If you prefer a clean, local-only search experience on Windows 11, you can remove the Bing-powered web results that appear in the Taskbar Search and Start menu — but Microsoft doesn’t expose a single Settings toggle to do it for all editions. You can disable web suggestions using Group Policy (for Pro/Enterprise/Education) or the Registry (for Home and Pro), and you should understand what each change does, how to verify it, and what the trade-offs are before you proceed.
Background / Overview
Windows Search in Windows 11 can surface two distinct kinds of online content: immediate web suggestions when you type in the Taskbar Search box, and curated “Search Highlights” cards that appear on the Search home page. Both features rely on online services (Bing, trending content feeds and Microsoft services) and are independent from the classic local search index used to find apps, files, and settings. Microsoft documents a set of Group Policy and registry keys that control these behaviors, and the same keys are widely used by community guides and IT pros to enforce a local-only search experience. Disabling web results is commonly required for privacy-minded users, organizations who want to limit external queries, and people who find the web suggestions noisy or slow. The two supported approaches are:
- Group Policy (recommended for managed/Pro systems): Apply the search policies under Windows Components → Search.
- Registry (works on Home and Pro): Create policy keys under HKLM/HKCU and set the expected DWORD values (for example, DisableSearchBoxSuggestions).
The rest of this article gives precise, verified steps for both methods, shows how to confirm the change, explains side effects (for example, Search Highlights will be disabled and its toggle becomes grayed out), and outlines troubleshooting and rollback options.
What you are disabling — a precise technical summary
- Web suggestions (Bing results) in Taskbar Search / Start — controlled by machine- and user-level policies such as ConnectedSearchUseWeb and ConnectedSearchUseWebOverMeteredConnections (HKLM policies) or the per-user flags like BingSearchEnabled (HKCU). Disabling these prevents Search from performing web queries for suggestions.
- Search box suggestion UI (Search box autocomplete, recent web suggestions and 'top' suggestions) — controlled by the Explorer policy key DisableSearchBoxSuggestions (under Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer). Setting this to 1 removes the suggestion UI and the online quick suggestions.
- Search Highlights (curated cards on Search home) — when these policies are enforced the Settings toggle for “Show search highlights” becomes unavailable (grayed out) and Highlights are removed. This behavior is documented in Microsoft’s community answers and confirmed by field testing.
These keys are the
supported control points Microsoft exposes. In practice, some Windows builds and OEM configurations may behave slightly differently, and community testing shows occasional variations across feature updates; expect to re-check these settings after major Windows updates.
How to turn off web results using Group Policy (Windows 11 Pro / Enterprise / Education)
The Group Policy method is the preferred, centralized approach for managed machines. It enforces the behavior at the machine level and is less likely to be overridden by per-user toggles.
Steps (Group Policy Editor)
- Press Win, type gpedit.msc and press Enter to open Local Group Policy Editor.
- Navigate to:
- Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Search
- Locate and configure the following policies:
- Don’t search the web or display web results in Search — set to Enabled. This disables web queries in Search.
- Optionally: Do not allow web search and Don’t search the web or display web results in Search over metered connections — set to Enabled to be thorough.
- Apply changes and either run gpupdate /force or reboot the machine to ensure the new policy is enforced. In some cases a full reboot ensures the Search UI reflects the policy immediately.
Notes for admins
- These Group Policy settings map to registry values under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search (for example, ConnectedSearchUseWeb = 0). Microsoft documents the registry-equivalent keys for group-policy application.
- Use Group Policy Objects (GPOs) in Active Directory or MDM profiles for enterprise-scale deployment.
How to turn off web results using the Registry (Windows 11 Home and Pro)
If you run Windows 11 Home or prefer a per-device registry edit, apply the following steps. Editing the Registry can break your system if done incorrectly; backup the Registry or create a System Restore point first.
Step-by-step (Registry Editor)
- Press Win, type regedit and press Enter to open Registry Editor.
- Navigate to:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
- Right-click the Windows key → New → Key, name it Explorer (if it does not already exist).
- Inside Explorer, right-click → New → DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it DisableSearchBoxSuggestions. Set the value to 1.
- (Optional but recommended for a fuller block) Create / set the following machine or user keys:
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\ConnectedSearchUseWeb = 0
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\ConnectedSearchUseWebOverMeteredConnections = 0
- HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search\BingSearchEnabled = 0
- HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\DisableSearchBoxSuggestions = 1
These additional keys mirror the Group Policy controls and help ensure web queries and Bing suggestions are blocked.
- Restart the PC (or sign out/sign in) to apply changes.
Revert the Registry changes
- To restore web suggestions: delete the DisableSearchBoxSuggestions value (or set it to 0), and remove/reset any other policy keys you changed. A reboot will restore the previous behavior.
Quick verification: how to check the change worked
After applying either method, verify using these quick checks:
- Visual check — open Taskbar Search and type a query unrelated to a local app (for example, “what is the time in Tokyo”). If web results, web suggestions or trending cards are gone, the change took effect. Note that cached highlights may take some minutes to disappear.
- Registry verification (PowerShell examples):
- To check the Explorer policy:
- In PowerShell (no admin required for HKCU):
Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" -Name DisableSearchBoxSuggestions -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
- Expected value: DisableSearchBoxSuggestions = 1
- To check the Windows Search machine policies (admin required):
- Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search" -Name ConnectedSearchUseWeb,ConnectedSearchUseWebOverMeteredConnections -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
- Expected values: ConnectedSearchUseWeb = 0, ConnectedSearchUseWebOverMeteredConnections = 0
These checks confirm the policy-registry mapping Microsoft documents.
- Settings UI: open Settings → Privacy & security → Search permissions. The “Show search highlights” or similar toggles may be grayed out when the policy is enforced. Microsoft Q&A and community reports confirm that the Highlights toggle becomes disabled.
Troubleshooting and edge cases
- Some Windows builds or OEM images re-provision search components during feature updates, or may ignore a specific registry key: if web results remain after making the changes, apply both the machine-level Windows Search policies (HKLM) and the Explorer DisableSearchBoxSuggestions entry (HKCU and/or HKLM) and reboot. Community testing and official guidance recommend combining both policy levels for the most consistent results.
- If the policy appears to “stick” but Search becomes broken or incomplete, the Windows Search indexer or a cumulative update may be interfering. Rebuild the Search index via Indexing Options → Advanced → Rebuild, or run the Windows Search troubleshooter (Settings → System → Troubleshoot → Other troubleshooters → Search and Indexing). These steps are standard recovery approaches after changing search-related policies.
- On managed devices, an organization’s MDM/GPO may override local changes. If the setting reverts or is grayed out and you’re on a corporate device, check with your IT admin before changing policies.
What changes you’ll see (and what you won’t)
- You will stop seeing web-powered suggestions and Bing results in the Taskbar Search and Start menu. The Search flyout will show local apps, settings and indexed files only.
- Search Highlights and web cards will be removed and the Settings toggle for Highlights will be grayed out while policy is in effect. That’s intentional: policy enforcement prevents conflicts between manual toggles and centrally-managed settings.
- Local search functionality — apps, files, settings — continues to work normally. These changes do not disable the Windows Search indexer. They simply prevent Search from sending queries to web services for suggestions.
- Performance impact: turning off web results reduces network activity related to Search and eliminates occasional delays caused by online queries, but it won’t make dramatic changes to overall system performance because the indexer and local searches still run as before.
Enterprise deployment and automation tips
- Use Group Policy ADMX templates or MDM policy configurations to deploy the Windows Search policies across many devices. Map the following registry values when scripting a deployment:
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\ConnectedSearchUseWeb = 0
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search\ConnectedSearchUseWebOverMeteredConnections = 0
- HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\DisableSearchBoxSuggestions = 1
- Optionally set the same Explorer value under HKCU for test users for immediate effect.
- For scripted deployments, the community-provided PowerShell blocks that create these keys and restart Search/Explorer are widely used; always test on a controlled set of machines before rolling out broadly. Keep rollback commands on hand that remove the policy keys or set their values to defaults.
Alternatives and complementary steps
If you want a simpler or less invasive result, consider these lower‑risk options first:
- In Settings → Privacy & security → Search permissions, turn off “Show search highlights” and clear device search history. This removes the highlight cards without touching the Registry or GPO. However, it does not always remove web suggestions.
- Hide the search box or switch it to icon-only on the taskbar (Settings → Personalization → Taskbar). Hiding the search box eliminates the flyout UI from the taskbar but leaves Win+S search intact.
- Use a third‑party search utility (for example, Everything) to bypass Windows Search entirely when you need instant, local file lookup. Community pros often recommend this as a lightweight alternative for heavy file-search workflows.
Risks, caveats and why you should backup first
- Registry edits and policy changes can be reversed, but incorrect edits carry risk. A wrong key under the Policies branch can inadvertently alter other enforced behaviors. Always create a System Restore point or export the registry keys before editing.
- Major Windows updates may change Search internals or re-provision the SearchApp package. That can reset or change the registry keys that took effect previously. If you manage many machines, add a monitoring task to re-verify keys after feature updates. Community testing shows that occasionally a build can behave differently until a subsequent patch arrives.
- On domain-joined or MDM-managed devices, local changes may be overridden by corporate policies. If you see settings revert or become blocked, coordinate with IT.
Rollback checklist (if you change your mind)
- If you used Group Policy:
- Set the changed policies back to Not Configured in gpedit.msc.
- Run gpupdate /force or reboot.
- If you used the Registry:
- Delete the DWORD DisableSearchBoxSuggestions from HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer (and from HKLM if you added it there).
- Remove or set ConnectedSearchUseWeb and related values under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search back to their previous values, or delete the policy key subtree.
- Reboot.
- If Search remains odd after rollback, rebuild the index (Indexing Options → Advanced → Rebuild) and sign out/sign in or restart Explorer.
Final analysis — strengths, weaknesses and recommended approach
- Strengths: Using Group Policy or the documented Policies registry keys is the supported and auditable method to block web-powered suggestions. It’s reliable when applied correctly and essential for organizations or users who require local-only search behavior. Microsoft documents the relevant policies, and community guides corroborate the exact registry names and locations.
- Weaknesses and risks: There’s no single “Settings” toggle for every edition; Home users must edit the Registry. Some Windows builds and OEM images can behave differently after updates, requiring re-validation. Registry editing is risky if you don’t back up, and corporate policies can override local changes. Community reports indicate occasional build-specific quirks where policies seem to be ignored until machine-level keys are also applied.
- Recommended approach:
- For single personal machines: try the Settings toggles first (Search permissions → turn off Search Highlights and clear device history). If web suggestions persist, apply the Registry method but back up first.
- For Pro/Enterprise: use Group Policy to enforce the “Don’t search the web” policies and mirror those with HKLM registry values for automation and verification. Test, then roll out.
Stopping Bing-powered web results in Windows 11 is a focused, reversible configuration that brings Search back to local files and apps — but because Microsoft exposes the controls via Group Policy and Policy-level registry keys (not as a universal Settings toggle), apply the change thoughtfully: back up your system, test on a single device, verify the expected registry values, and plan for occasional rechecks after major Windows updates. Implemented correctly, the result is a cleaner, simpler Search experience without online suggestions or highlight cards.
Source: Windows Central
https://www.windowscentral.com/micr...op-internet-results-in-search-for-windows-11/