The future of Windows Search looks a lot closer to what users have been asking for since day one: search. That’s it.
No ads, no visual clutter, no promotional links to the Microsoft Store, or Amazon. Just search. That’s all.
Microsoft might have put this vision of the future into its “Experimental” track of the Windows Insider program, for now, but a detailed post outlining the changes makes it pretty clear that Microsoft plans to standardize this within Windows before long. If done right, it could make Windows Search the front page of Search that it should be.
Today, you have a couple options to choose from when looking for content on your PC. First, it might show up in the Start menu as “recommended” content. Personally, this has always seemed like clutter as far as I’m concerned. I usually search via File Explorer, only because what it searches are my files, with an optional preview pane to demonstrate what those files contain. That’s the best use of my time, and my go-to default.
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Window Search has always been the place I should search, but why? If I want links to random related content around the web, I can open a web browser for that. Now, Microsoft is pledging to fix Windows Search, in what feels very much like an extension of Microsoft’s pledge to go back to Windows’ roots, for the better.
Here’s what’s coming.
Microsoft is first promising a cleaner home screen. In the first example above, Microsoft is suggesting that it will kill off cute little references to “World Otter Day” and other extraneous references. (I’m a bit of a sucker for cute nature photography, but it’s far more relevant on, say, Bing’s home page than in a quick search for a file I need right now.)
Showing off recent searches are an improvement, and presenting actual previews of file content is an absolute must. Honestly, I doubt most users care about what the actual file path is, provided they can navigate to it. But I absolutely want to know if I’m looking at a local file or something with a similar name that Windows/Bing found randomly on the web. That’s a step ahead, too.
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Likewise, getting rid of random content from the web is another plus.
I’m honestly not sure if another of Microsoft’s search changes is is a positive step — replacing a random bookshop link with an AI search? For a lot of people, that’s going to be just another example of Microsoft injecting Copilot and AI when it promised to cut back.
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Still, using AI to help improve search is something Gmail has nailed for years. Microsoft is saying that it’ll prioritize local search results (as it should!) over web or Store suggestions. And you’ll be able to misspell (or, presumably, describe) a search term and Microsoft Search will bubble it up to the top. That’s the way it should work. Microsoft is also improving support for two-character searches, presumably saving time in typing out the entire file name.
Of course, this all feels like a question of, “Why didn’t Microsoft always do it this way?” Blame who you will: Linux, Google, Perplexity, or anyone else. These are welcome changes, and there should be more.
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