Don’t like the internet search results in the start menu? Here’s a simple way to disable web results in the start menu in Windows 10.
Though not as fast or accurate as in the Windows 7 days, Windows 10 start menu search has improved a lot. This is especially true with the Windows 10 v1909’s enhanced search indexing feature. When you search for something in the start menu, it not only lists all relevant local search results but also shows suggestions for web results. This is helpful if you want to search for something on the web without actually opening the web browser.
The only problem is that more often than not, the start menu can sometimes prioritize the web results over the local results. In those cases, it can be quite frustrating because your actual results are being buried beneath the online search suggestions.
So, if you are not a fan of the start menu online search results, follow the below steps to quickly disable web results in Start Menu in Windows 10.
Disable Start Menu Web Results or Online Search Suggestions
Unfortunately, there no option within the settings app to quickly disable web results in the start menu. If you want to do it, you have to edit the Windows Registry. Though sounds complicated, it is pretty easy to do. All you have to do is create a couple of values and you are done. The being said, backup registry before trying to modify it.
1. First, open the Windows Registry Editor by searching for “Registry Editor” in the start menu. After opening, go to the following location.
A quick tip: Copy and paste the below path in the address bar and press Enter. It will automatically take you to the target folder.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search
2. In the Search folder, we need to create a couple of values. So, right-click on the right panel and select the “New → Dword Value” option.
3. Name the new value as “AllowSearchToUseLocation” and press Enter to confirm the name.
4. Double-click on the AllowSearchToUseLocation value and enter “0” in the Value Data field. Click on the “Ok” button to save changes.
5. Now, right-click again on the right panel and select “New → Dword Value”. Name the value as “BingSearchEnabled” and press Enter to confirm the new name.
6. Double-click on theBingSearchEnabled value and enter “0” in the Value Data field. Click on the “Ok” button to save changes.
7. Close registry editor and reboot Windows.
That is it. From now on you will not see web results in the start menu. All you see are the local results and suggestions.
If you ever want to enable the web results, simply delete the two values. i.e, AllowSearchToUseLocation and BingSearchEnabled. This action will restore the previous behavior.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, though a roundabout way, it is pretty easy to turn off web results in the start menu in Windows 10. Do keep in mind that once you disable the online search results, you cannot use your start menu search for quick calculations, conversions, and other such things. This is because you are restricting the start menu’s access to the Bing search engine.
Hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible. If you like this article, do check out how to solve start menu problems in Windows 10 and how to backup start menu layout in Windows 10.
Many, many thanks ! This was exactly what I was looking for.
Windows 10 Professional in 2021 and no option to disable this distracting functionality. What a shame.