Remove WordPress Dashboard Widgets

This removes all the dashboard widgets from the WordPress dashboard in the wp-admin panel. I usually remove the “At a Glance” and “Quick Draft” widgets. I like to keep the “Activity” dashboard widget because it includes the Recent Comments. I also like to keep the WordPress Events and News widget, but I remove the Events and leave only the News. See below for how to do this.

Here is a breakdown of which dashboard widget each line in the following code removes.

Line 3 removes the “At a Glance” dashboard widget.
Line 4 removes the “Activity” dashboard widget which includes “Recent Comments.”
Line 5 removes the “Quick Draft” dashboard widget.
Line 6 removes the “WordPress Events and News” dashboard widget.

If you want to keep one of the widgets, then delete the line in the code for that widget.

// Remove WP admin dashboard widgets
function isa_disable_dashboard_widgets() {
	remove_meta_box('dashboard_right_now', 'dashboard', 'normal');// Remove "At a Glance"
	remove_meta_box('dashboard_activity', 'dashboard', 'normal');// Remove "Activity" which includes "Recent Comments"
	remove_meta_box('dashboard_quick_press', 'dashboard', 'side');// Remove Quick Draft
	remove_meta_box('dashboard_primary', 'dashboard', 'core');// Remove WordPress Events and News
}
add_action('admin_menu', 'isa_disable_dashboard_widgets');

Modify the WordPress Events and News Widget

WordPress 4.8 has modified the WordPress News dashboard widget. It added Events, such as WordCamps and Meetups, to the WordPress News dashboard widget. Here are two ways to modify this new widget. The first example removes the Events section. This will make it look just like the old WordPress News widget, showing only News. The second example removes the WordPress News and leaves only the Events (WordCamps and Meetups).

1. To remove the Events from the “WordPress Events and News” widget, add the following code to your functions. Line 4 removes the Events section. Line 6 removes the Meetups, WordCamps, and News links from the bottom of the widget. Line 8 changes the widget title from “WordPress Events and News” to “WordPress News.”

   function remove_community_events_from_news_widget(){
       echo '<script type="text/javascript">jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
     
   	$("#community-events").remove(); // remove the community events from the WordPress Events and News Widget
   
   	$(".community-events-footer").remove(); // Remove the Meetups, WordCamps, and News links from footer
    
    	$("#dashboard_primary h2 span").text("WordPress News"); // Change the Widget title to WordPress News
   	
   	});</script>';
     
   }
   add_action('admin_head','remove_community_events_from_news_widget');
   

2. To remove only the News from the “WordPress Events and News” widget, add the following code to your functions. Line 4 removes the News section from the widget. Line 6 changes the widget title to just “WordPress Events.”

   function remove_news_from_events_widget(){
       echo '<script type="text/javascript">jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
     
   	$(".wordpress-news").remove(); // remove the News section from the WordPress Events and News Widgets
   
    	$("#dashboard_primary h2 span").text("WordPress Events"); // Change the widget title to just WordPress Events
   	
   	});</script>';
     
   }