Microsoft has revamped its Start Menu and has added several new features and functionalities and one of them is an internet search. Whenever you search for any term in the Start Menu on your Windows computer, it also shows internet results.
Now, while it seems like a neat idea, it isn’t really practical. Most of the search functionality is carried out in the web browser by the user. Whenever you search for anything through the Start menu, it’s using Microsoft’s Bing search engine which isn’t everyone’s first choice. Also, clicking the Open in Browser option opens that link in the Microsoft Edge web browser.
Also, if you are not using the feature, it takes up a good amount of space. On top of that, the feature can become annoying if you want to search only for the items on your system. But the good thing is that the feature can be disabled, although it’s not a straightforward process of toggling switches in the settings.
In this step-by-step guide, we will show you how to disable the online search feature in the start menu on your Windows 11 computer using Registry Editor.
How to disable online search from Start Menu
Step 1: Open the Registry Editor tool on your computer. For this, press the “Windows” + “R” keys on your keyboard to open the Run prompt. In there, type “regedit” and then press the Enter key.
Step 2: When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following location
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
Step 3: Now, right-click on the “Windows” folder, and from the context menu, select New and then Key. Name the newly created key “Explorer” and hit Enter.
Step 4: In the Explorer folder, right-click in the empty area on the right-side pane and select New > DWord (32-Bit) and name this file “DisableSearchBoxSuggestions.”
Step 5: Once the file is created, double-click on it and change the Value Data filed to “1” and then click on the “Ok” button.
That’s it. Now, restart your computer once for the changes to take effect. When the device starts again, the internet search functionality within the Start menu won’t be working and you will be able to easily find stuff on your system.
