Windows 11 Search is an Ad Cesspool! Here’s How To Fix It

Рет қаралды 35,077

Күн бұрын

Windows "Search Highlights" have practically turned the Search menu and parts of the Taskbar into a billboard for ads. In this video I show you how to fix the problem, as well as a number of aditional tweaks that will help you reduce the amount of ads and suggested content that can appear in other parts of Windows.
#microsoft #windows11

Пікірлер: 195

@Julio974 Жыл бұрын

Windows: you pay for the license, and then they still want to make more money from you with a bunch of ads

@SYS_Alberto Жыл бұрын

Get a copy of Windows server or LTSC. Free or paid. That's how you get away form it.

@sihamhamda47 Жыл бұрын

Also Windows: Oh wait, there's more! *(instantly putting the full screen "Let's finish set up your device" prompt every few days in your screen just to force you to subscribe to the Microsoft 365 services)*

@edison3571 Жыл бұрын

I find it interesting that no anti-virus program recognizes Windows Adware, spyware, and malware as Potentially unwanted programs and allows you to delete the problem.

@operaroblox Жыл бұрын

That's almost true, when I tried to go to Microsoft Start, my AVG Antivirus blocked it

@JaldaboathIrghen Жыл бұрын

It's become tremendously annoying how every third party is just on board with all this stuff.

@evanhuizenga8626 Жыл бұрын

Antivirus barely does anything anyways. A canny mind is the best antivirus.

@asteroidrules Жыл бұрын

At this point Windows 11 as a whole is a PUP.

@MaksMikhnevych Жыл бұрын

Turning off the search button is first thing I do on the newly installed windows

@white_mask13 Жыл бұрын

Why would you have it on anyway since to search you need to click. same as if you'd just use the start menu like a normal person.

@Distress. Жыл бұрын

@@white_mask13 it's a fast way of finding files.

@sierra991 Жыл бұрын

@@Distress. just press the start button and start typing. no need to click.

@white_mask13 Жыл бұрын

@@sierra991 yea that too I am just comparing it to the search bar

@white_mask13 Жыл бұрын

@@Distress. start search and the search bar are the same thing. Also if you want to find files quickly just use "Fluent Search"

@skelebro9999 Жыл бұрын

You know something is going on if they are THIS desperate for money that they are integrating ads literally into the search itself.

@astral6749 Жыл бұрын

Integrating ads into Search is fairly normal and expected, but placing ads on File Explorer is an absolute no.

@skelebro9999 Жыл бұрын

@@astral6749 I won't be surprised if that happens since it has already happened in the Xiaomi mobile devices

@beegyoshi6525 Жыл бұрын

No company this big is "desperate" for money, they just want bigger and bigger profit margins

@DETahaX Жыл бұрын

love your banner pic btw xD

@skelebro9999 Жыл бұрын

@@DETahaX thank

@haydenngo2979 Жыл бұрын

The more I hear about windows 11, the less I'm inclined to upgrade from Windows 10. I'm still happy with windows 10.

@govind9060 Жыл бұрын

Yeah but windows 10 is crashing for some reason on my new laptop

@techmad8204 Жыл бұрын

Windows 10 still has these ads

@mYnAME-ww9iv Жыл бұрын

If the latest video on this channel is true, then we have only until 2025 for our Win10s.

@AgentX-dh3lf 8 ай бұрын

Do not even use Windows at all. Switch to the Linux side.

@JourneywithBrandon 6 ай бұрын

@@AgentX-dh3lf Not feasible for most applications.

@workdowg Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching out for us. Really enjoy your content!

@Dave4000 Жыл бұрын

It's better to use the "everything" app from void tools to find files. The Windows 11 search is slow and next to useless for trying to locate files.

@caseysmith544 Жыл бұрын

That and the start button is much faster on Window 10 too then using start. Start has not worked right since Windows 8.

@user-gs2rw7wh5p 19 күн бұрын

Great video, just what I was looking for this time. Short and to the point. Thanks a lot, keep up the great videos.

@ethanhoerl Жыл бұрын

I had noticed I hadn't seen too many of your videos recently even though I've been subscribed for a few years. Thankful that the youtube algorithm brought you back!

@Liggliluff Жыл бұрын

kzfaq.infosubscriptions

@Liggliluff Жыл бұрын

Go to the KZfaq subscription page and find all videos there

@HermanIdzerda Жыл бұрын

I've used MacOS and Linux for two decades now. Recently I tried Windows 11 and I thought I had fallen into a parallel universe filled with ADS.

@-Scrapper- Жыл бұрын

Huh?

@anomanderrake5434 Жыл бұрын

Stop exaggerating dude. If you are a person like me who cared about ads, you would have switched all of it off during the windows setup itself. This search thing annoyed me when I first opened it too, went to google, found the settings switched them all off. Took me 10 mins. Where are all these ads showing up for you ?

@anomanderrake5434 Жыл бұрын

@Watcher Telemetry doesn't affect me. I use Google, android, maps. Apple cut the competition by stopping fb from tracking in iPhone and started their own business of showing ads in App store and other places. You can't escape data mining. At the end of the day, if it doesn't affect my day to day work. I am all fine for it.

@HermanIdzerda Жыл бұрын

@Anomander Rake I installed a virus scanner and while I bought it, it keeps bugging me. When I open the browser I get ads. I get ads in the notification center. I did not buy a computer to get ads but to get work done.

@musicalneptunian Жыл бұрын

@@anomanderrake5434 That's only part of the problem. You can turn off the ads in Windows NOW. But at the next Microsoft shareholders meeting Mr Word Salad Satay Nadella, Brad Smith and Panos who talks about his family, will all promise the ad vendors more intrusive access to your computer. Then by sheer coincidence the options to "turn off" the ads won't be there, or, in cunning evil typical of Microsoft, the "options" will say that they turn off the ads but ...

@MrSleepyguy Жыл бұрын

I saw the update and instantly went through my settings to get rid of the horrendous feature

@unixtreme Жыл бұрын

This is truly the year of the Linux desktop.

@anomanderrake5434 Жыл бұрын

Nah. Ads are annoying, sure. But windows easily passes the good enough criteria for me. How much ever you try, out of the box everything works Linux isn't there yet. Steam deck probably fastened the pace with game support but no it isn't there.

@croozerdog Жыл бұрын

@@anomanderrake5434 Linux just works out of the box though?

@anomanderrake5434 Жыл бұрын

@Linden Reaper if it is so easy to use out of the box, why haven't people used it yet. It should be going big. Your coming from a super user perspective, how many times do you use the terminal? If you wanna debug something (which happens in windows too every so often, it's straight forward to search), but in Linux you will have to specify os, version and other quirks. If you had watched the Linus tech tips Linux challenge, you would know the amount of hurdles he had to climb.

@SYS_Alberto Жыл бұрын

The year of the Linux desktop is a meme, it will never happen. It's kinda the reverse moore's law. You keep saying this while the opposite happens.

@SYS_Alberto Жыл бұрын

@@croozerdog Till you have to do something or find something that's not inside your "appstore" GUI. That's when it shits the bed.

@kelvink9999 Жыл бұрын

Then there's me: refusing to upgrade to Windows 11

@amarsrayer8141 4 ай бұрын

Thanks for the extensive walk-through

@DiamondMaster115 Жыл бұрын

Tysm! This is absolutely ridiculous, and for people like me, distracts me from focussing on my work lol

@victormultanen1981 Жыл бұрын

thank you for sharing! Very needed.

@angusho9329 2 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for letting me know how to get my system "clean" 👍

@theonejoser 8 ай бұрын

Thank you I appreciate the simple video to better my windows experience

@beegyoshi7871 Жыл бұрын

Just leave it as a search icon, looks cleaner and no ads

@laz7354 9 ай бұрын

Fantastic channel. I had it recently recommended by YT so hopefully things are turning around for it. Keep up the good work and ty for making my Win 11 laptop significantly more add free 👍 (edit: typos)

@Karlmit Жыл бұрын

You have always been able to type immediately after pressing the windows key (on screen or keyboard) to search.. My only issue on Win11 is that I have to wait for the animation to complete before I can type.

@netrodex Ай бұрын

I just figured this out... thanks man! lol this whole time I was ignoring it. but it's much better being cleaner

@TheAlexR96 Жыл бұрын

Super useful, thanks!

@kennytvn Жыл бұрын

Wow I usually disable all of these things as soon as I see them, but for search highlights I just didn't find the setting at all before

@loony5174 5 ай бұрын

That janky and ugly icon is so annoying and it's exactly what brought me here. Thank you so much! I just got a new laptop and I thought it's got an illegitimate Windows installed because of that 😂

@rmckrieth9858 8 ай бұрын

Thank you so much!

@richardcowleytube 2 ай бұрын

Excellent advice.

@cpu088 4 ай бұрын

Thank you so much!!

@Slurkz 5 ай бұрын

Thanks so much!

@RikKoedoot Жыл бұрын

I'm commenting just to boost the algo, love your vids

@frstwhsprs Жыл бұрын

Usually my search bar only shows up some points of interest all over the world. I guess it is useful for someone who likes to travel often but I just don't mind it.

@robertm20 Жыл бұрын

How do people even think having an os with ads built in and so much authority to delay your work just to deploy more data collection "updates" that you 99% dont need (aside from security ones, i guess). Linux really needs to get everything into one, rock-solid, "it just works" distro that also has a very intuitive UI and is an easy replacement for Windows. I guess Linux Mint does this, but imho the UI is still a bit dated. Microsoft isn't even trying, it took them over 10 years to bring something as simple as file manager tabs that linux already had. They literally deserve to be defeated, linux just needs more unity and adoption.

@robertm20 Жыл бұрын

@D Reaper yes i consider myself an intermediate linux user. After ~6 months of only linux i came back to dual boot due to poor vm performance. Now using windows again i have to say, it feels lacking. That is especially in the performance department, i mainly use vscode and on linux my compilations were very snappy, always felt like below half a second. Now on windows vscode they sometimes even take 1~2 seconds which feels so much slower coming from linux now. The following week i have to use windows but afterwards i will focus on getting back on linux, still cant decide if i should stick with gnome (i used it exclusively within those 6 months of only linux) or try something with a ton of costumization like kde.

@robertm20 Жыл бұрын

@Linden Reaper yes i know about kvm, i followed a tutorial but it is very difficult to do gpu passthrough on a laptop with only integrated graphics (like in my case). And also yes, i do hate microsoft and especially windows updates breaking the dual boot, thats why i had linux-only instead of dual boot before this. I did find an askubuntu post explaining how to basically set windows bootloader efi as inactive from within linux, which will stop windows from overwriting grub. I also have a small usb linux drive always with my keys, just in case.

@darkmind9244 6 ай бұрын

Thank you! this jstu started happening to me today freaking windows. My next machine will be an apple ...or linux.

@tonywise198 11 ай бұрын

The presence of ads and pseudo-ads in W11 has made me finally turn to Linux full-time. My last Windows box will be moved over the day Windows 10 goes EOL, if not before.

@user-us6ft2sj5q 5 ай бұрын

it's at a point where making your own iso with NTlite and taking 25 minutes of your time is a better solution than fighting the OS directly. By ripping things off the iso and repackaging it, you save a lot of time from the get go. My custom w11 iso has no modern apps, no ads, no telemetry, no hibernation, no search, no cortana, no edge, disables the need for a msft account and forces a local one and that's only a small part of what i removed. You boot it and all you have is a minimal installation that's ready to use. of course, i don't use w11 on bare metal (i use it in vmware on linux) but, even in a vm, you feel the difference in performance between stock windows and debloated. alongside linux, i have windows 10 LTSC, it's the best windows ever as it is already pre-debloated and is official from microsoft

@ColePerrine Жыл бұрын

Didn't even bother finding out. Turned it off the minute it showed up in my taskbar lol.

@creatorfrendly9408 2 ай бұрын

thats actually cool for decoration

@lenshibo Жыл бұрын

I love that windows is paid for software (expensive paid for software) yet it’s full of ads and spyware as if it was a free to play mobile game. Even the super expensive “pro version” installs candy crush and tik and a spy’s on everything you do. It’s disgusting. Most people pirate windows anyway so I don’t get why they don’t just make windows free and call it a day. At least then they could justify all this garbage.

@Aphelia. Жыл бұрын

i almost bought a legitimate Windows license- I'm glad I didn't

@deletewindoze Жыл бұрын

You have got to be kidding! That is a lot to go through to maybe have privacy. Thanks for the video.

@kmg501 Жыл бұрын

I'm glad I switched to Linux years ago.

@darealmexury Жыл бұрын

I would, but I game a lot and gaming for linux isn't quite there yet. I also have trouble learning new operating systems, so I'm kinda forced to stick with Windows. I'm a developer and for my next developer rig I'm definitely going for Linux. Got any tips for me?

@WarlonWinterheart Ай бұрын

@@darealmexury Have you tried it yet?

@caseysmith544 Жыл бұрын

I have a feeling some update will remove this feature for users so they have to see content, just they can change it so it is relevant to the searches they do.

@emilzalihic5263 Жыл бұрын

Thx

@dakhrotson8063 5 ай бұрын

Thnks bro

@circuitcoder Жыл бұрын

I usually also turn of widgets but then it looked weird with that empty hole so I moved the icons to the left (kinda like windows 10)and it looks muuuch better now

@morelukeplayz6953 Жыл бұрын

I have it on Windows 10 too.

@ThePowerRanger Жыл бұрын

This is the first thing I did after installing Windows 11.

@lolman533 Жыл бұрын

lovely

@tahmidborhan Жыл бұрын

Stay Strong 💪

@joanarades 9 ай бұрын

hi, if i whant that the images apear but it only shows the bing icon, what can i do? help please

@thisisfyne 9 ай бұрын

bing is spyware

@pegazuseloy1575 5 ай бұрын

Tell me how to enable image in search box again , i did it by enable highlights but won't return once again..thanx

@EweChewBrrr01 Жыл бұрын

Is there a way of doing this in Windows 10?

@dave.F0X 8 ай бұрын

MS CEO has a T-Shirt with "Microsoft... delivering stuff that nobody wants.". And he's proud of it. ;)

@Tetio Жыл бұрын

Your not the only channel they killed... Recommendations is broken. It use to refresh and show new vids if you didn't like what was listed there.. Now it doesn't change at all and depreciated subs you haven't watched in sometime.

@The_Penguin_City Жыл бұрын

File explorer options looks straight from windoze 95. Windoze NT finally.

@Joso997 Жыл бұрын

I have just zone it out. Didn't even notice it

@AyushUpraity 10 ай бұрын

BRO PLEASE HELP I LOVE THIS IMAGE ON SEARCHBAR BUT IT DOESNOT OCCUR ONLY THE BING AI ICON OCCURS I HAD DONE A LOT OF THINGS TO GET THE IMAGES PLEASE MAKE A VIDEO TO SOLVE THIS ISSUE .

@joanarades 8 ай бұрын

same

@javabird4168 Жыл бұрын

Same reason i disabled the widgets panel

@lucky_lol Жыл бұрын

Just upgraded to Zorin OS lol

@MHX11 Жыл бұрын

Huge missed opportunity for them to move the search box to the left

@elmomaster659 Жыл бұрын

They brought back the mario brothers Easter egg

@emulationemperor8924 Жыл бұрын

Tiny 11 for the win at least to me. Much nicer

@hasky3183 7 ай бұрын

ma'man. Thanks

@schwamforfreedom Ай бұрын

Windows 11 is Microsoft's response to Amazon temporarily leading the "Charge customers to see ads" competition in the modern digital space.

@drewsinclairmanalo7103 Жыл бұрын

so.. google easter eggs part 9 will be in the future

@chmtech Жыл бұрын

Yes

@ChibiSteak Жыл бұрын

3:24 fin.

@nkk1731 7 ай бұрын

Trust me, stay with windows 10. I lost the key feature of finding items in my favorites. I used it all of the time. I want it back.

@vlr364 Жыл бұрын

fun google secrets - part 9

@CleridwenFR Жыл бұрын

the Widgets menu is a huge ad minefield as well. it's just constant useless news recommendations, with literally no way to remove them. some buttons look like they are tabs that take you to other parts of the UI, but they open Miscrosoft Edge instead. it's infuriating

@CleridwenFR Жыл бұрын

it's really frustrating, because i do enjoy having the weather in my taskbar, it's kinda convenient. but even the idea of this panel existing, even tho i can chose to never open it, is just, why it also makes me feel like Microsoft changed strategy to push you to use Edge: instead of constantly reminding you/forcing you to change your default browser, it just puts links everywhere to content that opens in Edge regardless of your settings

@EasyGameEh Жыл бұрын

i actually tried linux on my secondary out of home laptop - it's viable for me, i surely can daily drive it, but it's flawed enough to be clearly behind w10, that just works. however, if it goes like this at the time w10 is eol w11 is going to be clearly not an option to move forward.

@SYS_Alberto Жыл бұрын

@@Watcher4361 What should they package their software as? Because it's lose lose. If you package it as a flatpak, it won't be on the biggest distro. if you package it as a snap you will make people mad. and packaging it as an appimage doesn't inregrate with the system. It sucks that linux has it's own "HD-DVD VS blueray" war.

@The_Penguin_City Жыл бұрын

@@SYS_Alberto False, try linux mint instead.

@Gahwotchii Жыл бұрын

Windows 11: No, I don't want that

@DETahaX Жыл бұрын

Windows is just intrusive, you don't have control over that. The only way to excape MS's dirty data collection is to switch to linux.

@mourgos1234 Жыл бұрын

Thats why it has a free upgrade and not a paid one. They make the money from the ads instead.

@tacobabyman1215 Жыл бұрын

@@katsudon2048 bro mad at words 💀

@DETahaX Жыл бұрын

@@mourgos1234 But they don't have to do it slyly and forcefully. Users should have the right to share whatever they want to share. Not to have intrusive, stocker-like data-collecting acts on them.

@mourgos1234 Жыл бұрын

@@DETahaX i agree

@nils1953 Жыл бұрын

@@katsudon2048 lol, I thought the same thing. It's worse than Apple-Fanboys.

@jeteodor Жыл бұрын

I genuinely have no idea why people don't like ads or suggested content. I don't think I've disabled any of these settings but I don't find the ads or other stuff intrusive at all. Why be so cautious? I'm not hating, just curious

@SYS_Alberto Жыл бұрын

Why on gods earth would you want ads on YOUR PC, would you be okay if I put a billboard free of charge on your house or property?

@jeteodor Жыл бұрын

@@SYS_Alberto it's not that bad

@thisisfyne 9 ай бұрын

Stop being a retarded simp for big companies harvesting your data and pushing ads. Just stop.

@johanb.7869 Жыл бұрын

Remember Windows owns you, you do not own Windows.

@RandomGeometryDashStuff Жыл бұрын

02:35 the only 100% way is to never connent to internet

@johnnykeys1978 5 ай бұрын

I called this would happen and was labelled and mocked as an idiot linux user. Vindication is common, but never expect the mockers to remember.

@irvingchies1626 Жыл бұрын

dude, you pretty much have to disable all 4 options, not just the 2 you picked, do you even read?

@Galaxy.Windows 6 ай бұрын

that feature is ripped out of Windows 10. MICROSOFT, STOP CALLING IT 11 IF ITS 10 WITH A NEW INTERFACE

@vipergx Жыл бұрын

I'm still on win 10. Won't be switching soon to 11. I'm starting to understand the Linux community, but it's still not ready to become mainstream.

@vipergx Жыл бұрын

@D Reaper i am using mint on a secondary device. Not my main one yet. I depend on 3d software that use Nvidia cards so not yet ready.

@vipergx Жыл бұрын

@@dreaper2087 Thx for the suggestion. I might just do that!

@y2j11 Жыл бұрын

after using windows for 15 years. i will switch to macbook in 2 months

@user-ct6tr2sg3g 6 ай бұрын

😃

@michawhite7613 Жыл бұрын

If they were really clever, they'd just not include those settings

@3PurpleSquirrels Жыл бұрын

Install Windows 10?

@IBRAHIMROTERWOLF Жыл бұрын

mioos

@Donnerwamp Жыл бұрын

Wow, Microsoft really wants to make Windows unusable... I hope Linux gets a boost in popularity and many turn their back on Windows...

@Danielkaas94 3 ай бұрын

The highlight section is so cringe!

@Fataha22 Жыл бұрын

It could be better if they do like goole and just give us that shit on special day

@henson2k 11 ай бұрын

Windows has so many "features" nobody asked for!

@SCOPE-bv8mh 17 күн бұрын

"Ad menu" 😂😂😂😂

@Aphelia. Жыл бұрын

I just thought they were cute little art, i had a cute frog on the search bar :(

@ov1lord Жыл бұрын

Recently updated to windows 11 by accident. It's the worst interface ever for me!

@BigMoser Жыл бұрын

11 is a hot mess. The one single feature that Windows did better than macOS was labels on the taskbar- now GONE! Why?

@joeykeilholz925 Жыл бұрын

Windows 10 enjoyers represent

@WarlonWinterheart Ай бұрын

Or maybe switch to an OS without ads. Feel free to be triggered.

@johnwerner69 Жыл бұрын

Windows 11 really confuse me

@ExiMaster Жыл бұрын

How about don't use windows 11, it's on the bad release cycle.