How to Turn On or off Highlight Misspelled Words in Windows 11

Why Use This Feature?

Windows 11 has a built-in spell checker. When it is on, any word it doesn’t recognize gets a red squiggly line underneath. That lets you catch typos while you type instead of after you hit send.

Some apps, like Microsoft Word, have their own spell checker with its own settings. The Windows setting won’t change how those behave.

What Happens When You Use It?

With this setting on, Windows underlines any typed word that isn’t in its dictionary or in your personal dictionary. To fix a flagged word, right-click it and pick one of the suggested corrections from the menu. You can also choose to ignore the word or add it to the dictionary if it is correct, such as a name or a technical term.

Option 1Use Settings

Turn On or Off Highlight Misspelled Words in Settings

1. Open Settings ⚙️ by pressing Win+I. The Settings ⚙️ window opens.
2. Click Time & language in the left pane.
3. Click Typing on the right side. (see screenshot below)

You should now see the typing options, including the spell-checking controls. Look for the entry named Highlight misspelled words. It sits near Autocorrect misspelled words, which is a separate setting.

4. Turn Highlight misspelled words on (the default) or off. On some builds this is a checkbox, on others a toggle switch. Checked or On means misspelled words get underlined. Unchecked or Off means they don’t. (see screenshot below)
5. Close Settings. The change takes effect right away and you don’t need to restart. Open an app like Notepad and type a made-up word to confirm it.

To undo the change, repeat the same steps and set the option back.

Option 2Use Registry

Turn On or Off Highlight Misspelled Words Using Registry

⚠️ Admin privileges required

If you are on a standard account, you will be asked for administrator credentials or the steps will fail.

Turn On Highlight Misspelled Words

This is the default setting:

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7" /v EnableSpellchecking /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Turn Off Highlight Misspelled Words

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7" /v EnableSpellchecking /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Summary

Windows 11 marks misspelled words with a red underline, and the Settings app gives you full control over whether it does. If the underlines don't appear after you turn the option on, check that the app you are typing in uses the Windows spell checker and has its own spell check enabled.