Here’s How I Removed the Annoying Search Icons from My Windows 11 Taskbar
The Windows 11 taskbar search bar allows you to quickly search for apps and files available on your device. If you’re connected to the Internet, you’ll also notice a small icon in the taskbar search bar that changes every day. If you’re like me and prefer the search bar not to contain any such icon, there are several ways to disable it.
Why did Microsoft even add the search highlights icon?
The icon you see in the taskbar search bar is part of the highlighted search function. In addition to the small icon in the search bar, you will also see several new boxes on the right side of the search menu that appears when you click on the search bar. These boxes highlight things that are special about that particular day.
For example, if you open the search menu on October 16, which is World Food Day, the boxes will display content relevant to that occasion. The icon that appears in the search bar will also be related to World Food Day.
Microsoft claims that the highlights search feature was introduced to ensure that users are informed about holidays, birthdays and other important events related to their region. A trending searches section is also part of the search highlights feature, which shows some of the trending searches in the region.
How to Remove Windows Search Highlights Icon
Call me disconnected, but I prefer a clutter-free Windows experience. I want my Windows 11 system to be AI-free and without unnecessary pre-installed apps. My Windows taskbar search bar shouldn’t have any extra icons either. If you want to have the same taskbar experience on your Windows system, you can follow any of the three methods mentioned below to disable search highlights and get rid of the annoying search icon.
Via the Settings app
The quickest way to remove the search highlight icon is to disable it through the Windows Settings app. To do this, open the Settings app on your PC, select “Privacy & Security” from the left sidebar, and then click the “Search” option in the Windows Permissions section. Next, turn off the “Show search highlights” toggle.
And that’s about it. You will no longer see the search highlights icon in the search bar. Any additional boxes that were associated with it will also no longer appear in the search menu when you click on the search bar. However, if you notice that the search icon still appears, open Task Manager, right-click on the “Explorer” process and choose “Restart” from the menu that appears.
Using the Registry User
If you are a power user and like to play with registry settings, you can use Registry Editor to disable the search feature on your Windows 11 PC.
To do this, open the Start menu, type Registry Editor in the search bar and press Enter. Click “Yes” at the UAC prompt that appears.
In Registry Editor, navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SearchSettings
Make sure the DWORD value “IsDynamicSearchBoxEnabled” is present in the right panel.
If not, you need to create it. To do this, right-click an empty space in the right pane, choose “New,” and then select “DWORD (32-bit) Value” from the menu that appears. Name the value IsDynamicSearchBoxEnabled and press Enter. Next, double-click the “IsDynamicSearchBoxEnabled” value, type 0 in the Value Data field, then click “OK” to save the changes. This will disable search highlights.
In the future, when you want to re-enable search on your computer, type 1 in the Value data field of the IsDynamicSearchBoxEnabled value and save the changes.
Using the Local Group Policy Editor
In addition to the Settings app or Registry Editor, you can also use Local Group Policy Editor to disable search highlights on your Windows PC. However, this method only works on Windows Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions because Local Group Policy Editor is only available on these versions of Windows unless you used a workaround to install the tool on Windows Home as well.
To get started, press the Win+R hotkey to open the Run dialog box. Type gpedit.msc in the search bar and press Enter. In the Local Group Policy Editor window that appears, go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search. Double-click the “Allow Search Items” policy in the right pane.
Choose “Off” from the settings menu that appears, then click “Apply” and “OK” to save the changes.
In the future, if you want to enable search highlights, select the “Enabled” or “Not configured” option in the Allow search highlights policy settings window.
It was all about how to disable search highlights on Windows 11 and get rid of the annoying search icon that appears on the Windows 11 taskbar. Interestingly, the Windows taskbar is highly customizable. In addition to managing the icon that appears on the search bar, you can also customize other taskbar icons and even change the color of the taskbar.
