In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to hide search box on Windows 11 taskbar using Intune. The search box is enabled on the taskbar by default in Windows 11 and can be easily removed using techniques such as Intune, GPO, registry, and even manually from the taskbar settings.
The search box provides the ability for Windows 11 users to search directly from the taskbar. The shortcut key Windows key + S opens up the search box that lets you find installed applications, files on your PC and even displays results from the web.
The search box when enabled occupies a considerable amount of space on the taskbar. When multiple windows are opened at work, it is evident that the taskbar can accommodate fewer items. This is why most of the Windows 11 users prefer to hide the search or pin it as an icon on the taskbar to save some space.
On Windows 11 devices, if you want to hide the search box on the taskbar, use the settings catalog policy in Intune. To completely hide the search from the start menu and turn off the search UI along with entry points such as keyboard shortcuts, touchpad gestures, and type-to-search in the Start menu, use the Custom template (OMA-URI) in Intune.
Manually hide the search box on the taskbar
To get rid of the search box on a Windows 11 PC, right-click on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings, or open the Settings app and go to Personalization > Taskbar. Next to Search, click the drop-down and choose Hide.
Hide Search box on Windows 11 Taskbar using Intune
On Windows 11 devices managed using Intune, you can use a settings catalog policy to hide the search box on the taskbar for users. This is an effective approach because it doesn’t allow users to alter the search display settings once the policy settings are applied. Let’s get started.
Sign in to the Intune admin center. Go to Devices > Manage devices > Configuration > Create > New policy. Choose Windows 10 and later for the platform and Settings catalog for profile type.
Enter the policy name and add a brief description about the policy.
- Name: Hide the search box on the Windows 11 taskbar.
- Description: Remove the search box or search icon from the taskbar.
Click Next.
In the Settings picker window, type ‘configure search’ in the search box and click Search. From the results, select the Search category. In the bottom section, select the following setting: Configure Search on Taskbar Mode. Close the Settings Picker.
Click the drop-down next to the Configure Search on Taskbar Mode setting and select Hide. This will permanently remove search from the taskbar in Windows 11. Click Next.
In the scope tags section, you specify scope tags. Specifying scope tags is optional, and you may skip this step. Click Next.
In the Assignments window, select the user groups to which you want to assign the policy. I recommend deploying the profile to a few test device groups first and then expanding it to more groups if the testing is successful. Select Next.
On the Review + Create page, review all the settings that you have configured for hiding search on the taskbar via Intune and select Create.
After you create a configuration policy in Intune, a notification appears: “Policy created successfully.” This confirms that the policy has been created and is being applied to the groups we chose. The profile we created can be found in the configuration profiles section of the admin center.
Update policies with Intune
To speed up the policy assignments, refer to this useful guide on manually syncing Intune policies using different methods on your Windows computers to get the latest policies from Microsoft Intune. This is particularly helpful when you want to make sure a policy is functioning properly before implementing it for a wider range of devices or users.
Monitor Hide Search Box Intune Policy
After assigning the above policy to the device groups, the next step is to monitor the policy assignments. This gives you an idea of how many devices or users have successfully received the policy settings and how many errors were encountered.
To monitor the hide search box policy in Intune, go to Devices > Windows > Configuration and here select the Device Configuration Profile that you want to monitor. On the Policy overview page, check the device and user check-in status.
From the screenshot below, we see that policy assignments are successful on the devices and there are no errors observed. In some cases, the policy may fail to apply to certain devices. To resolve these issues, you will need to troubleshoot the issue by reviewing Intune logs on Windows computers. These are essential IME logs that are useful for troubleshooting app deployment failures on remote computers.
End User Experience
Once the devices are synced with Intune and have received the above policy settings, let’s sign in to a Windows 11 device and check to see if the search is hidden from the taskbar.
Sign in to the Windows 11 device and the first thing you’ll notice is the search box is removed from the taskbar. The taskbar looks much neater and there’s a lot more room now.
Next, open the Settings apps and go to Personalization > Taskbar. Under the Taskbar items, you’ll see that the Search is configured to Hide as per our Intune policy and users don’t have the permissions to change this option as it is greyed out. This confirms that you can effectively disable the search box from the Windows 11 taskbar using the Intune policy.
Hide Search with Intune DisableSearch Policy CSP
An alternative method to hide the search on the taskbar is to use the DisableSearch Policy CSP in Intune. The benefit of using DisableSearch policy CSP is the Search UI will be disabled along with all its entry points, such as keyboard shortcuts, touchpad gestures, and type-to-search in the Start menu. The Start menu’s search box and Search Taskbar button will also be hidden.
The below screenshot is of Policy CSP-DisableSearch that displays the policy scope, editions, applicable OS and OMA-URI settings required for disabling the search in start menu and search button on taskbar through Intune. Note that the below policy is applicable for Windows 11 version 22H2 and later. You cannot apply these settings to Windows 10 devices.
In the Intune admin center, go to Devices > Windows > Configuration. Create a new policy and select Windows 10 and later as Platform and Templates as Profile type. Under the Template Name, select Choose and click Create.
Enter the name and description for this custom template profile and click Next.
On the Configuration Settings tab, click on the Add button. Specify the following OMA-URI settings to hide the Start Menu search box and Search Taskbar button.
- Name: Hide Search on Windows 11 taskbar
- Description: Hide Start Menu search box and Search Taskbar button
- OMA-URI: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Search/DisableSearch
- Data type: Integer
- Value: 1
Click Save and proceed to the next step.
Assign the above custom template to the device groups consisting of Windows 11 devices for which you want to hide the search in start menu, taskbar and all the other entry points. Once the devices are assigned with the policy settings, sign in to the Windows 11 device. Notice that the search box is hidden in the Start Menu and from the taskbar as well.
That’s all for this guide, I hope this helps!!
Before you go, take a look at some useful guides related to configuring Windows 11 settings with Microsoft Intune.
- Removing weather icon from taskbar with Intune
- Automatically Delete Old User Profiles using Intune
- Hiding Try the New Outlook Toggle using Intune and GPO
- Unpin Microsoft Store from the Taskbar using Intune Policy
- Hide EULA for Windows Autopilot Users
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