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Search for:
HOW TO TURN OFF "SEARCH THE WEB" RESULTS IN WINDOWS 11
Martin Brinkmann
Nov 26, 2021
Windows 11 Help
|
52
When you run searches on Windows 11 from the operating system's Start Menu, you
will get local results as well as web-based results powered by Bing by default.
Microsoft introduced web search functionality in Windows 10 and has kept the
feature in Windows 11.
ADVERTISEMENT
Many Windows 11 users see web searching as a way for Microsoft to promote its
Bing search engine, and not as something that adds value to the search
functionality. Web Search integration broke Windows Search at least once on
Windows 10, and there is the chance that this is going to happen again.
DISABLE SEARCH THE WEB ON WINDOWS 11
×
Windows 11 comes with an official option to turn off web searching in the Start
Menu. It is not an option in the Settings application. While there is an option
to manage cloud content search in the Settings application, it does not affect
Internet search in the Windows 11 Start Menu but content of the Microsoft
Account, e.g. form OneDrive, that may be returned.
Just turn off the options on the page and run a search; you will notice that
results from Bing web searches are still included.
×
The official option is available in the Group Policy Editor and Registry. The
Group Policy Editor is only available in professional and Enterprise editions of
Windows 11. Home users need to make the change in the Registry to get rid of
"Search the web" in the Start Menu.
THE GROUP POLICY OPTION
1. Open Start, type gpedit.msc and select the Group Policy Editor item to
launch the Local Group Policy Editor. Note that you need elevated rights to
access the tool.
2. Use the sidebar on the left to navigate to Computer Configuration >
Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search.
3. Double-click on the policy "Do not allow web search".
4. Set the status of the policy to Enabled.
5. Click ok.
6. Double-click on the policy "Don't search the web or display web results in
Search".
7. Set the status of the policy to Enabled.
8. Click ok.
9. Restart the PC.
Note that it is possible that you may still web-based results after making the
change. If that is the case, you will need to make the edits in the Registry to
stop web search results in Windows 11's Start Menu.
THE REGISTRY OPTION
1. Select Start, type regedit.exe and select the Registry Editor to launch it.
Accept the UAC prompt that is displayed.
2. Navigate to
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search
3. Right-click on Search and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.
4. Name the value BingSearchEnabled.
5. Double-click on the new Dword and set data to 0.
The change should be visible right away. Just run a search from the Start Menu
to verify that no web search results are displayed anymore on the Windows 11 PC.
Just delete the Dword value again if you want to restore the default
functionality.
Now You: do you find web search results useful in Windows 11's Start Menu?
Summary
Article Name
How to turn off "Search the Web" results in Windows 11
Description
Find out how to disable the web-based search results that Windows 11 displays
when you run searches from the Start Menu.
Author
Martin Brinkmann
Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
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ABOUT MARTIN BRINKMANN
Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News
Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and
computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or
Twitter, and read his weekly tech newsletter on Substack
View all posts by Martin Brinkmann →
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COMMENTS
1. Keenan said on October 18, 2023 at 6:14 am
Reply
Thanks a tonne! ive hated this feature for so long. also disabled cortana
using the same method.
2. blop said on June 27, 2023 at 1:12 am
Reply
Nice, it worked for a user without admin permission. Thanks !
3. brad said on March 17, 2023 at 4:10 am
Reply
spoke to soon not fixed gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
ok
slowingdown
4. brad said on March 17, 2023 at 4:08 am
Reply
actually io think it might have just needed a bit to process coz i now have
success so thank you
5. brad said on March 17, 2023 at 4:05 am
Reply
no luck mom i cant find those folders and tried the other 2 opions
i mean they did get rid of web search for start menu but google still gets
hijacked
6. mom said on March 10, 2023 at 6:35 pm
Reply
Okay, so this wasn’t working for my child’s account and I was getting
frustrated, I ended up in the group policy option, gpedit.msc, and opening
as administrator (enter password…), and since the two options were not
working (expired or something), I picked “Fully disable Search UI” keeping
in mind it makes it difficult to find the file again, I made a note of
where it was in the file explorer in case I needed to disable it, it worked
(I disabled it to make sure I could reverse it, had to go through explorer,
but it was fine, then I re-enabled the option). You can find gpedit.msc in
C\Windows\System32\
In case anyone is wondering my child was having trouble focusing on school
work when given time to do it on the computer, I already blocked all apps
except school-related ones and she found out she could search from the
taskbar instead. Hopefully this helps someone.
7. Anonymous said on February 18, 2023 at 3:08 pm
Reply
Registry way worked for my win11,thanks!
8. Doug said on December 19, 2022 at 8:48 pm
Reply
Thank you so much! I never would have figured this out on my own, and use
the search to find docs and files on my computer many times a day, and just
upgrades to windows 11 in new machine.
9. Kyle said on August 23, 2022 at 7:13 pm
Reply
Awesome, still works today (23 Aug 2022) on build Win11 build 856. I used
the two Group Policy edits.
Why did I do it? Because it annoyed me enough to go searching for how to
turn it off. My Start was really slow in trying to search for an
application on my computer, by throwing it out to Bing and advertising it
to me.
10. Watt said on July 15, 2022 at 9:04 pm
Reply
Thank you so much! The idiots at MS apparently force the Internet search
option back on with some updates. This feature was off on my Win 11 laptop
until recently, then suddenly appeared today. Again, thanks for the
registry hack.
11. UserExperience said on April 18, 2022 at 8:36 pm
Reply
Unbelievable nonsense they push just to promote edge or bing or whatnot.
This is the third mandatory registry hack I had to do to make 11 usable.
12. Dart said on April 16, 2022 at 3:39 pm
Reply
Just tried the 3 above mentioned tweaks:
The 2 @ the site heading & roman’s.
none are working for me.
microsoft 11 pro
10.0.22000 build 22000
13. Anonymous said on April 7, 2022 at 7:22 am
Reply
The registry edit is not working in Windows 11 now.
14. Anthony said on March 7, 2022 at 6:04 am
Reply
I find the whole ‘Bing’ strategy of attempting to force use to be very
dishonest on Microsoft’s part. I’ve read the comments from Martin and all
the others and am not sure what you are talking about. I will make longhand
notes, step by step, take a break for a few hours and try again.
The second fault I find with Microsoft is the wicked idea of a Beta version
as an automatic download for subscribers. I was a home use subscriber, $99
per annum in Australia, and witlessly downloaded because M*t prompted me to
do so. Nothing about it being a Beta version. I missed deadlines. On one
workday, I lost 11 hours. Misery.
I have cancelled my subscription. But thank you all for your notes of
possible helping strategies.
15. Nick said on March 6, 2022 at 8:56 pm
Reply
Even the registry change isn’t working on windows 11 now. The web search is
an absolute violation.
Besides how violating it is, it’s also a performance nightmare. I have a
top end machine and yet pressing backspace while searching in start causes
a huge pause.
16. Rage Kage said on March 6, 2022 at 12:48 am
Reply
I used this for Windows 10 as I couldn’t find any current advice that
worked. I’m not sure if the group policies worked as I tried both methods
before restarting, but the regedit method worked immediately. Thanks a ton!
17. Science Tech said on February 8, 2022 at 8:56 pm
Reply
Thank you! That worked. What a relief.
I have Windows 11 pro but also needed to the regedit on top of the group
policy changes.
18. Cloud said on January 28, 2022 at 12:56 am
Reply
I made it windows 10 again but with rounded corners I don’t know how to get
rid of them.
19. Anonymous said on December 13, 2021 at 12:16 am
Reply
Tried both the GP and the Registry and neither of them worked for me.
20. Anonymous said on December 5, 2021 at 1:15 pm
Reply
Does not work for me on current window 11. I disabled group policies AND
the registry change and i still get web search results in the start menu :(
21. Ray said on November 30, 2021 at 8:54 pm
Reply
This was one of the first things I did when I discovered that Windows 11
was sending search queries to Bing.
Shameful that there isn’t an easy option to disable this in the Settings
panel.
22. Anonymous said on November 28, 2021 at 5:15 pm
Reply
Searches of sensitive local content are sent to Microsoft by default, what
a bunch of cunts.
23. Roman said on November 28, 2021 at 2:51 pm
Reply
This does not work on newest Windows 11. The ONLY option that works is the
following registry tweak:
-) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
-) create the Explorer key if not present
-) inside of Explorer, create new DWORD 32bit entry called
DisableSearchBoxSuggestions
and set the value to 1
-) reboot
1. Anonymous said on November 10, 2022 at 3:13 pm
Reply
This worked for me too, thanks!
2. Windowskindass said on July 21, 2022 at 12:11 am
Reply
Thank you so mutch man! +rep
Still works 21.7.2022 on the current windows version
3. Matt said on July 9, 2022 at 7:20 pm
Reply
Roman’s trick still works as of July 2022.
4. Sarah said on May 31, 2022 at 11:47 pm
Reply
Thank You! This worked perfectly.
5. Anonymous said on March 6, 2022 at 1:15 am
Reply
This was the only thing that worked for me, thank you so much!
6. Anonymous said on February 17, 2022 at 5:23 pm
Reply
Thank you, works for me aswell, the article solutions were enough
before, but something in this new windows 11 build ignores both the
registry and the group policies.
Current build 22000.527
7. Markz said on February 5, 2022 at 6:36 am
Reply
Can confirm, still works as Feb 5,2022 with build 22000.469 (21H2)
8. MickaJsd said on December 29, 2021 at 3:58 pm
Reply
Worked for me with a Win 11 Pro 21H2 (build: 22000.376)
Thank you very(!) much for this tweak.
I really couldn’t stand this feature anymore.
9. Anonymous said on December 23, 2021 at 5:30 pm
Reply
Thanks, this is the only way that works, my OS is Windows 11 21H2
22000.348
10. Ben S. said on December 22, 2021 at 3:52 am
Reply
None of the stuff in the article works for me in Windows 11 Home x64
21H2 22000.376, but Roman’s suggestion does.
You don’t even need to reboot – just kill all Explorer.exe processes in
Task Manager, then launch a new one via File->Run new
task->explorer.exe
1. Anonymous said on April 27, 2022 at 11:24 pm
Reply
You can simply use restart instead of killing the explorer process
11. Anonymous said on December 19, 2021 at 6:43 pm
Reply
This was the only solution that worked for me. Neither the reg edits
nor group policy changes listed in the main article.
12. Anonymous said on December 15, 2021 at 10:19 am
Reply
Thanks Roman, it worked for me
13. John G. said on November 28, 2021 at 6:55 pm
Reply
@roman’s trick works fine, same version of W11 here. :]
14. Martin Brinkmann said on November 28, 2021 at 4:23 pm
Reply
Which version of Windows 11 did you test this on?
1. vutt said on March 17, 2022 at 2:43 pm
Reply
Thank you Roman, this was exactly what I was looking for.
2. Roman said on November 28, 2021 at 5:40 pm
Reply
I tested it on the current build 22000.348
At least in my case, my mentioned Registry tweak was the only option
that worked
3. Anonymous said on June 19, 2022 at 4:38 am
Reply
no longer works (June 2022), there is no Explorer in the Windows
folder
24. Maris said on November 28, 2021 at 12:29 pm
Reply
Didn’t work for me
25. Tony said on November 27, 2021 at 6:11 pm
Reply
Start11 lets you replace the Start Menu with a clone of it, and it lets you
remove the “recommended” section, in-case you don’t use it. It also turns
off the search the web nonsense. Just a thought.
1. John G. said on November 27, 2021 at 6:28 pm
Reply
However, it’s not free. Probably OpenShell will do the same near soon.
:]
1. Tony said on November 28, 2021 at 5:31 am
Reply
Not everything needs to be free. Do you work for free?
2. John G. said on November 28, 2021 at 11:07 am
Reply
I work to earn money not to waste it.
26. Farmers said on November 27, 2021 at 12:27 pm
Reply
Can’t say this bothers me too much, as I hardly ever search through the
Start Menu (or the Search button for that matter) anyway.
1. Croatoan said on November 27, 2021 at 5:59 pm
Reply
Yea. Program Everything is much better and faster.
27. John G. said on November 27, 2021 at 10:48 am
Reply
This teawk seems not working in W11 x.348, rebooting included.
Anyway it does not bother me too much. :[
28. JonSnow said on November 27, 2021 at 10:07 am
Reply
This really bothered me to the point I reverted back to Win10…it was
annoying. I was searching inside my PC and Win11 was giving me Web results
first.
1. John G. said on November 27, 2021 at 10:58 am
Reply
W11 should be released in 2023, by now is a more or less a disaster for
productivity. :[
1. Gar G said on April 22, 2023 at 6:16 am
Reply
I am from the future, and it still is a disaster for productivity.
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