How to Disable Web Search on Taskbar

by Rian

If your go-to machine is running Windows, chances are there are some bundled-in features and softwares that aren’t either used or ideal for your work flow. For me, especially as I am running Windows primarily on virtual machines, is web search on taskbar. If I were to search something on the taskbar or file explorer, I want the scope of the results to be confined to what is available locally; if I were to search online, I would have used Google or DuckDuckGo, not Bing.

Instructions

As usual, the instruction is meant for Registry Editor.

1. From Registry Editor, navigate* to the following path:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

2. Right-click to create a new DWORD (32-bit), and name it DisableSearchBoxSuggestions.
3. Set the value of the newly created DWORD to 1.
4. Restart the machine.

*Depending on your system language, copy-pasting the path may not work. I have experienced weird glitches where Windows would omit backward slash on Korean systems.

Afterthoughts

The growth of adware-like preinstalled softwares on Windows is simply concerning. I find the current climate around Windows to be rather lenient on Microsoft, especially when the operating system is now bundled with most of Microsoft’s own softwares and web services. One would have been able to make argument appeasing for practicality, had it been at least linked to Google, — that most users uses Google and integration offers better UX — but we are talking about Bing. I understand for most users Windows is the only option. Microsoft’s attempt to leverage the users at the cost of worsening the Windows experience still feels off.