There’s a special irritation in discovering that widgets.exe — a feature you’ve never opened, showing news you never asked for — is eating 10-25% of your HP laptop’s CPU in the background. The widgets board refreshes its feeds on a schedule, and when that refresh cycle goes wrong, it doesn’t fail quietly; it spins.

On HP hardware the problem is more visible than on a clean install. HP Support Assistant, Wolf Security services, and Omen utilities already keep background CPU busy on Pavilion, Envy, and Omen models — widgets.exe’s stuck refresh cycles land on top of that load, and on 8 GB systems the combination produces real, felt sluggishness plus fan noise.

You have two legitimate paths: calm widgets down so it behaves, or remove the widgets board entirely — both are safe and reversible. If background processes in general are your problem, our guide to disabling background apps on Windows 11 covers the wider cleanup, and our high CPU usage in Windows 11 24H2 guide helps when other processes spike too.

Why this happens

  • Stuck feed refresh cycles — The widgets board pulls news, weather, and stocks from MSN services. When a feed request hangs (poor connectivity, service hiccup), the refresh retries in a tight loop instead of backing off — sustained CPU for nothing.
  • WebView2 rendering overhead — Widgets render as web content via WebView2. Outdated WebView2 runtimes or graphics drivers make that rendering far more CPU-expensive than intended.
  • Corrupted widgets cache — The local cache of widget content corrupts after crashes or interrupted updates; the board then re-fetches and re-renders continuously.
  • HP background utility contention — HP Support Assistant’s scheduled tasks and Wolf Security’s background checks compete for the same CPU windows when widgets refresh, amplifying every spike on busy systems.
  • News feed personalization churn — Heavy personalization — many followed topics, frequent interest changes — increases the data the board fetches and renders each cycle.
  • Outdated Windows Web Experience Pack — Widgets ship via the Microsoft Store as the ‘Windows Web Experience Pack.’ An outdated or partially updated pack is the classic source of widgets.exe misbehavior after feature updates.
  • Taskbar widgets button forcing renders — With the widgets button visible, the board pre-renders content for the flyout animation — extra GPU/CPU work on every taskbar interaction.

How to fix it

Work through these in order — diagnose first, then act.

Fix 1: Confirm widgets.exe is the hog

Two minutes of verification before changing anything.

  1. Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), sort by CPU, and watch for Widgets or widgets.exe during idle.
  2. Right-click it > Properties and check the location starts with C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.WebExperience — that’s the legitimate one.
  3. End the task once: it restarts on its own. If CPU stays low for hours, it was a stuck refresh — but expect recurrence until you apply the fixes below.

Fix 2: Update the Windows Web Experience Pack

The official fix channel for widgets bugs.

  1. Open the Microsoft Store > Library and click Get updates — install the Windows Web Experience Pack update if offered.
  2. Also update WebView2 Runtime from the Store library — widgets render through it.
  3. Restart after updating. Microsoft ships widgets reliability fixes through this pack, not Windows Update, so Store updates are the ones that matter here.

Fix 3: Turn off the widgets taskbar button and feed

Reduces the triggers without fully removing anything.

  1. Right-click the taskbar > Taskbar settings and toggle Widgets off — the button disappears and pre-render work stops.
  2. Open the widgets board once more (Win + W), click your profile icon > Settings, and turn off feed personalization/rotation if the options exist in your build.
  3. Observe for a day: for many users, this alone drops widgets.exe to near-zero background CPU.

Fix 4: Disable widgets via Group Policy / Registry (cleaner)

Stops widgets.exe from launching at all — reversible in seconds.

  1. Windows 11 Pro: press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Widgets, enable Allow widgets, set it to Disabled.
  2. Windows 11 Home: open Registry Editor, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Dsh, create DWORD AllowNewsAndInterests = 0 (create the Dsh key if missing).
  3. Restart. widgets.exe should no longer appear in Task Manager at all.
  4. To reverse: set the policy back to Not Configured or delete the registry value.

Fix 5: Uninstall the Web Experience Pack (most thorough)

Removes the widgets board completely — the option for ‘I never want this.’

  1. Open PowerShell as administrator and run: Get-AppxPackage -allusers *WebExperience* | Remove-AppxPackage.
  2. Restart and confirm widgets.exe is gone from Task Manager permanently.
  3. Reinstall anytime from the Microsoft Store by searching Windows Web Experience Pack.
  4. This is safe: no other Windows feature depends on the widgets board.

Fix 6: Update HP graphics drivers and calm HP utilities

Fixes the HP-specific amplification of widgets CPU.

  1. Update graphics drivers from HP’s support page for your exact model — or Intel /Nvidia direct if HP’s are stale — since widgets render through the GPU stack.
  2. Open HP Support Assistant > Settings and reschedule automated tasks away from your active hours.
  3. If you have Omen Gaming Hub on a non-gaming Pavilion, consider uninstalling it — its background services are pure overhead there.

Fix 7: Scan for impostor processes

Rule out malware wearing the widgets name.

  1. In Task Manager, check the file location of any widgets.exe using high CPU (Fix 1’s check).
  2. Run Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Scan options > Microsoft Defender Offline scan.
  3. An offline scan catches miners that hide from normal scans by masquerading as system processes.
  4. Microsoft documents Defender scan options in the Windows support hub .

Closing

widgets.exe is the definition of a background nuisance — a feature you didn’t ask for spending CPU you need. Whether you calm it with updates or remove it entirely, the fix takes minutes and the silence afterward is noticeable. Your HP will feel like it has one less thing running, because it does.

Frequently asked questions

What is widgets.exe and why is it running if I never open widgets?
Widgets.exe is the background process for the Windows 11 widgets board — the news, weather, and stocks panel. It runs at startup by default and periodically wakes to refresh its content feeds, even if you never click the widgets button. On HP laptops where it collides with HP’s own background utilities, those refresh cycles can get stuck and burn CPU continuously instead of finishing in seconds.
Will disabling widgets break anything in Windows 11?
No. The widgets board is a purely optional feature — disabling it removes the taskbar widgets button and stops widgets.exe from running, but nothing else in Windows depends on it. Start menu, search, notifications, and all apps work exactly as before. It’s one of the safest things to disable in Windows 11, and re-enabling it later takes ten seconds.
Why do widgets use more CPU on HP laptops specifically?
HP’s preload — HP Support Assistant, HP Wolf Security components, and Omen Gaming Hub on gaming models — adds background CPU load that makes widgets.exe’s refresh spikes more noticeable, especially on 8 GB Pavilion models. Additionally, outdated HP graphics drivers can make the widgets board’s web-based rendering (it uses WebView2) far more expensive than it should be. Updating drivers plus calming the feed usually fixes it.
Is widgets.exe a virus?
The legitimate widgets.exe lives in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MicrosoftWindows.Client.WebExperience… and is signed by Microsoft. Malware occasionally impersonates the name, so verify: right-click widgets.exe in Task Manager > Properties > Digital Signatures should show Microsoft Corporation. If the file lives anywhere else — Temp folders, AppData — treat it as malware and scan immediately.