Windows 11 Start menu search is getting a serious overhaul — and yes, you can finally kill web results

Microsoft is rolling out a revamped Start menu search experience to Windows Insiders, and the changes look like genuine quality-of-life wins rather than cosmetic tweaks. The update targets one of the most consistently frustrating parts of daily Windows use.

The list of improvements covers a lot of ground: a cleaner home screen, clearer result categories, no promotional content mixed into web results, and — most importantly — the ability to toggle web and Microsoft Store suggestions on or off entirely. Local results now get priority when they're the better match, Windows settings are better surfaced, file search accuracy is improved, and there are general reliability fixes aimed at reducing crashes. The new search UI also shows a simplified list of recent searches and includes a file preview pane that, notably, doesn't hide file extensions.

The web results toggle is the headline feature for most users. Until now, disabling web results in Start menu search required digging into the registry — not something the average person should have to do just to stop being bombarded with Bing results when they're looking for a local file. Microsoft has been making incremental but meaningful changes to Windows 11 over the past several months, and this feels like one of the more user-driven fixes to come out of that process.

These changes are currently live in the Windows Insider program, with a broader rollout expected once testing wraps up. If Microsoft keeps this momentum going, the small but persistent annoyances that have defined Windows 11 for many users might finally start disappearing.