Privacy and Security Enable or Disable Recent Search History in Windows 11

Brink · Mar 24, 2022

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off save search history on this device for your account in Windows 11.

Windows Search lets you search from your taskbar to find what you’re looking for, whether it’s on your device, in the cloud, or on the web.

Windows Search saves your recent search history locally on your device by default to help you find things faster. For example, you might discover that an app is ranked higher in your results if you’ve searched for it before.

Reference:

Windows Search and privacy - Microsoft Support

Learn how to connect Windows Search with your accounts in the cloud, manage your Windows Search and SafeSearch settings, clear search history, and more.

support.microsoft.com

Turning off "Search history on this device" will not clear recent device search history.

Contents

Option One: Turn On or Off Recent Search History in Settings
Option Two: Turn On or Off Recent Search History using REG file

EXAMPLE: Recent search history in Windows Search

Option One

Turn On or Off Recent Search History in Settings

1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on Privacy & security on the left side, and click/tap on Search permissions on the right side. (see screenshot below)

Open Search permissions settings

3 Turn On (default) or Off Search history on this device for what you want under History. (see screenshot below)

4 You can now close Settings if you like.

Option Two

Turn On or Off Recent Search History using REG file

1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.

2 Turn On Recent Search History on this Device

This is the default setting.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_ON_recent_search_history_on_this_device.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SearchSettings]
"IsDeviceSearchHistoryEnabled"=dword:00000001

3 Turn Off Recent Search History on this Device

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_OFF_recent_search_history_on_this_device.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SearchSettings]
"IsDeviceSearchHistoryEnabled"=dword:00000000

4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn Brink