WordPress dashboard is a collection of tools that gives you quick acess to most used areas of your blog. It also acts as a feed reader for latest wordpress news and latest plugins.

On the other hand, not all of those features are needed by most users. Thanks to WordPress filters, we can hide unwanted widgets programmatically. To remove all widgets for once and for all, you can add the code snippet below to your functions file:

Hide dashboard widgets for everyone

function shailan_remove_dashboard_widgets() {
    // Remove Quick Press Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_quick_press', 'dashboard', 'side' );
    // Remove Incoming Links Widget 
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_incoming_links', 'dashboard', 'normal' );
    // Remove Recent Comments Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_recent_comments', 'dashboard', 'normal' );
    // Remove Latest Plugins Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_plugins', 'dashboard', 'normal' );
    // Remove WordPress Blog Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_primary', 'dashboard', 'side' );
    // Remove Other WordPress News Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_secondary', 'dashboard', 'side' );
 }
 add_action('wp_dashboard_setup', 'shailan_remove_dashboard_widgets' );

Hide dashboard widgets for certain users

If you want to hide widgets for certain user roles, you can change the code inside to do so:

function shailan_remove_dashboard_widgets() {
  if( current_user_can( 'administrator' ) || current_user_can( 'editor' ) ){ 
    // Hide for users that are not administrators and editors

    // Remove Quick Press Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_quick_press', 'dashboard', 'side' );
    // Remove Incoming Links Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_incoming_links', 'dashboard', 'normal' );
    // Remove Recent Comments Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_recent_comments', 'dashboard', 'normal' );
    // Remove Latest Plugins Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_plugins', 'dashboard', 'normal' );
    // Remove WordPress Blog Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_primary', 'dashboard', 'side' );
    // Remove Other WordPress News Widget
    remove_meta_box( 'dashboard_secondary', 'dashboard', 'side' );
  }
 } add_action('wp_dashboard_setup', 'shailan_remove_dashboard_widgets' );

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