MicrosoftStartFeedProvider.exe is an executable tied to the Microsoft Start Feed—basically, that little personalized news and weather panel that pops up in your Start menu and elsewhere. It’s supposed to give you quick updates, but honestly, it can sometimes be a resource hog or just plain annoying. If it’s causing high CPU spikes, lag, or you simply don’t care about the personalized news junk, disabling it can help lighten the load on your machine. This guide walks through how to turn it off without completely breaking your Windows experience.
How to Disable It
Method 1: Using the Widgets Settings
This is the easiest way and applies if the feed is just bothering you in the Widgets panel. It basically stops the feed from popping up or updating, so your PC doesn’t have to waste energy loading it. This method’s good if you want a quick fix and don’t plan to permanently remove the service.
- Press Windows Key + W to summon the Widgets board. You probably see the news feed or weather info, right?
- Click on the Settings icon—usually a gear at the top right corner of the Widgets panel.
- From the drop-down, select Show or hide feeds. Here’s where it gets interesting: toggle off the feeds you don’t want to see. Don’t worry, it just hides the info, but the process might still run in the background.
This basically disables the feed display, but the MicrosoftStartFeedProvider.exe process might still be lurking around. If you’re after a total kill switch, read on.
Method 2: Using PowerShell to Remove the Web Experience Pack
This is a more forceful approach, kinda like hitting the freeze button. If the process keeps sticking around or re-enabling itself after reboots, uninstalling the widget pack totally disables the feed and the associated process. This can free up system resources and stop the annoying background activity—especially helpful if the process is causing issues.
- First, open PowerShell as an admin. You can do this by searching for PowerShell in the start menu, then right-clicking and choosing Run as administrator.
- To uninstall the web experience pack, type this command and press Enter:
winget uninstall "windows web experience pack"Note: If this command doesn’t do anything, or you get an error, try the classic PowerShell way.
Get-AppxPackage *WebExperience* | Remove-AppxPackageThis locates and removes the package responsible for the feed. Because of course, Windows has to make it harder than necessary. Sometimes it takes a reboot or two for everything to settle.
Just a heads-up: messing around with system apps can be risky if you’re not careful. Make sure you know what’s being removed—removing core apps might cause unexpected behaviors. Always good to create a restore point before jumping in.
Other tricks if all else fails
If these methods don’t stick or you still see the process running, you might need to disable it via Group Policy or Task Scheduler, but honestly, that gets messier. Usually, the PowerShell removal does the trick, but on some setups, it won’t stick permanently unless you tweak permissions or use third-party tools.
But yeah, on one machine, it took a couple of reboots and some patience for the process to completely disappear. Not sure why it works that way, but that’s Windows for ya.
Summary
- Disable the feed in the Widgets menu by toggling off show/hide feeds.
- For a deeper cut, uninstall the web experience pack with PowerShell commands.
- Always back up or set a restore point before deleting system components.
Wrap-up
Getting rid of MicrosoftStartFeedProvider.exe can make your PC run a little smoother if that feed was just a distraction or resource drain. The quickest way is hiding the feed via settings, but if you want it gone for good, the PowerShell commands should do the trick. Sometimes it takes a few reboots or extra steps because Windows likes to keep its little surprises around. Fingers crossed this helps someone save a bit of CPU and bandwidth!