How to Disable Web Search in Windows 10 and 11

How to take control of your Windows 11 experience by disabling web search - customize your settings for a focused and private environment.

How to Disable Web Search in Windows 11

There is no built-in option in Windows 11 to totally stop web search. You can, however, reduce its impact by adjusting specific parameters. Please keep in mind that the processes may vary slightly depending on Microsoft's upgrades and modifications.

Disable Web Results in Start Menu Settings

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. Click on the gear icon to open Settings.
3. Go to "Privacy & Security."
4. Choose "Search" from the left sidebar.
5. Toggle off "Show web results in Start menu."

Microsoft Edge Search Settings

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Click on the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner to open the menu.
3. Select "Settings."
4. Scroll down to the "Privacy, search, and services" section.
5. Under the "Services" category, you can disable options like "Show me search and site suggestions using my typed characters" and "Show me suggestions from Microsoft Edge."

Group Policy Editor (for Windows Pro and Enterprise editions)

1. Press `Win + R` to open the Run dialog.
2. Type `gpedit.msc` and press Enter to open the Group Policy Editor.
3. Navigate to "Computer Configuration" > "Administrative Templates" > "Windows Components" > "Search."
4. Look for policies related to web search, such as "Do not use the search-based method when resolving shell shortcuts" or "Do not search the Internet."
5. Enable these policies if available.

Registry Editor

1. Press `Win + R` to open the Run dialog.
2. Type `regedit` and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
3. Navigate to `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows`.
4. Create a new key (folder) called `Explorer` and navigate to it.
5. Create (or edit) a DWORD value named `DisableSearchBoxSuggestions` and set its value to `1` to disable Bing search in Windows 11.

Remember to set a system restore point or backup your registry before making changes, as incorrectly altering the register can have unforeseen repercussions.

How to Disable Web Search in Windows 10

The Windows 10 Spring Update (2018) no longer lets you disable web search in Start which can lead to Microsoft tracking applications and documents and potentially leaking sensitive information to the web. Here is a fix to disable web searches in the start menu.

Users started reporting that Windows 10 Search was not working shortly after the release of Microsoft Windows 10 called the Spring Update. They report that Windows 10 search doesn't find files and instead offers web search results. I have also seen this - searching for a program already installed on my computer I get web results listing the company website and where to download the program. Some programs, despite being installed and used, do not show up in the start menu search - again web results, app store links and even the file in the downloads directory show - but not the shortcut to run the program.

Before the update these are the setting you need to change to disable web search. Scroll down to find out how to disable web search after the spring update.

Select the search box in Windows 10's taskbar. Cortana's greeting and news feed results should appear. Click the settings cog.

Now Toggle "Cortana can give you suggestions . . . " to off as well as "Search online and include web results" to off.

The search box will now say "Search Windows" instead of "Ask me anything." It will be quicker to respond and only show results from your hard drive or local network.

Disable Web Search in Windows 10 using Group Policy

If you are running Windows 10 Professional versions 1607 to 1709 you can use the Group Policy Editor to disable web searching.

1. Start the Local Group Policy Editor
2. Browse to the policy under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search
3. Set Allow Cortana to Disable
4. Set Do not allow web search to Enabled
5. Set Don't search the web or display web results in Search to Enabled
6. Click Apply and close the policy editor
7. Restart

Since the Spring Update the policies do not work any more. Follow the steps below to fix web searching in Windows 10.

How to Disable Web Search after Spring Update

Now that Microsoft broke Windows 10 search, there is a registry fix you can apply to restore the functionality however it is not as simple as the previous steps. All that is required is to create a few entries in the registry to disable web search in Windows 10.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search]
"BingSearchEnabled"=dword:00000000
"AllowSearchToUseLocation"=dword:00000000
"CortanaConsent"=dword:00000000

These entries are not present by default so you need to create them, and you can safely delete them should you want to revert. I would recommend creating a system restore point before doing any registry modifications, just to be safe. A reboot might be required after you make these changes for them to take effect.

You can download a registry fix below. Simply save the link to your computer and double-click the file. It will ask if you want to allow the app to make changes to your device, so click yes, then yes again on the next dialogue. It will then add the keys and values to the registry. Reboot for the changes to take effect.

Disable Web Search in Windows 10

It's not yet clear if this is a bug Microsoft introduced, or if they are in the process of forcing web updates but for now here is a workaround you can use to disable web search in Windows 10.