Turn On or Off Search online and include web results in Windows 10  

It seems like it's also possible to turn off Bing results if you add a key "BingSearchEnabled" and set it to 0 in "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search", the same spot as the "CortanaConsent" key location.

It might be worth noting that the old method of setting "BingSearchEnabled" in Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search still works...

@Brink Hello Shawn,
Do you know the name of the Microsoft app/exe which displays the search results:

https://www.tenforums.com/attachment...h_results-.png

and how one might update that app? Thanks

Brink said:

Hello Steve,

Not sure on that one since it pulls it from Bing online.

Thanks Shawn - so I've noticed that if I click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the search results screen, it shows
2021.11.05.25577912 for my account that displays search results with a dark background and
2019.10.17.623220 for my account that displays search results with a light background (even though the account is set for dark theme).

I understand the Microsoft is rolling out dark mode for Windows 10 Search dark mode Windows 10 search rollout is a server side thing, but I'm still trying to figure out how those version numbers are possibly related to this and if there's any way to make the update happen faster or manually on my PC.

Wondering if you have any insights on this and thanks again.

Ghot said:

That whole Taskbar Search box... is part of Cortana.
I found that by accident...





How to disable web search in Windows 10 taskbar

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search

Thanks Ghot. I think it's more than Cortana that's involved in displaying the search results - but I'm not 100% sure. I'm curious about exactly what controls the dark vs light them search results under the hood .

steve108 said:

Thanks Shawn - so I've noticed that if I click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the search results screen, it shows
2021.11.05.25577912 for my account that displays search results with a dark background and
2019.10.17.623220 for my account that displays search results with a light background (even though the account is set for dark theme).

I understand the Microsoft is rolling out dark mode for Windows 10 Search dark mode Windows 10 search rollout is a server side thing, but I'm still trying to figure out how those version numbers are possibly related to this and if there's any way to make the update happen faster or manually on my PC.

Wondering if you have any insights on this and thanks again.

@Brink, Hello Shawn - please note the following negative side effect I've discovered of doing this tutorial. You may want to address it in a red box in the OP if you confirm the same behavior. The OP is about setting the key in #2 below to 1 to disable online search results.

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If you are looking for Windows Search Results to show a dark background and your Windows 10 2004-thru-21H2 is set for dark mode, then you may be interested in the following as I finally figured out an issue causing me to not see dark mode search results.

1. In the registry folder
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search\
if you have key "CortanaConsent" and it is set to 0, you must change it to 1

2. In the registry folder
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

if you have key "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions" , it must be set to 0.

If you change any of those values, you must either reboot or End Task "Search" from Task Manager to make the change take effect, then try a search again to see if you have dark background in the search results window.

If you don't have those folders and respective keys, don't do anything.

After I changed those keys, my search results have a dark background and if I change either of the keys, Windows Search results background becomes white/light again.

The reason I had those registry keys was because I followed tutorials to disable Internet/web search results from being shown in Windows Search results - but those mods, it turns out, were preventing Windows Search results from being displayed with a dark background. This testing was done on Windows 10 2004 Home.
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