Windows Search Without the Bloat

Most Windows users have probably encountered this problem: you press the Start button, begin typing to find an app, and hit Enter, only to discover that Windows has opened a MS Edge tab with Bing search results. You can now disable these web results, as Bing-free Windows Search has begun rolling out to more users this week.

MS began rolling out the Bing-free Windows Search experience in August 2026. However, the gradual rollout left many users waiting without knowing when the feature would become fully available. It is still not available to everyone, but enabling the “Get the latest updates…” option on the Windows Update page should make it available on more PCs.

How to Turn Off Bing and MS Store Results in Windows Search

Bing will not be disabled automatically in Windows Search. MS has no plans to remove it by default, and the option is intended for users who want to eliminate web content from the search experience.

If the server-side change has reached your PC, you should be able to disable both Bing web results and MS Store results.

MS refers to Bing results in Windows Search as “web searches”. This terminology reflects the fact that users in regions such as Europe can select a search engine other than Bing as their preferred source.

Curiously, the toggle cannot be found by searching for it directly in Settings. Searching for “web search” or “turn off Bing” returns “No results.”

The only way to reach the relevant option through Settings search is to enter “search” and select “Suggested search results.” The list still includes “Change the search provider in Internet Explorer,” a reminder that some parts of Windows have not moved on since 2022.

How to Keep Search Limited to Your PC

Disabling web searches does not make Windows Search completely offline. Directly below that option is a “Search my accounts” section containing “MS account” and “Work or School account” toggles, both of which are enabled by default.

When these options are enabled, Windows Search can still retrieve results from services such as OneDrive and Outlook. To limit Search to content stored on your PC, disable both account options as well.

Windows Search Feels Much Better Without Bing

After disabling web searches, the Windows Search homepage no longer displays Bing-related widgets such as trending keywords, quizzes, or lesser-known facts of the day. All Bing- and MSN-related promotional content disappears from the homepage.

The result is a cleaner homepage showing only a few recent searches, all of which are local. You can hover over individual items and remove them as needed.

It is a welcome improvement, although the experience will feel familiar to anyone who has previously used the Windows Registry or third-party tools to force-disable Bing in Windows Search.

Faster Local Search Results

Pressing the letter S immediately displays apps beginning with S, including Spotify. Windows Search also finds settings, files, and folders that begin with the letter or contain it elsewhere in their names.

With Bing search enabled—the default behavior—the same query is likely to include MS Store listings and Bing queries alongside Spotify. It is also unlikely to be as fast as Windows Search without Bing.

This performance does not require Enhanced mode, which indexes the entire PC. On a laptop using the default Classic mode, which covers Documents, Pictures, Music, and the desktop, Windows Search indexed 218,100 items with none pending.

If everything is indexed, blank results should be uncommon. However, when nothing on the PC matches a query, Windows Search is more likely to display “No results found” than it would with Bing enabled.

Improved Typo Recognition

Windows Search is now much better at understanding typographical errors. For example, entering “Otl” while looking for Outlook still returns the email client in the results. The same applies to “Putlook.”

However, the feature is not flawless, and MS still needs to address some limitations. Entering “ntpd” for Notepad returns “No results found.” Search appears to handle misspellings effectively, but it does not infer an app name from an abbreviation with the vowels removed.

Settings, Apps, and App Shortcuts Appear Instantly

Windows Search also performs well with plain-English questions about system settings. Entering “make text size bigger” returns the exact system setting as the best match, along with an Open button in the preview pane. This is not powered by a large or small language model; it uses a straightforward query-matching algorithm.

Remaining Issues

There are two problems with this test. First, the preview pane still displays a “Get quick help from web” section containing a “Making text larger on screen” link, even when web searches are disabled. Bing has therefore not disappeared completely, which explains why the Edge-based WebView2 process continues running in the background.

Second, the Documents section displays “SettingsCache.txt” and two “settingssynonyms.txt” files. These appear to be internal files used by Windows to match Settings queries. Their appearance is unexpected because only Classic indexing is enabled.

App Actions and Web Apps

Searching for “chrome” displays Google Chrome as the best match, together with jump-list actions such as “New window” and “New Incognito window,” as well as frequently visited sites. Without Bing, there is no “chrome download” web suggestion directing users toward Edge.

Windows Search also detects Chrome web apps, including WhatsApp Web, Cloudflare, and Google Meet, and lists them as regular applications.

What You Lose Without Bing in Windows Search

Disabling Bing does remove some functionality. Most notably, Windows Search no longer performs calculations. Entering a simple multiplication query returns “No results found.” With Bing enabled, the answer appears inline; without it, you must open Calculator.

Searching for “weather” also no longer produces the forecast card previously provided by Bing. Instead, Windows Search lists the Weather app as the best match, followed by Lively Weather, Weather for Command Palette, and older screenshots stored on the PC that contain “weather” in their filenames.

This trade-off may be worthwhile for users who would rather open the Weather app than wait for Bing to load an unsolicited card.

Final Assessment

Windows Search is significantly more impressive without Bing. Disabling web results makes the entire experience cleaner, faster, and more focused. MS could have introduced this option years ago and avoided much of the criticism surrounding Windows Search.

Although the new Windows Search experience is available to more users, it is still being rolled out gradually. As a result, some users may not receive it this week.

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