“One of the features of the Windows 10 start menu is the built-in Bing search when local search doesn’t find anything. Whether it’s due to privacy concerns, bugs, or just personal animosity, this article explains how to disable Bing search in the Start menu.
When you search the Windows 10 Start Menu, Windows first looks for local search results such as settings, files, or programs and displays all that are found.
If there are no local results, Windows will search Bing for the search keyword and display the results in the Start menu as shown below.
When you sign in to your Microsoft account, these searches will be uploaded to Microsoft, which will then list them in your account’s privacy panel. This is a privacy issue due to concerns that Microsoft is using this data to track your browsing habits.
In the past, there have also been bugs in the Bing search component that caused the Windows 10 Start menu to appear completely empty. If you are not using the Bing search feature, turning it off may prevent these errors from occurring in the future.
Below, we have described two methods that can be used to disable Bing search in the Windows 10 Start Menu.
How to Disable Bing Search in Windows 10 Start Menu
Unfortunately, for those who want to disable Bing search in the Start menu, Microsoft doesn’t offer an easy way.
Instead, Windows users need to modify the registry so that it uses the following registry values.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
“DisableSearchBoxSuggestions”=dword:00000001
For those who are comfortable modifying the registry, we have instructions on how to set the correct values using the Registry Editor.
For those who don’t like registry modifications, see the second method, which contains an easy to use ready-made registry file that does the tweaks for you.
Method 1: Disable Bing Search Results Using the Group Policy Editor
Windows 10 Pro comes with a Group Policy Editor that you can use to disable Bing Search in the Start Menu.
To disable Bing search, follow these steps:
- Find in the start menu “gpedit.msc‘ and select it when the result appears.
- When the Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to the following path: User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\File Explorer
- In the File Explorer section, you will see the policy “Disable display of recent search entries in File Explorer search field” as shown below. Double-click a policy to open it.
- To disable Bing search, set this policy to ‘Included.’
- When finished, click on Apply and then FINE button to save the policy.
- You can now close the Group Policy Editor and restart Windows Explorer or restart your computer.
After restarting, Bing searches will no longer appear in the Start menu.
Method 2: Use Registry Editor to disable Bing integration.
If you’re using Windows 10 Home and you’re comfortable using the Windows Registry, you can disable Bing’s Windows Search integration using the Registry Editor.
- First, open the Windows Registry Editor by clicking the button Windows key + R key in the same time. This will open the “Run:” dialog box and then type regedit and press FINE button.
Launching the Registry Editor - Windows will display a UAC prompt asking if you want to allow the Registry Editor to make changes to the system. click Yes button to continue.
- Switch to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer key. If the key does not exist, create the necessary folders until you are in the explorer key.
- Right click Researcher and select New and then DWORD (32-bit) value, as shown below.
New DWORD value - You will be prompted for a name for the new value. Type DisableSearchBoxSuggestions and press Enter on keyboard. A new value will be created and should be automatically set to 0. Now double click on BingSearchEnabled and set the value 1 and then click the button FINE button.
- When finished, you should have a BingSearchEnabled value created and set to 1.
- You can now close the Registry Editor and restart Windows Explorer or restart your computer.
After restarting, Bing search will no longer work in the Windows 10 Start Menu.
Turn Bing integration back on
To re-enable Bing integration, simply disable the group policy or edit the registry and delete DisableSearchBoxSuggestions cost under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer Registry key.
Restart the Explorer process or computer again and the Bing integration will work again.
Update 05.10.20: Added updated instructions for disabling Bing search.