By default, Windows always displays web results from Microsoft’s search engine Bing when searching via the Start menu. In addition, the search in Windows 10 and 11 cannot be switched to Google. If you don’t need web search, you can still turn it off.
To do this, open the registry editor by typing regedit in the search field of the start menu and pressing the Enter key. Go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows folder and see if the Explorer key already exists there. If not, create it: To do this, right-click on the “Windows” folder and select “New –› Key”. Name the new key “Explorer”. Now click on this key with the right mouse button and go to “New –› DWORD value (32-bit)”. Name the value “DisableSearchBoxSuggestions” and finish with “Enter”. Double-click on it, enter 1 as the value and confirm with “OK”.
In case you are running the Pro version of Windows 10/11, you can also disable web search via Group Policy. To do this, type gpedit in the Start menu search box to open the Group Policy Editor. Click through to the “User Configuration -› Administrative Templates -› Windows Components” folder and then double-click on “File Explorer” on the right-hand side. Scroll down to the “Turn off display of recent searches in File Explorer search box” policy. Now double-click on it, then mark “Activated” and confirm with “OK”. After restarting Windows, the policy is valid.