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Comment by accrual | Hacker News Reader

> Every time I search on the start menu there is a web search, impossible to turn off. How is that acceptable?

YMMV, but this is what I used to disable web search on my Win 11 Pro workstation:

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
    "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions"=dword:00000001

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On Pro it would be better to use the group policy editor. As a bonus this also ensures the setting survives updates, which is not always a given for raw registry edits.

(Unsolicited related advice)

If gpedit.msc gives you unexpected results (I.e. policies just don’t seem to work) then do two things:

1. gpupdate /force 2. Download the latest ADMX templates; newer versions of Windows often introduce similarly-named - but still distinct - policy templates, for unwanted “features” in older versions, just like Start Menu web-search and forced-restarts for updates.

Lastly, while Windows LTSC is really what Microsoft should make available for everyone, don’t forget that Windows Server is still Windows LTSC too - so if you’re outside the MSDN Subscription Garden-of-Eden, you can still get Windows Server tricked-out as a real LTSC Workstation OS.

It's frankly offensive that this utterly pointless "feature" can't just be disabled. Starting Photoshop used to be windowskey, "ph", enter. Now, by default, it will give you an Edge Bing search for "ph"...

But even if you wait a few seconds before confirming, you'll get some garbage like Windows Photos, even though that's literally never been used.

At least the start menu got a lot faster with the net search disabled, but dropping usage based ordering is just another sign that Windows is NOT aimed at power users anymore.

On an older version of Windows I used the Classic Shell start menu. It's rockin', and works how you'd expect a start menu to.

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