Microsoft Promises To Fix Search With Major Windows 11 Overhaul (windowscentral.com)
- Reference: 0184446518
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/07/13/2149251/microsoft-promises-to-fix-search-with-major-windows-11-overhaul
- Source link: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-announces-major-windows-11-search-overhaul-that-prioritizes-clearer-local-results-and-removes-ads
> The company is highlighting several key improvements, including clearer results that does a better job at showing why a search result is appearing when a query has been typed, alongside prioritizing local results before reaching out to the web.
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> Search is also getting better at handling things like typos, which should help surface the right results even when the user misspells an app or file. The search home pane will no longer show MSN or Bing content, and promotional content and ads will no longer appear in search results.
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> These upgrades are now rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Experimental Channel, and are expected to roll out to all Windows 11 users later this year. Insiders may not see the changes right away as they are rolling out in waves.
The full list of changes can be found [3]here .
[1] https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-announces-major-windows-11-search-overhaul-that-prioritizes-clearer-local-results-and-removes-ads
[2] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2026/07/13/improving-windows-search-box-with-less-clutter-and-more-control/
[3] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2026/07/13/improving-windows-search-box-with-less-clutter-and-more-control/
The best part (Score:4, Funny)
Every windows licensee will be given a share in the Brooklyn bridge.
Uh huh (Score:4, Funny)
Have they tried AI?
Re: (Score:2)
They are now...
For Insiders on the Experimental channel (Score:3)
Will any of this make it to real end users? Who knows, ad revenue is some real sticky goo that is hard to wipe off of your project once you have some on there and it tends to spread.
[1]https://windowsforum.com/threa... [windowsforum.com]
[1] https://windowsforum.com/threads/windows-insider-overhaul-experimental-vs-beta-feature-flags-and-easier-exits.411565/
Re: (Score:2)
Which is why this is suspicious. Just how do they intend to make up for the revenue losses? What fresh hell will the next "update" do to us?
Yes, Windows is slowed down mightily by the constant telemetry feeds, the ad campaigns and sheer bad code sloth.
They are not benevolent, and so their intentions are entirely suspect.
Re: For Insiders on the Experimental channel (Score:2)
"Now mining MicroCoin whilst pc is idle"
Re:For Insiders on the Experimental channel (Score:5, Informative)
According to the Microsoft document, the sole thing they're doing to reduce ad clutter is, "Promotional content has been removed from web results. Web results show the most relevant answer, instead of first showing related products and promotions, helping search feel more focused and less distracting." And even that has this carve out, "NOTE: Experiences vary by region." So, all you get is some slight relief using search, and even that depends on where you happen to live.
Re: (Score:2)
It means they'll fix it for the EU but won't do anything for the USA.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't believe that shit for a nanosecond. Spare me.
Re: (Score:2)
> Who knows, ad revenue is some real sticky goo that is hard to wipe off of your project once you have some on there and it tends to spread.
Microsoft has to pay their engineers who work on Windows somehow. As for me? I'm still on Windows 10 ESR and will be until October 2028.
About frackin' time. (Score:2)
Users have only been asking for this since Vista...
Re: (Score:3)
Wait what? Search in Windows has always been totally borked - it didn't work on XP. That there are third party, my favorite is "Eveyrthing" [1]https://www.voidtools.com/down... [voidtools.com] that do a so much better job should be an embarrassment to MS, but it seems not...
[1] https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/
Re:About frackin' time. (Score:4, Informative)
It already exists. [1]https://www.voidtools.com/ [voidtools.com]
Returns results as fast as you type and can even index network drives. I’ve been using it daily for years.
[1] https://www.voidtools.com/
Did they get rid of the spyware (Score:2)
Because it's the spyware that's the problem.
Re: (Score:2)
If Microsoft got rid of the spyware in their products, they would not have anything left to ship.
Windows! The most widely distributed virus since 1995.
Search Everything (Score:3)
Why bother, Search Everything already does a fantastic job. Microsoft couldn't create a usable search even if they wanted to. Windows search has been crap, well, since forever.
Re: (Score:2)
Windows search used to be kind of OK. Never as good as Everything, but Everything didn't exist for most of history. But they really fucked it up somewhere along the line, which I didn't notice because I was using Everything, and now it's very challenging to construct a complex search without learning a whole new language of keywords.
Fix my bloody right click menu first (Score:2)
It shouldn't take 10 seconds for my right click menu to show up unless I hold down the shift key. And yeah there is a registry hack I can do but on my work PC it's a huge pain in the ass to have it put it in every freaking time I get an update because of course every time Windows 11 updates they clear the key...
I swear Windows 11 is the most user hostile piece of software I have ever used in my life and I have programmed on IBM mainframes...
Translation: (Score:3)
Linux is starting to eat our lunch and gamers are leaving our product for SteamOS in droves
They've got a long way to go (Score:4, Funny)
Clippy: "It looks like you're trying to deshittify Windows. Can I help?"
Zorin or Mint? (Score:2)
I keep hearing things like "my grandmother got so confused, I set her up on Zorin/Mint and she couldn't tell the difference."
The more people just use their PC's to get on websites the less they seem to notice if they use Windows or Linux.
AI is not enough. (Score:1)
First, please fix the Explorer search feature, where files cannot be found if the name separation is different.
I just had to kill and restart the search indexer (Score:2)
The index database had grown to 190 GB, with another temporary working storage file taking up another 50 GB. I had to stop the search service, delete the temp file, and rebuild the index.
And all that for a search that has never, ever worked.
Remember Google Desktop Search? (Score:2)
That's a search engine for Windows that actually worked. Too bad it was... [1]https://killedbygoogle.com/ [killedbygoogle.com]
[1] https://killedbygoogle.com/
Few people even know you can search from Start (Score:2)
Click Start, start typing. When it works, it's the fastest way to start anything on Windows. But half the time, it shows you, for example, a web search result for "Control Panel" instead of showing you the...Control Panel.
Imagine... (Score:2)
... if I didn't have to search for apps because the Start Menu wasn't a piece of junk that does everything possible to hide the apps I want to use.
Less advertising (Score:2)
They are making it look more and more like macos. I doubt the people who run the company even use Microsoft windows.
I can't Wait! (Score:5, Funny)
For the "Just ask Clippy" advertising campaign.