How to Disable the News Feed in Microsoft Edge (Updated for Chromium Edge)

Update: The original steps mentioned in this post do not work for the new version of Microsoft Edge, with looks and works a lot like Google Chrome. If you already have the new version of Edge, follow the steps highlighted below.

Open Edge, and on the “new tab” page click ⚙ > Content. ⚙ icon is near the top right corner of the page.

Select “Content off” to disable the news feed. You can also disable promoted links, greetings, tips, background, and more in this pop-up window.

Update Mar 11, 2021: Some readers have mentioned that the above option is just not visible on their screen. If that’s the case for your PC, go to Windows Start > Settings > Display, and change the “Scale and layout” setting to 100%. This will make the items on your screen smaller and bring the above list into full view. You can revert back to the original scale after turning off the news feed.

If the scale is already set to 100%, try one of the below options that’s feasible for you:

  • maximize the Edge window
  • set a higher screen resolution in Windows settings
  • use the Tab and arrow keys on your keyboard to select the option.

Original post:

Edge is the much hyped new browser in Windows 10, and one of its new features is a personalized start page that shows you local weather and personalized news. While many may find it useful, others (like me) will find the cluttered look off-putting.

Turning off the news feed from the start page is currently not possible, but you can get rid of it with a simple tweak. Go to Settings, and change the Open with option to New tab page. New tab pages don’t show the news feed by default, so this setting will hide the clutter on browser launch.

If you want to go the other way, and show the news feed on every tab, open up Settings and change Open new tabs with to Top sites and suggested content.

How do you like Edge? Let us know in the comments!

comments (add yours)

  1. I really dislike Edge. It is too difficult to customize content on the home screen. I want to be able to adjust and to block some content. I want to block all Fox News channels. Fix this.

    Reply
  2. Thank you for this. It’s been driving me crazy with the annoying “news” feed of what they think is important.

    Reply
  3. I don’t like not being able to choose what news sources you don’t want to see. With Google News you have some customization features which allow you to choose not to see articles from CNN. Until I can turn off CNN from the news feed I will not use the Edge browser.

    Reply
  4. as a web browser MS Edge is acceptable (6/10), in that it does find web pages reasonably quickly. As a user interface is unacceptable (3/10) due to “features/bugs” such as:
    – News Feed turns itself back on even though I have turned it off several times. Every time it does this I have a mini anxiety attack (that is why I avoid the news in the first place).
    – Search engine defaults to Bing, which would be funny except I actually want to find what I am looking for. So, NO it is NOT funny.
    – and before anyone offers any “helpful advice”; NO, I did not ‘accidentally’ turn the news feed back on, nor did I switch my search engine back to Bing, I am Not an idiot.

    Reply
  5. I hate Edge. I wish MS would NOT force its preferences on users. When I replace my desktop & laptop I will be looking for something that does NOT use MS products. The MS software developers need to listen to users & their preferences instead of pushing their preferences on users. MS needs to ask their customers what they want to see in new software instead of developing it for the needs & wants of the developers.

    Reply
    • I am not a big fan of the Edge news feed and some of the other stuff in Windows, however I believe Microsoft provides as many, if not more, options to switch off or replace things than what the major rival platforms provide.

      Reply
  6. Lord! Thank you!!!
    I was trying off and on all day.
    Everything was for an older version.

    Didn’t help my screen font, etc. was too large, so the options you mentioned weren’t showing.

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Glad the steps were helpful, Pati, and thank you for mentioning the bit about large screen items hiding the option! I have added a note to this post to help future readers with the same issue.

      Reply
    • Julie, are you using Edge browser on your PC, Mac, or mobile (Android or iPhone)? The steps in this article should work for Edge on both Windows and macOS.

      Reply
  7. I like Edge as a browser, and would be happy with some content from news feeds; however, I am still bombarded with content from categories I have deselected (eg I’m totally disinterested in celebrity gossip or other so-called “entertainment”). I’d also like to be able to deselect unreliable and/or politically unbalanced news-sources (such the Daily Mail – from my perspective a candidate for deselction on grounds of gossip and lack of political balance). This capability is possible in other browsers – until this is enabled in Edge, then I’m afraid I’m going to stop using it.

    Reply
    • Sandy,

      I have had the same experience with Edge ignoring my customization and showing every category of news in its feed. I keep it off for this reason, and use Google News instead (which isn’t perfect but still better than Edge and MSN in my experience).

      Reply

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