Start Experiences App
On Windows 11, Start Experiences App supplies Microsoft Start content to the Widgets board and the lock screen.
since 0.9.8.11
Purpose
Identifier: Microsoft.StartExperiencesApp
Setup Foundry removes the package from existing user accounts and from provisioning for new accounts.
On Windows 11, Start Experiences App supplies Microsoft Start content to the Widgets board and the lock screen. Its role includes Microsoft-provided widgets and the personalized news stream shown on the Discover dashboard. This dynamic content can include news, weather, sports, and financial information that is refreshed during the day.
Despite its name, this package is not the Windows Start menu or the StartMenuExperienceHost system component.
Notes
Additional effects
Other components, including the Windows Web Experience Pack, provide the Widgets board itself. Start Experiences App acts as a provider for Microsoft Start widgets and feeds rather than as the entire Widgets platform. Widgets supplied by other installed applications can therefore remain available.
Microsoft states that both the Windows Web Experience Pack and Start Experiences App must be up to date for Widgets and Discover dashboards to work as expected.
Privacy and security
The Discover dashboard can personalize its feed from interests, followed publishers, feedback about displayed stories, and the Microsoft account in use. Signing in with the same account can make that personalization available across devices. Services behind location-dependent content can use the Windows location service or, when necessary, an approximate location derived from the internet connection’s IP address.
The Widgets board also sends Windows diagnostic data according to the device’s diagnostic-data settings. Individual widgets and dashboards can process additional information through the apps or services that power them.
Once the package has been removed, Start Experiences App can no longer retrieve content or perform new location, usage, or personalization processing on the device. Removing the local package does not, however, delete information already associated with a Microsoft account from Microsoft’s online services. Other widgets, applications, and Windows components may continue their own data transfers.
Effects of the change
Microsoft Start widgets and the related feed experiences supplied by this package on the Widgets board and lock screen are no longer available or may fail to load and refresh correctly. In particular, the Discover dashboard might be absent, remain empty, or stop showing current personalized news. Weather, news, and other dynamic content provided through this package can also disappear.
The Widgets taskbar entry or the Widgets board may remain because those interfaces are not supplied solely by Start Experiences App. Removing this package also does not automatically uninstall widgets from other providers.
Microsoft documents no association between this package and user document types. Its removal therefore has no known effect on document file associations; the visible impact is concentrated in the Widgets board and corresponding lock-screen content.
Setup Foundry also removes the provisioned copy, so Windows does not automatically register the package when a new user signs in for the first time. The app has a Microsoft Store listing and can be installed again while Microsoft continues to offer it for the applicable Windows version and region.
Notes
Microsoft initially documented the separate Start Experiences App as part of changes to Widgets in the European Economic Area. The exact widgets, feeds, and lock-screen experiences supplied by it can therefore vary with the Windows version, region, and gradually deployed feature updates.
Microsoft documentation
Microsoft Support: Stay up to date with Widgets in Windows
Windows Insider Blog: Updates to Windows for the Digital Markets Act
Microsoft Store: Start Experiences App