How to Turn On or Off Cloud Content Search in Windows 11

ryan yao BDvCewlnbD8 unsplash scaled
ryan yao BDvCewlnbD8 unsplash scaled

This post shows students and new users steps to enable or disable cloud content search in Windows 11. Windows Search lets you search from your taskbar to find what you’re looking for, whether on your device, in the cloud or on the web.

One can search their local device for files, settings, and apps with Windows Search. If one signs in with a personal Microsoft account or work and school accounts, they can also use Windows Search to search their OneDrive, Outlook, and SharePoint, including other Microsoft services.

Because Windows Search can return results from the web, you can enable or disable SafeSearch to help keep adult content out of your web previews.

There are filters that one can use to ensure only the content and location a user wants to search are shown in the results.

How to enable or disable cloud content search in Windows 11

As mentioned above, Windows Search lets you search from your taskbar to find what you’re looking for, whether on your device, in the cloud, or on the web.

Below is how to enable or disable cloud content search:

Windows 11 has a centralized location for the majority of its settings. Everything can be done, from system configurations to creating new users and updating Windows from its Settings app.

To get to System Settings, you can use the Windows key + I shortcut or click on Start ==> Settings, as shown in the image below:

windows 11 start settings

Alternatively, you can use the search box on the taskbar and search for Settings. Then select to open it.

Windows Settings pane should look similar to the image below. Click Privacy & security > Search permissions tile in Windows Settings to expand it.

On the Privacy & Security,> Search permissions settings pane, under Microsoft account, toggle the buttons to On or Off for Microsoft account and/or Work or School account.

You can now exit the Settings app.

If you turn on the Work or School account setting for Cloud content search, Windows Search will show results from OneDrive for Business, Outlook, SharePoint, and more from Microsoft Search.

That should do it!

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to enable or disable Cloud content search in Windows 11. Please use the comment form below if you find any errors above or have something to add.

Posted by
Richard W

I love computers; maybe way too much. What I learned I try to share at geekrewind.com.

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