The giant search box is back. It is one of the disliked features of Windows 10, and now it’s back on Windows 11. The new search box or the search field on Windows 11’s taskbar is an unnecessary waste of space. Why do you need another search function taking up so much space on an already cluttered taskbar when you have the Start menu doubling as the search function?

The search bar is another ploy of Microsoft to get more users to use the Edge browser and the Bing search engine. Every search you make on the search field is automatically redirected to Microsoft’s Edge browser instead of your default browser.

If you wish to get rid of the new wide search bar to regain some space on the taskbar on Windows 11, here’s how you can disable or hide it in Windows 11.

Disable Windows 11 Search Bar from the Taskbar via Settings

When you type some query in the Windows search, you will get the same result as typing in the Start menu. So the search bar on the taskbar is practically useless that takes up too much space on the taskbar. Here’s how you can disable it:

Open the Windows Settings app by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting ‘Settings’ from the menu.

In the Settings app, move to the ‘Personalization’ section on the left and click on ‘Taskbar’ on the right.

Expand the ‘Taskbar items’ option and click on the drop-down next to ‘Search’.

From the drop-down list, select ‘Hide’ to disable the search box. If you are using an older build of Windows 11, turn Off the toggle. There are other options in the drop-down – Search icon only, Search box (default), and Search button.

As soon as you select the ‘Hide’ option, the search box will disappear from the taskbar.

If you want the original search icon back, select the ‘Search icon only option’ from the drop-down menu.

Result:

If you wish to show a small search button instead of the big search box, select the ‘Search button’ option from the drop-down menu.

Result:

Hide or Remove Search Box from Windows 11’s Taskbar via Registry Editor

Another way to disable or hide the search box from the taskbar is by tweaking the Windows Registry.

To open Registry Editor, press Window+R and type ‘regedit’ in the Run command box then click ‘OK’. Click ‘Yes’ in the User Account Control if prompted.

Navigate the following location in the Registry Editor:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search

In the right pane, double-click the REG_DWORD named ‘SearchboxTaskbarMode’.

Then, type 0 in the Value data field and click ‘OK’.

You can also change the Value data to one of the following to show or hide different search boxes:

  • 0 – Hide the search box
  • 1 – Search icon only
  • 2 – Search box
  • 3 – Search button

Then, close the registry editor and restart your computer.

The images inside the search box are called Search highlights. It showcases notable and interesting moments of what’s special about each day. When you click on the image, it serves you with relevant content and images.

If you don’t mind the big search box but are bothered by the little illustrations in the search box, you can easily disable the images in the search box. Here’s how you do this:

First, press the Windows+I keyboard shortcut to open Windows Settings. Click on ‘Privacy & security’ from the left-side pane and then select ‘Search permissions’ under Windows permissions on your right.

Scroll all the way down to More settings and turn off the ‘Show search highlights’ toggle.

Now, if you click on the search box on the taskbar, it will no longer show you the images.

Disable Web Results in Windows Search on Windows 11

Anything you search on Windows search if the search item is not found on the system, it will show you web results for the query from Bing. Many users don’t like these web results. If something is not on your computer, you just want it to say ‘No results found’ instead of the annoying web suggestions. If you don’t want these web results, you can disable them from the Windows search.

To disable web results in the Windows search, you need to tweak the Registry Editor. Type regedit in the Run dialog box and hit ‘OK’ to launch Registry Editor.

In the Registry Editor window, navigate to the following path or copy-paste the same into your address bar at the top. 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

Now, look for a key named Explorer under Windows. If it’s not available, right-click the ‘Windows’ key, select the ‘New’ menu and choose the ‘Key’ option.

Then, rename the key as Explorer.

With the ‘Explorer’ key selected, right-click an empty area again and select the ‘New’ menu and choose the ‘DWORD (32-bit) value’ option.

Then, rename the newly created DWORD as DisableSearchBoxSuggestions.

After that, double-click the new DWORD and set its Value Data to 1. Click ‘OK’.

Then, close the Registry Editor and reboot your system. Disabling web results in Windows Search using Registry Editor will also disable search highlights. Now, when you search for something, it will show no results if it’s not found in the system.

That’s it. Using the steps above, not only can you remove the search bar from the taskbar in Windows 11, you can further tweak the Search menu to however you like it.