Just spotted this thing when checking apps installed on my Win11 Pro 23H2 machine. It bears an installation date of Sept 6, 2024 (later than my installation of August updates) and since I have disabled automatic installation of Windows updates through WUMmgr I can only assume that this new app (bloat?) was silently installed by MS through other means as part of the stuff they “dribble”.
Can’t find much about what this app is really supposed to do, much less that it is supposed to silently install. At least according to one source, it should actually install as part of the August Preview updates (which I did not install) and it is targeted at users in the EEA region (which I am):
Lastly, there is a change for the Widgets Board for the EEA region users. Microsoft Start Experiences app is a separate app that will power the Microsoft Start widget and feed. Microsoft wants to enhance the security of APIs used to create widgets and has removed many widgets.
Back at the end of July Paul Thurrott provided the following report from MS in connection with this app:
“We are rolling out an update to the Widgets Board to improve security and the APIs for creating widgets and feeds for users in EEA regions,” the Windows Insider team explained today. “As part of this update, the Microsoft Start Experiences app will power the Microsoft Start widget and feed experiences.
Is it safe to simply uninstall this app? I am not using any widgets nor follow any feeds, much less create that stuff and I’d like to simply get rid of this app before it starts messing with my start menu without my say so (because we know that’s what is gonna happen…).
