Easily disable Bing search suggestions in the Windows 11 Search menu by tweaking a simple setting in Registry Editor.
Microsoft has a long history of trying to force Bing on its users. Windows 11 is also following this approach like its predecessors and has included Bing Search in the Search menu. Now, most users prefer to use search to find files and applications on their system. But instead, they end up with a cluttered search window that also shows results from Bing Search.
Even though Bing AI has completely changed the search game for Bing, that doesn’t mean you want it in the search menu. And while it’s easy enough to switch from Bing to Google or other search engines in a browser, that same courtesy doesn’t extend to Windows Search. You will find that there is no option in the settings of the operating system to disable it. The only way you can disable Bing Search is by editing the Registry. Let’s see how to do it.
Disable Bing Search Using Registry Editor
Editing the registry is an important task and needs to be done with utmost care. Randomly changing or deleting any value may destabilize the program or operating system. To edit the registry to disable Bing search in Windows 11 you should follow the given below steps. Before editing the registry, you should also create a backup in case something goes wrong.
Open the Search menu on your Windows 11 system and type ‘registry editor’ in the search bar. Then, select the first search result to open the app that lets you view and edit the Windows Registry. If the UAC window appears, click ‘Yes’ to proceed.
Now, to back up the registry, go to the ‘File’ menu option and select ‘Export’ from the menu.
Then, select a location for the file, enter a name and click ‘Save’.
Now, on to the task at hand; Navigate to the following folder manually or by pasting the code below in Registry Editor’s address bar:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
If entering the above path doesn’t return anything, just enter the code until Windows is up, ie
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
Now, you need to create an explorer key; For users who already have an Explorer key, skip the next few steps and go straight to the step for creating the DWORD.
To create an Explorer key, right-click on ‘Windows’ and hover over the ‘New’ option. Then, click on the ‘Key’ option from the sub-menu.
enter Explorer in the Name field and press Enter.
Now this stage is same for all. Right-click on the ‘Explorer’ option, go to ‘New’ in the menu, and select ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value’ from the sub-menu.
The DWORD will be created and automatically selected, ready for you to name it; name the new value DisableSearchBoxSuggestions,
Double-click on ‘DisableSearchBoxSuggestions’ to open its properties. In the Value data field, set the value to 1 and click on ‘Ok’.
Now, to apply the changes, you need to restart Windows Explorer. You can do this by opening Task Manager and then restarting Windows Explorer from the Processes list. Or, you can simply restart your PC.
After restarting, you will find that Bing Search has been disabled in Windows 11.
Bing search results can clutter up the search menu but you can disable it with this simple registry hack. You can re-enable it at any time by following the same steps above and changing the DWORD value back to 0.
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