How to disable Bing Search on Windows 11
When you search your PC, in addition to local results, you also get web-based results powered by Bing Search on Windows 11. But there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to disable Bing on Windows 11 if you don’t want web-based results.
Microsoft introduced Bing’s web search feature on Windows 10 and kept this feature on Windows 11 as well. Most Windows 11 users see searching the web on your PC as a way for Microsoft to promote its Bing search engine, but it’s not something that’s of much value when you’re looking for files that are on your PC.
Disable Bing Search on Windows 11
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t offer an option to turn off Bing search in settings. You can disable both options in Search for cloud content in the Windows settings.
However, that doesn’t stop your PC from continuing to display web-based search results. Instead, you must edit the Local Group Policy editor and the Windows registry. Here’s what you need to do.
Disable Bing Search via Local Group Policy Editor
How to disable Bing search on Windows 11 using Local Group Policy Editor.
1. Click on the start menu and type gpedit.msc.
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search in the left pane. You need to enable two policies: Don’t allow web searches and Don’t search the web or show web results in search.
3a. Double-click the Disallow Web Search policy. Set up the policy Allowed and click Apply and then click OK.
3b. Double-click the policy named Don’t search the web or show web results in search. Set up the policy Allowed and click Apply and then click OK.
4. Restart your PC for the changes made to take effect.
Web-based results can still be viewed after this change in Local Group Policy Editor. If you’re still seeing web-based results, you need to do an additional edit in the Windows registry.
Disable Bing search through the Windows registry
How to disable Bing search using the Windows registry.
1. Click beginning and type regedit. Accept the User Account Control (UAC) prompt that appears.
2. Navigate to the following location: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search
3. Right-click Seek and select New > DWORD (32-bit) value.
4. Name the new DWORD value “BingSearchEnabled”
5. Double-click the new DWORD BingSearchEnabled and set up the data 0 and click OK.
6. Close the Windows registry when done.
No need to restart your PC, you should see the changes made immediately. Now when you search on Windows 11, you will no longer see Bing search or Search the web. If you want to bring Bing Search back, simply navigate to the Windows Registry location mentioned above and delete the “BingSearchEnabled” DWORD.
Of course, the changes outlined in this guide will still work for a while, at least until Microsoft releases an update that makes such changes impossible.
Do you find web-based Bing Search results helpful on Windows 11? Let us know in the comments.