How to Enable or Disable Search Highlights in Windows 11
Search Highlights in Windows 11 displays daily trivia, holiday reminders, and trending topics directly inside your taskbar search box . This built-in feature injects colorful icons into Windows Search version 22H2 and newer, which sometimes clutters a plain taskbar.
Turning Search Highlights on or off takes only a few clicks inside the Windows Settings app. You can hide these visual distractions at any time to get a clean, minimal search box back.
Open Settings , then go to Privacy & security, and click Search. Toggle the “Show search highlights” option to On or Off. This will enable or disable Search Highlights for your account.
What Are Search Highlights?
Windows 11 search highlights are a feature that displays daily suggestions, holiday illustrations, trending topics, and quick facts inside your taskbar search box . These visual additions appear automatically to help you discover new content, apps, and websites without changing how you normally look for your own personal files and settings.
Leaving the feature enabled does not interfere with finding your own apps, files, or settings.
Work or school accounts use Search Highlights to display organization information. This information includes files and contacts found through Microsoft Search, helping users locate resources without wasting time.
Turn Search Highlights On or Off for Yourself (Using Settings)
Windows 11 search highlights can be turned on or off for your personal user account through the main Settings app in just a few clicks. You just need to open your privacy settings, locate the search options, and flip the toggle switch to show or hide daily suggestions and visual icons in your taskbar.
- Press Windows key + I on your keyboard to open Settings.
- Click Privacy & security on the left side.
- On the right, click Search. (Click here to open Search settings directly)
- Find the option called Show search highlights.
- Toggle the switch to On to enable Search Highlights, or Off to disable it.
- Close Settings when you're done.
Turn Search Highlights On or Off for Everyone (Using Group Policy)
Windows 11 search highlights can be disabled or enabled for every user account on a single computer at the same time using the Local Group Policy Editor. This administrative method applies the setting system-wide so individual users cannot change the taskbar search behavior themselves.
Follow these steps:
- Press Windows key + R, type
gpedit.msc, and press Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor. - In the left panel, go to: Computer Configuration Administrative Templates Windows Components Search
- In the right panel, double-click Allow search highlights.
- Choose one of these options:
- Not Configured – Use default settings.
- Enabled – Turn Search Highlights on for all users.
- Disabled – Turn Search Highlights off for all users.
- Click OK to save your choice.
- Close the Local Group Policy Editor.
What It Looks Like
Search Highlights appears in action through the following examples:
Disabling Search Highlights also occurs by turning off the Copilot and Web icons in Windows Search, which deactivates highlights simultaneously.
Summary
Windows 11 Search Highlights add colorful pictures and useful facts to your search bar, and controls exist within Settings or Group Policy.More Resources
Official documentation, troubleshooting guides, and community support pages from Microsoft provide extra help when you want to learn more about Windows 11 search highlights. These resources offer deeper technical details, configuration policies for IT administrators, and answers to common problems regarding taskbar search behavior.
Search for anything, anywhere – Microsoft Support
Windows 11 Search Highlights displays trending searches and recent activities, and toggling this feature on or off remains fully supported. Following this guide enables a more personalized search experience.
How do I enable search highlights in 🪟 Windows 11?
To manage search highlights with Group Policy on either Windows 10 or Windows 11, locate: Edit group policy Computer Configuration Administrative Templates Windows Components Search Allow search highlights
How to get search highlights?
Click the Start ⊞ button and select Settings ⚙. On the left sidebar find and go into Privacy & security. Click on Search permissions. Toggle Show search highlights to enable or disable search highlights.
Was this guide helpful?
About the Author
Richard
Tech Writer, IT Professional
Richard, a writer for Geek Rewind, is a tech enthusiast who loves breaking down complex IT topics into simple, easy-to-understand ideas. With years of hands-on experience in system administration and enterprise IT operations, he’s developed a knack for offering practical tips and solutions. Richard aims to make technology more accessible and actionable. He's deeply committed to the Geek Rewind community, always ready to answer questions and engage in discussions.
No comments yet — be the first to share your thoughts!