How to remove the WordPress dashboard welcome panel

The “Welcome to WordPress!” panel is handy the first time you log in. It’s just clutter every time after. Here’s how to remove it for everyone on your site with a two-line snippet.

Why remove it?#

The welcome panel takes up the top of the dashboard with quick-start links most site owners and clients never touch again. On client sites especially, a cleaner dashboard looks more professional and cuts down on “what’s this box?” support questions.

The snippet#

Add this PHP snippet to your site. It hooks into wp_dashboard_setup and unhooks the core function that prints the panel:

<?php
add_action( 'wp_dashboard_setup', 'scseed_remove_welcome_panel' );
function scseed_remove_welcome_panel() {
    remove_action( 'welcome_panel', 'wp_welcome_panel' );
}

How it works#

WordPress renders the welcome panel through the wp_welcome_panel callback attached to the welcome_panel hook. Removing that action stops it rendering for every user. No CSS hacks, no hiding it with display:none (which still loads the markup).

Looking for more admin tidy-ups? Browse the PHP snippets in the SnipCraft library.