Windows 7 - Windows Search - Turn On or Off

**Brink**

How to Turn Windows 7 Search On or Off

Information

This will show you how to turn Windows Search on or off to add or remove the search box in Windows 7 Start Menu and Windows Explorer.

Windows Search is turned on by default in Windows 7. You should only turn off Windows Search if you don’t use it.

Note

Turning off Windows Search removes it from Windows 7, but doesn't reduce the amount of hard disk space used by Windows 7. Windows Search will remain stored on your hard disk, so you can turn it back on if you want to.

Warning

If you turn off Windows Search:

See also: What happens if I turn off Windows Search?

All the search boxes in Windows 7 will disappear, including the search boxes in Windows Explorer, Start menu, Control Panel, and Libraries.
Programs that rely on Windows Search might not function properly.
Internet Explorer will no longer have enhanced search capabilities.
Tablet PC handwriting recognition won't work.
Windows Media Center won't have enhanced search capability.
You'll no longer be able to arrange your library views by metadata, and your column headers will only sort items, not stack or group them.
All Windows Search features will be removed, including Indexing Options in the Control Panel, and the Search tab in Folder Options.
Windows will no longer recognize these search-based file types: search-ms, searchconnector-ms, and osdx.
Pressing Windows Key+F to open a search window will give you this error.

EXAMPLE: Folder Options with Search Turned On or Off

EXAMPLE: Windows Explorer with Search Turned On or Off

EXAMPLE: Start Menu with Search Turned On or Off

Here's How:

1. Open Windows and Features.

2. To Turn On Windows Search
A) Check the Windows Search box, and click on OK. (See screenshot above)

B) Go to step 4.

3. To Turn Off Windows Search
A) Uncheck the Windows Search box. (See screenshot below step 1)

B) Click on Yes. (See screenshot below)

C) Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 1)

4. Click on Restart Now. (See screenshot below)
WARNING: This will restart the computer immediately. Be sure to save and close anything you have open or running first.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

**myzr7** · 09-18-2009

Brink
Saw this on your twitter. Thought it would be a reg tweek that I needed to download. Da! Feature of course. Simple. Thanks!

**Brink** · 09-18-2009

LOL, you're welcome Larry.

GTX11 · 11-19-2009

What is the benefit of removing search?

**Brink** · 11-19-2009

Hello GTX,

The tutorial is mostly for folks to be able to restore Search if it was to go missing, but I suppose that if you had other users, it would be helpful to prevent them from doing searches as well.

GTX11 · 11-20-2009

Thanks for the reply.

**Brink** · 11-20-2009

You're welcome GTX.

**ddark21** · 11-24-2009

Hi, i try to turn on Windows Search, but when is actualizing it stops and a dialog box with error apears: some features were not changed correctly. And nothing happens.

Can some one help me?

Thanks!!!

**Brink** · 11-24-2009

Hello Ddark, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if running a sfc /scannow command may help let you afterwards. If not, then doing a repair install should fix it for you without losing anything.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

**Pablo24k** · 11-25-2009

Does turning windows 7 search off then back on reset search properties?

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