Is the 3-column widget board gone for good with KB5026447?

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The issue appeared in the Dev channel.

3 min. read

Published onMay 5, 2023

published onMay 5, 2023

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Key notes

It’s that time again. Here’s the good news: Microsoft launched another build for insiders in the Beta channel. Billed asKB5026447, the update brings a few small improvements here and there.

You may remember theBuild 25324for Canary insiders that was shipped in late March 2023 where we saw the three-column widget board for the first time, and it continued inKB5025303in late April.

The widgets board has two columns for the majority of users, but for some insiders, it displays an additional column, allowing them to customize the board with frequently used apps or news feeds.

The bad news is, just a week later, reports have emerged that the feature has vanished for some users following another update release. Microsoft has acknowledged the sudden disappearance of the feature has left users confused and frustrated.

When you launch the widgets board for the first time, you may see momentarily placeholders of the widgets/feed cards of the old 2-column layout even if your device supports 3-columns.

But to answer the title whether the 3-column widget board has vanished for good, we’re glad to say that it’s not going for good any time soon. Microsoft is likely working closely to fix this, given how massively revamped the widget feature is in the past few weeks.

Speaking of which, just like what they did with insiders in the Canary and Dev channels, KB5026447 also brings the new Facebook widget where you can access notifications from your accounts without logging into the browser.

A few months ago, Meta also launched a widget for the Messenger app, so this improvement is nice to see.

What other fixes and improvements that are coming in KB5026447, you may ask?

What other features are coming in KB5026447?

[General]

Fixes

[Input]

[Notifications]

[Task Manager]

Have you joined the Beta channel and installed KB5026447? How’s your experience? Let us know in the comments!

With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low#

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app#

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities#

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount#

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier#

Is the 3-column widget board gone for good with KB5026447?#

What other features are coming in KB5026447?#

[General]#

[Start menu]#

Fixes#

[Input]#

[Task Manager]#