25H2 - Microsoft Store recommendations in search

dacrone · Oct 22, 2025

Edwin said:
Windows Now Prevents You From Disabling Microsoft Store App Updates

yeah right. like they limited the amount of time you can pause windows updates... they cant control that stuff, but its sweet that they think they can

gavin_ch · Oct 26, 2025

Hello everyone, I still can't find any setting and/or policy to disable those suggestions, so I made a feedback. Here's the link: Feedback hub
Hope you can help upvote it. Thank you.

Edit to add: if it's of your interest, here is the blog which explains the addition of Store catalogue in Start/Taskbar Search : Leveling up your Microsoft Store on Windows experience . On footnote number 1, it mentions that "Feature availability varies by market."

garlin · Oct 26, 2025

gavin_ch said:
Edit to add: if it's of your interest, here is the blog which explains the addition of Store catalogue in Start/Taskbar Search : Leveling up your Microsoft Store on Windows experience . On footnote number 1, it mentions that "Feature availability varies by market."

That strongly implies there's a Feature ID (gradual rollout) or geo-location tied to the Search function.

orzplay · Oct 26, 2025

gavin_ch said:
Hello everyone, I still can't find any setting and/or policy to disable those suggestions, so I made a feedback. Here's the link: Feedback hub
Hope you can help upvote it. Thank you.

Edit to add: if it's of your interest, here is the blog which explains the addition of Store catalogue in Start/Taskbar Search : Leveling up your Microsoft Store on Windows experience . On footnote number 1, it mentions that "Feature availability varies by market."

Excellent work. If everyone upvotes and comments on that Feedback Hub link, that would be helpful.

Also great find with the blog. That mentions exactly what we're talking about here:

You’ll now be able to launch Windows search, search for an app or game from the Store and install it quickly.

garlin said:
That strongly implies there's a Feature ID (gradual rollout) or geo-location tied to the Search function.

In regards to the footnote, I personally think that simply means that the various apps within the Store will vary by location, not this functionality itself. But who knows.

garlin · Oct 27, 2025

orzplay said:
In regards to the footnote, I personally think that simply means that the various apps within the Store will vary by location, not this functionality itself. But who knows.

Adding Search results from your own app store (and not someone else's store) is exactly what the EU loves to whack with competition fines.

orzplay · Oct 27, 2025

garlin said:
Adding Search results from your own app store (and not someone else's store) is exactly what the EU loves to whack with competition fines.

Good point, in that case yeah you were probably right about what that footnote means.

In which case, it's surprising this function is now released to the public yet without a way to de-activate already. I suppose we'll have to wait until we get the new start menu.

JohnSmith13 · Nov 8, 2025

orzplay said:
Good point, in that case yeah you were probably right about what that footnote means.

In which case, it's surprising this function is now released to the public yet without a way to de-activate already. I suppose we'll have to wait until we get the new start menu.

I have been hit by the store recommendations shenanigans and have been searching for everything and anywhere, to no avail.
I would be extremely interested if someone comes up with any ideas to disable it.
And of course I would be thrilled if an official (or unofficial) update solves the issue.

Thanks to all for sharing your similar (frustrating) experiences.

Makumasa · Nov 17, 2025

FrancoDT said:
Don't know if you use Vivetool but you can easily enable the new Start Menu with the vivetool codes.

I didn't have the new start menu despite being on 25H2. I used ViVeTool to enable the new start menu, but I'm still seeing results from the store in start menu search:

This is despite having the "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions" registry enabled:

I also don't have the "Let search apps show results" in my search settings:

I saw some folks speculating that the ability to disable Store results in Search requires having the new start menu, but it seems that there's more to it than that.

Sheikh · Nov 17, 2025

Hmmm...
It's still the old start menu ...

Makumasa · Nov 17, 2025

I was in a similar boat, where I still had the old start menu despite being on 25H2. You can enable it by downloading ViVeTool and running it as admin with the following arguments:
ViVeTool.exe /enable /id:47205210

That said, enabling the new start menu did not fix the problem for me

Sheikh · Nov 17, 2025

Makumasa said:
I was in a similar boat, where I still had the old start menu despite being on 25H2. You can enable it by downloading ViVeTool and running it as admin with the following arguments:
ViVeTool.exe /enable /id:47205210

That said, enabling the new start menu did not fix the problem for me

It doesn't matter... It's an important PC in our office I can't risk using ViveTool. Just wanted to note it.

jhigh2000 · Dec 16, 2025

Here's a link to a crappy workaround until there's a better option. Better than nothing: I found how to remove store results if anyone is interested
and how-to-remove-the-store-results-from-the-start-menu
Note: I'm not the author.

dacrone · Dec 16, 2025

jhigh2000 said:
Here's a link to a crappy workaround until there's a better option. Better than nothing: I found how to remove store results if anyone is interested
and how-to-remove-the-store-results-from-the-start-menu
Note: I'm not the author.

not 100% certain if this will work as i cant get those results to show to test this, but this should do what your linked answer describes (save as .bat)

Code:

@echo off
:: --- Elevate to Administrator ---
net session >nul 2>&1
if %errorlevel% neq 0 (
    powershell -Command "Start-Process '%~f0' -Verb RunAs"
    exit /b
)

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

cls
echo Cleaning Windows Store search history...
timeout /t 1 >nul

:: --- Run PowerShell logic ---
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command ^
"if ((Get-PackageProvider -ListAvailable -Name 'NuGet' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq \$null) { Install-PackageProvider -Name NuGet -Force | Out-Null }; ^
 if ((Get-Module PSSQLite -ListAvailable) -eq \$null) { Install-Module PSSQLite -Scope CurrentUser -Force | Out-Null }; ^
 \$db = \"\$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\store.db\"; ^
 try { ^
     Invoke-SqliteQuery -DataSource \$db -Query 'DELETE FROM SearchProducts'; ^
     Write-Output 'Deleted all entries from SearchProducts.'; ^
     # Set file to read-only
     Set-ItemProperty -Path \$db -Name IsReadOnly -Value \$true; ^
     Write-Output 'store.db is now read-only.'; ^
 } catch { Write-Output \$_.Exception.Message }"

exit /b

alti77 · Dec 16, 2025

Try by the group policy: computer configuration\administrative templates\windows components\store--> disable app store

aj2390 · Dec 30, 2025

for anyone using wintoys, enable the digital markets act, the store recommendations will go away

Lifer16 · Jan 1, 2026

aj2390 said:
for anyone using wintoys, enable the digital markets act, the store recommendations will go away

Wow it did work, from what I've seen enabling dma has no downsides, i mean so far

cybesis · Jan 1, 2026

I completely understand your frustration with these unwanted Store recommendations! They can be really intrusive, especially when you're trying to find actual files or apps on your system.

Have you tried using the Group Policy Editor to disable these recommendations? You can navigate to:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search

Look for "Allow Cloud Search" and set it to Disabled. This should help reduce those Microsoft Store suggestions. Also, make sure "Don't search the web or display web results in Search" is enabled.

If you're on Windows 11 Home and don't have access to gpedit.msc, you can achieve similar results through registry edits, though it's a bit more involved.

FrancoDT · Jan 1, 2026

aj2390 said:
for anyone using wintoys, enable the digital markets act, the store recommendations will go away

Just a screen shot to make it easier to find.

TargetLocked · Jan 2, 2026

I can confirm that DMA works on my machine with 25H2. for those who do not want to use a closed-source software to modify system files, refer to this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DMATutorial/comments/1mm1l3d/windows_1011_digital_markets_act_enabler_new_and

garlin · Jan 2, 2026

TargetLocked said:
I can confirm that DMA works on my machine with 25H2. for those who do not want to use a closed-source software to modify system files, refer to this:

Wintoys does it by directly modifying "\Windows\System32\IntegratedServicesRegionPolicySet.json".

There's this constant debate over which method is better (hacking your region in the registry vs. editing the JSON file). Updating your region might have weird consequences because Windows thinks you're somewhere else, and the JSON file can get overwritten when you do a SFC /scannow.

The JSON rule is "Show modified UX layout, such as unweighted options, for Privacy-related settings". Flipping the default from "disabled" to "enabled" allows everyone in the world to use the setting.

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