How to Turn Off Web Results in Windows 11 Search

Where Is the Setting to Disable Web Results?

Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Search and turn off both the "Web searches" and "Microsoft Store" toggles. Most people look for this under the Search settings page itself and don't find it there — it's filed under Privacy & security instead, which is the main reason this setting went unnoticed by so many people even after it started rolling out.

1. Open Settings (Win + I).
2. Go to Privacy & security in the left sidebar.
3. Click Search under the Windows permissions section.
4. Turn off Web searches and Microsoft Store.

The change takes effect immediately — the next time you open Search, only local files, settings, and installed apps show up. There's no confirmation dialog and no restart prompt; Windows simply stops querying Bing and the Store the moment you flip the switches, which makes it easy to toggle back and forth a few times if you want to compare the two experiences before deciding which one you prefer long-term.

Search Gets Faster, Not Just Cleaner

Search no longer waits on a network round-trip once web and Store results are switched off.

This isn't just a cosmetic cleanup. Multiple outlets that tested the September 2026 update, including Windows Latest, reported that Search responds noticeably faster once web and Store results are disabled — previously, every search query triggered a network request to Bing in the background before results could finish rendering, even if you only ever wanted a local file. Removing that step means results appear as soon as the local index can produce them, which is especially noticeable on PCs with a slower or intermittent internet connection, where the network request could previously stall the entire search box for a second or two rather than just delaying the web-results portion of the list while local results loaded normally.

This Setting vs. Disabling Search Entirely

It's worth being precise about what this toggle does and doesn't do, since the two get confused. Turning off Web searches and Microsoft Store results does not disable Windows Search, turn off the taskbar search box, or stop Windows from indexing your files. It only removes two specific, named result sources from what Search displays on screen — your local file, app, and settings results keep working exactly as before.

Don't See the Toggles Yet?

As with the taskbar and Start menu changes in this same update, the Search privacy toggles roll out gradually through Controlled Feature Rollout, so two PCs on the identical build number can show different options for a while. Confirm you're on build 26100.9445 or 26200.9445 through Settings > System > About, and check again in a few days if the Web searches or Microsoft Store toggles aren't visible under Privacy & security > Search yet.

Why Did Windows Search Show Web Results in the First Place?

Bing integration in Windows Search was originally pitched by Microsoft as a convenience feature — search for a topic and get a quick answer card without opening a browser. In practice, it more often meant a query meant for a local file returned a screen dominated by web links and sponsored-feeling Store suggestions, with the actual file buried further down the results list or missing from the visible view entirely without scrolling. That mismatch between intent and result is exactly what generated years of complaints, and it's the specific problem this new setting addresses — Microsoft isn't removing the web-search capability from Windows, just making it optional rather than mandatory. For anyone who does want the web-results behavior — occasional quick-answer lookups without switching to a browser — leaving both toggles on keeps the original experience exactly as it was; nothing about this update removes that option, it simply adds an off switch that didn't exist before.

What Turning Off Web Search Actually Stops

Beyond speed and clutter, there's a privacy dimension worth understanding. With web results enabled, every query typed into the taskbar search box — including partial, unfinished queries as you type — can be sent to Bing to generate live suggestions, the same way a browser's address bar sends partial URLs to a search engine for autocomplete. For anything you'd rather keep purely local, like searching for a personal file by a sensitive name, disabling web searches means that query never leaves your PC in the first place, rather than just hiding the resulting web suggestions from view after the fact.

This is separate from, and doesn't replace, your browser's own privacy settings — it only affects the system-level Windows Search experience, not searches you type directly into Edge, Chrome, or any other browser's address bar.

Search Highlights and Other Search Extras

If your search box still shows promotional-feeling content after disabling web and Store results — icons for trending topics, seasonal graphics, or "Search highlights" — that's a separate feature from the one covered in this guide. Search highlights can be turned off from the same Search settings area, but it's controlled by its own toggle rather than the Web searches switch, since it's sourced differently (curated content Microsoft pushes to the search box rather than live Bing queries) and has historically been managed from its own dedicated toggle even in Windows 11 versions before this update. Checking both settings together gives you the cleanest possible local-only search experience. Search highlights tends to be the more subtle of the two — it doesn't slow anything down the way live web queries could, so it's easy to overlook if your main goal was speed rather than a fully minimal search box, but it's worth the extra few seconds to check if visual clutter was your original complaint.

Frequently Asked Questions