- Windows 11’s search results will soon include apps from Microsoft Store
- You will be served a button to directly grab and install any relevant app
- Some people are already dissatisfied with this and are fighting for the ability to disable this behavior (when it arrives)
Microsoft has worked with Windows 11’s search functionality a bit in recent times and brought in some smart ideas, but an incoming change that just appeared on the radar has not been so well received.
In fact, the announcement that Microsoft Store -apps appear in Windows 11 search results made by Giorgio Sardo (VP in the App Store in Microsoft) is already causing some accident. See the post from Sardo on x below, as marked by Neowin, and note the immediate reaction.
Coming soon: Microsoft Big Integration with Windows Search! Find and install apps right from your start menu or taskbar! Rolls out soon – let us know what you think! 💻 #windows #microsoftstore pic.twitter.com/ma9ib8evrr6 May 2025
How this works is that when you fire up a search in Windows 11, using either the search box in the taskbar or in the start menu, the Microsoft store is fully integrated and all apps from the store that fit your query will be highlighted in these results.
As you can see from the example Screenshot delivered on X (expand the above post to see it), the Grammarly app is presented when writing in a search for ‘Gram’ with a large button to get the software. Click on it and you will be right into a download of the app.
(Note that there is a link to ‘Open in the Microsoft Store’ tucked away, which will obviously send you to the app’s page in the store, so I suspect that clicking the ‘Get’ button should directly start downloading the software).
Analysis: Can you turn it off?
This has not been a popular idea. As mentioned, the reaction to X has mostly been around the idea that this is ‘another feature that needs to be deactivated’, but of course it is not clear if it will be something you can tell Windows 11 to stop doing. Hope is very much that this is the case and I will add my voice to those who argue that this should be an option here if Microsoft brings this in.
This twist on search seems to be in -depth to us, but given that Microsoft Executive mentions that it “comes soon” on no uncertain terms. This functionality was also covered in the recent in-depth look we got on new features that came to Windows 11, including the big start menu redesign (and a pile of copilot+ PCS, including an AI agent to change settings in us).
In the blog post that forward all the features that are taking part in testing for Windows 11, Microsoft mentioned something I was completely missed when I originally wrote about this (the bold is mine to weight): “We also continue to improve and expand improved Windows search and helped you find what you are looking for several places. [testers] Later this month we introduce the opportunity to find Windows settings and to Find and install quickly apps from Microsoft Store. “
This wrinkle aside, another introduction Microsoft is doing to improve the search on Windows 11 is actually pretty exciting as it begins natural language functionality. The catch with this is that this conversation-style search uses AI, so it is only for Copilot+ PCS. Not long ago, a file search app was also joined, and this could be a potential step forward for Windows 11’s wider search ability.
In the latest Windows 11 story, there has also been a great deal of work done to pep up to the service in the Microsoft store, but it is gripped less of the limelight than these searches change as you might imagine.
