How to Disable Bing Search in the Windows 10 Start Menu

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One of the features of the Windows 10 Start Menu is a built-in Bing search when a local search fails to find anything. Whether it be due to privacy reasons, bugs, or just personal dislike, this article will explain how to disable Bing search in the Start Menu.

When you perform a search in the Windows 10 Start Menu, Windows will first look for local search results such as settings, files, or programs and display any that are found.

If there are no local results, Windows will then perform a Bing search for the search keyword and list the results in the Start Menu as shown below.


Blank search results in Start Menu

When logged into a Microsoft Account, these searches will be uploaded to Microsoft who will then list them in your account's Privacy Dashboard. This is a privacy concern for fear that Microsoft is using this data to track your browsing habits.

There have also been bugs in the Bing search component in the past that have caused the Windows 10 Start menu to appear completely blank. If you do not utilize the Bing search feature, disabling it could prevent those bugs in the future.

Below we have outlined two methods that can be used to disable Bing search in the Windows 10 Start Menu.

How to disable Bing search in the Windows 10 Start Menu

Unfortunately, for those who want to disable Bing search in the Start Menu, Microsoft does not provide an easy method to do so.

Instead, Windows users need to modify the Registry so that it is using the following Registry values.



For those who feel comfortable modifying the Registry, we have instructions on how to set the proper values using the Registry Editor.

For those who are not comfortable with Registry modifications, please see method 2 that contains an easy to use premade Registry file that makes the settings for you.

METHOD 1: USE THE REGISTRY EDITOR TO DISABLE BING INTEGRATION

If you do not wish to use the premade Registry file, you can disable Bing's integration in Windows Search via the Registry Editor.

1. First, open the Windows Registry Editor by pressing the Windows key + the R key at the same time. This will open the Run: dialog and then type regedit and press the OK button.


Starting Registry Editor

2. Windows will display a UAC prompt asking if you wish to allow the Registry Editor to make changes to the system. Press the Yes button to continue.

3. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search key.

4. Right-click on Search and select New and then DWORD (32-bit) Value as shown below.


New DWORD value

5. You will be prompted to enter the name of the new value. Type BingSearchEnabled and press Enter on the keyboard. A new value will be created that should automatically be set to 0. If not, double-click on BingSearchEnabled and set the value to 0 and then press the OK button.

6. Now look under the Search key for a value named CortanaConsent. When you find the value, double-click on it and set its value to 0 and then press the OK button to save it. If the CortanaConsent value does not exist, create it using the steps above and set its value to 0.

7. When done, you should have both the CortanaConsent and BingSearchEnabled values created and set to 0.

8. You can now close the Registry Editor and restart Windows Explorer or restart your computer.

Once restarted, Bing search will no longer work in the Windows 10 Start Menu.


Bing Search disabled

METHOD 2: USE PREMADE REGISTRY FILE TO DISABLE BING SEARCH

To make it easier, BleepingComputer has created a Registry file that you can use to import the required changes into your Registry.

To use this Registry file to disable Bing search, please follow these steps:

   1. Download disable-bing-search.reg to your computer. Once downloaded, double-click on the file.

   2. When you double-click on the file, Windows 10 will display a UAC prompt asking if you would like to allow Registry Editor to make changes to your system. Click on the Yes button to continue.

   3. You will now be shown a prompt from Registry Editor asking if you wish to continue. Please click on the Yes button to configure the required Registry values.


Registry Editor confirmation prompt

   4. You should now restart your computer or restart Windows Explorer for these changes to go into effect.

Once restarted, Bing search will no longer work in the Windows 10 Start Menu.

Enable Bing integration again

If you wish to enable Bing search in the Start Menu in the future, you can simply download the enable-bing-search.reg registry file.

This Registry file will delete the BingSearchEnabled value and set the CortanaConsent value to 1 under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search Registry key.

Once downloaded, you can double-click on the file to import the changes and restart Windows to enable Bing again.

While I strongly suggest that you use the premade Registry file for ease of use and to avoid mistakes, you can also make these changes via the Registry Editor.

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