Microsoft is fixing one of the most confusing things about Windows 11 – ‘spam’ in the search results

Microsoft is applying an important fix to Windows 11 search
Taskbar search box no longer shows web results as a priority in some cases
This was confusing behavior at times – and part of the promotion of Bing and Edge – so it’s good to see the practice end

If you’ve ever grumbled under your breath in annoyance at Windows 11’s confusing search results, here’s some good news—Microsoft is fixing it so that the operating system doesn’t show web results as a priority.

It’s a frustration that anyone who uses Windows 11 and has ever used the search box on the taskbar will surely know. You’ll find a file on your drive or a system setting for something, so you type in that query – and the first result you see is for something on the web that’s completely irrelevant.

But as Windows Latest points out, Microsoft has realized that this behavior — and often pushing Bing or its other services through those web results — is not acceptable and gets in the way of the usability of Windows 11’s search functionality.

Analysis: why has it taken so long?

Windows 11 on a laptop

(Image credit: Windows/Unsplash)

So files and apps (or settings) now take priority when you’re looking for something through the Windows 11 search box, over anything Microsoft might flag on the web.

Windows Latest highlights how a search for a Windows 11 app used to show a movie from the web as the first result, noting that even when deliberately searching for terms that also apply to famous movie titles, this no longer happens.

Of course, there is a theme here that runs through many of the changes Microsoft is applying to Windows 11, namely that these should have been in place from the very beginning with the OS.

Who on earth wants to search for files only to have meaningless web results cluttering them up? Microsoft, that’s who, for the clicks the company hopes to get as an excuse to pop up Bing (and Edge). To me, this equates to “spam” infiltrating search results.

Anyway, better late than never, as they say, and I’m still very happy to see this happen – although all these sorts of tweaks remind us why this is a campaign about Microsoft fixation Windows 11 instead improve the operating system. And that, of course, it was Microsoft’s fault that it was broken in the first place, and has remained so until an AI uprising finally made the company sit up and take notice.