.

Make sure the “Background” option is set to “Picture” or “Slideshow”.

Click the “Cortana lock screen settings” link to bring up Cortana’s “Settings” box.

Move the “Use Cortana even when my device is locked” slider to “On”.

Select the “Let Cortana access my calendar, email, messages, and other content when my device is locked” option.

Have Your Lock Screen Just the Way You Want It

With just a little bit of effort, you can make the lock screen more functional and appealing to you. If you have any questions or want more suggestions on how to personalize your Windows computer, give us a call.

Make your lock screen beautiful and functional.

It’s something you stare at each time you sit down in front of your PC, but I doubt you even see it as you quickly type in your password and unlock windows. The Windows 10 ($150 at Amazon) lock screen can be more than just a password-entry screen. It can be set up to show app notifications, calendar events and the date and time. You can add your own photos for its background or let Windows add rotating images. Here’s a handful of tips for customizing the Windows 10 lock screen.

Choose your background

You have three options for the lock screen background: Picture, Slideshow or Windows Spotlight. The Picture option lets you choose one of your photos for your background, and the Slideshow lets you choose a folder that will cycle through a collection of your photos. The Windows Spotlight will select high-resolution photos from Bing’s homepage. Spotlight photos cycle periodically. To make your selection, go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen > Background.

Add some apps

If you want your lock screen to be functional, you can add up to eight apps that will display at-a-glance statuses — one app to show detailed statuses and seven apps to show quick statuses. To pick these apps, go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen > Choose an app to show detailed status or Choose apps to show quick statuses. You can then click or tap a box to pick an app.

If you don’t want to show apps, click each box and set the app to None. Apps that can show statuses include Weather, Skype, Calendar, Mail, Store and Xbox. They’ll vary depending on the apps installed on your device.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Put Cortana on the lock screen

You can chat with Cortana without first unlocking your PC, but you’ll need to be comfortable with anyone being able to chat with Cortana. Head to Settings > Cortana and toggle on Use Cortana even when my device is locked. This will let her perform basic tasks, such as looking up information or the weather, while your device is locked. If you are comfortable with Cortana being able to access your personal information and do things like make appointments, you can check the box for Let Cortana access my calendar, email, messages, and Power BI data when my device is locked.

Change your sign-in screen background

You have two options for your sign-in screen background: A solid color or the photo displayed on your lock screen. To display a photo, go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen and toggle on Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen. If you leave it toggled off, your sign-in screen will display a solid color. To choose this color, go to Personalization > Colors and pick an accent color.

Hide your email address

In the interest of privacy, Windows 10 lets you hide your email address on the sign-in screen. You can toggle it off by going to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Privacy > Show account details (e.g. email address) on sign-in screen.

Turn off notifications

Lock screen notifications can be convenient but they can also be read by any passerby. To turn them off, go to Settings > System > Notifications & actions > Show notifications on the lock screen and toggle it off.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Originally published on Aug. 11, 2016.
Update, Dec. 6, 2018: Added information about Windows 10 October 2018 Update.