How to Enable or Disable Hover Search in Windows 11

Enable or Disable Search Hover via Settings

The Settings ⚙️ app controls whether the taskbar 🖥️ search box 🔍 expands when your pointer moves over it. Open Settings, go to Personalization, then open the Taskbar page. The steps below walk through it. This method works the same on Home and Pro, and you don’t need administrator rights.

1. Open the Settings app by pressing Win+I. The Settings ⚙️ window opens with a list of categories on the left.
2. Select Personalization from the left-hand sidebar. The personalization options appear on the right.
3. Click the Taskbar tile. The page that opens lists the taskbar 🖥️ items, such as Search and Task view, and further down the taskbar behaviors.

4. Expand the Taskbar items or Search section. The name depends on your Windows 11 build. The search 🔍 options then appear underneath.
5. Locate Open search on hover and toggle the switch to On or Off. The change should apply straight away, with no restart. To test it, move the pointer over the search 🔍 icon on the taskbar 🖥️ and see whether the search flyout opens.

Advanced Configuration via Registry Editor

You can also configure hover search in the Registry Editor, which is a database for system settings. Use it if the setting is missing from the Settings ⚙️ app on your build, or if you prefer a direct change. The Registry Editor is available on both Home and Pro.

Be careful here. A wrong edit can cause problems, so create a restore point or export the key before you change anything. You may also see a User Account Control prompt, and you need an administrator account to approve it. To undo the change later, set the value back or delete the value you created.

1. Press Win+R, type regedit, and press Enter. Click Yes if User Account Control asks for permission. The Registry Editor opens.
2. Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Feeds\DSB. Expand each folder in the left pane in turn, or paste the path into the address bar at the top of the window.
3. If the DSB key is missing, right-click Feeds, select New › Key, and name it DSB. The new key should appear under Feeds in the left pane.

4. Select the DSB key, right-click an empty space in the right pane, and select New › DWORD (32-bit) Value. A new value appears with its name highlighted for editing.
5. Name the value OpenOnHover. Press Enter to confirm the name.
6. Double-click OpenOnHover and set the Value data to 1 to enable or 0 to disable. Click OK to save.
7. Restart your 🔄 computer to apply changes. After you sign back in, hover over the search 🔍 icon to check the new behavior.

Troubleshooting Common Search UI Bugs

Visual glitches in the Windows 11 search menu, such as unexpected transparency or unresponsiveness, usually clear up when you restart the 🔄 Windows Explorer 📁 process. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager 📊, find Windows Explorer 📁 in the list, right-click it, and select Restart. The taskbar 🖥️ disappears for a moment and then comes back.

If the hover search setting still doesn't take effect after that, restart the computer. If the Open search on hover option is missing from Settings, your build may not include it. Install the latest Windows updates, or use the registry method above.

Summary

Tailoring the Windows 11 taskbar to your workflow takes only a few moments through either the Settings app or the registry. Use Settings when the option is available, and keep the registry method for builds where it isn't. Either way, you can switch hover search back at any time.