How to Disable Web Search in Windows 10 Start menu

When you type a keyword or phrase in the Search box in Windows 10 Start menu, it displays results from the local computer, the Windows Store as well as the Bing search results. This post tells you how to disable the Start menu from doing a Bing web search.

To disable Cortana web search, use these steps:

Windows 10 v2004 & higher

1. Launch the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2. Navigate to the following branch:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

   (The above key doesn’t exist by default. You need to create the above branch manually.)

3. Create a DWORD value named DisableSearchBoxSuggestions
4. Double-click DisableSearchBoxSuggestions and set its data to 1
5. Exit the Registry Editor.
6. Restart the Explorer shell cleanly.

This disables Bing web search in the Start menu.

Important: The above registry edit is the same as the one seen in the article How to Disable File Explorer Search Box Suggestions. That means, the above setting also disables suggesting recent queries for the File Explorer Search Box and prevents entries into the Search Box from being stored in the registry for future references.

Windows 10 versions earlier than 2004

1. Launch the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2. Go to the following key:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search

3. Create a new DWORD (32 bit) value named BingSearchEnabled
4. Leave its value data as 0
5. Exit the Registry Editor.
6. Restart the Explorer shell cleanly. Cortana web search is now disabled.
   

The above registry has also been tested in v1903 and verified to work.

Automate using .reg file

To automate the above setting, you can create a .reg file with the following contents and apply the file.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search]
"BingSearchEnabled"=dword:00000000

Earlier versions of Windows 10

In Windows 10 versions earlier than v1803, a different registry policy has to be configured to disable the Start menu web search.

1. Launch the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2. Create the following branch if it doesn’t already exist:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search

3. Create a new DWORD (32 bit) value named ConnectedSearchUseWeb
4. Leave the data for ConnectedSearchUseWeb be 0
5. Exit the Registry Editor.

The ConnectedSearchUseWeb registry value corresponds to the following setting in the Group Policy Editor (for Pro and higher.)

Don't Search the web or display web results in search

Under the following category.

Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Search

This Policy applies to Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.