How to Enable or Disable Search Highlights in Windows 11
Search Highlights in Windows 11 shows daily trivia, holiday reminders, and trending topics inside the taskbar search box . It adds colorful icons and illustrations to Windows Search in Windows 11 version 22H2 and newer. On a plain taskbar this can look cluttered.
You can turn Search Highlights on or off in a few clicks in the Settings app. On a managed PC or a shared one, you can set it for every user with Group Policy. Either way you can hide the extra visuals and get a clean, minimal search box back, and you can undo the change at any time.
Press Win+I to open Settings , go to Privacy & security Search, scroll to More settings, and toggle Show search highlights On or Off. The change applies immediately with no restart needed.
What Are Search Highlights?
Search Highlights shows daily suggestions, holiday illustrations, trending topics, and quick facts in the taskbar search box and in the search flyout when you open it. They appear automatically to help you discover new content, apps, and websites. They do not change how you search for your own files and settings.
Leaving the feature on does not get in the way of finding your own apps, files, or settings. Your local results appear as usual when you type. The highlights are only extra content around the search box.
On work or school accounts, Search Highlights can also show organization information. This includes files and contacts found through Microsoft Search, so users can find shared resources faster. What appears depends on how your organization has set up its Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Search environment.
Nothing is installed or removed, so the change is easy to reverse.
Turn Search Highlights On or Off for Yourself (Using Settings)
This method changes the setting for your own user account only, using the Settings app. It works on both Windows 11 Home and Pro. You open the privacy settings, find the search options, and flip one toggle to show or hide the daily suggestions and icons in the taskbar search box.
- Press Windows key + I on your keyboard to open Settings. The Settings window opens with the category list on the left.
- Click Privacy & security on the left side. The privacy options for Windows appear on the right.
- On the right, scroll down to the Windows permissions group and click Search. On current builds of Windows 11 this page may be labeled Search permissions. (Click here to open Search settings directly)
- Scroll to the bottom of the page, to the More settings section, and find the option called Show search highlights. If you don't see it, your PC may be on a Windows 11 build older than 22H2, or the option may be managed by your organization.
- Set the toggle to On to enable Search Highlights, or Off to disable it. If the toggle is greyed out, or Settings says some settings are managed by your organization, a Group Policy is controlling it. See the next method.
- Close Settings when you're done. The change applies right away, with no restart. Click the taskbar search box to confirm the icon and daily content have appeared or disappeared. To undo the change, repeat these steps and flip the toggle back.
Turn Search Highlights On or Off for Everyone (Using Group Policy)
The Local Group Policy Editor lets you turn Search Highlights on or off for every user account on a single computer at once. The setting applies system-wide, so individual users can no longer change the taskbar search behavior themselves. The Local Group Policy Editor is included in Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education. It is not available on Windows 11 Home, so Home users should use the Settings method above.
Follow these steps:
- Press Windows key + R, type
gpedit.msc, and press Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor. If a User Account Control prompt appears, click Yes. If Windows reports it cannot find the file, you are on Windows 11 Home. - In the left panel, go to: Computer Configuration Administrative Templates Windows Components Search. Click Search and its list of policies fills the right panel.
- In the right panel, double-click Allow search highlights. A dialog opens with the policy options and a description.
- Choose one of these options:
- Not Configured – Use default settings. Users can still change the toggle in Settings. Pick this to undo a policy you set earlier.
- Enabled – Turn Search Highlights on for all users.
- Disabled – Turn Search Highlights off for all users.
- Click OK to save your choice. The policy window closes and the new state shows in the State column.
- Close the Local Group Policy Editor. Policy changes can take a short while to reach the taskbar. If the search box does not change, sign out and back in, or restart the PC. While the policy is set to Enabled or Disabled, the toggle in Settings may be greyed out.
What It Looks Like
The following examples show Search Highlights in action. Compare them with your own taskbar search box to see what the setting changes.
If highlights keep coming back after you switch them off, check that none of these related options has been turned on again.
Summary
Windows 11 Search Highlights add colorful pictures and useful facts to your search box. You can control them for your own account in Settings, or for every user on the PC with Group Policy on editions that include it.
More Resources
Microsoft's official documentation, troubleshooting guides, and community support pages are useful if you want to learn more about Windows 11 Search Highlights. They go deeper on technical details, cover the configuration policies IT administrators use, and answer common problems with taskbar search behavior.
Search for anything, anywhere – Microsoft Support
Windows 11 Search Highlights shows trending searches and recent activities in the search box. Turning the feature on or off is fully supported, either per user in Settings or for every user through Group Policy. Pick whichever suits your PC. If you change your mind later, repeat the same steps and set the option back.
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About the Author
Richard
Tech Writer, IT Professional
Richard is a writer at Geek Rewind who turns complex IT tasks into clear, step-by-step guides. He draws on years of hands-on experience in system administration and enterprise IT operations, focusing on Windows, Linux and WordPress: the problems people actually run into, and the fixes that work. His server and WordPress guides come from systems he runs himself. Richard builds and maintains the platform behind Geek Rewind, from its Ubuntu servers and Nginx configuration to its custom WordPress plugins. Many new tutorials start with readers' questions, and he's always glad to answer them in the comments.
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