Have you ever searched for a document in the Windows Search Box and instead of finding what you need, Cortana opened a web search in Bing? It’s so annoying.
The reason this happens is because when you start typing, Windows mixes search results and suggests both web results and documents on your computer. Showing a web result instead of your desired local file is not only annoying, but it can also slow down search because Windows needs to query the internet as well as your hard drive.
Luckily, there’s a solution! Here’s how to stop Windows from searching in web results so that it only gives you local files.
Disabling Windows web suggestions
Hit the Windows button on Windows 10.
Type “regedit” into the search bar. That will open the Registry.
Click through to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\ExplorerRight. Then click inside the white space to create a new “DWORD (32-bit) Value”.
Name the value “DisableSearchBoxSuggestions” and set the value to 1.
Restart your computer or editor for the change to take effect.
That’s it! Windows won’t give you web suggestions anymore. As you’re only searching in local files now, it should also improve the responsiveness of the search.
If you’re interested in an even more powerful search across all your files and apps, check out Curiosity.
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