Quick trick to use a hidden Windows 10 feature

Nov 17, 2014 15:49 GMT  ·  By

Windows 10 comes with lots of improvements for the desktop, including a new search button that allows you to look for information online straight from the taskbar.

Even though this particular feature was expected to be well received by Windows Insider Program members, many have actually requested Microsoft to implement options that would allow them to disable this search button, explaining not only that it isn’t really helpful, but also that it takes up space on the taskbar and contributes to an overall cluttered desktop.

In Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879, Microsoft has finally implemented settings to disable search and the Task view buttons, thus helping those hoping to get the familiar Windows 7 desktop design back without too much effort.

And while these features surely come in handy, the editors over at WinAero have come across a really helpful trick that brings a search box right in the taskbar.

How to enable the search box

First and foremost, make sure that you are running Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879, which was released by Microsoft last week. This is the latest Windows 10 update of the year, so you’d better install it as soon as possible, as no other improvements would be released until early 2015.

The next step is to click on the Start menu and launch the Registry Editor by typing regedit.exe in the search box. Hit “Enter” and you should get the Registry Editor window on the screen.

Navigate to the following path:

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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search
If you can’t find the patch (we’ve heard of cases when the “Search” key was missing entirely), you can easily right-click the parent category (e.g: CurrentVersion) and create “Search” manually.

Next, right-click in the right side of the window and create a new DWORD value called “EnableSearchBox.” Add 1 as its value and hit “Enter.”

Basically, rebooting the computer should be all you need to do to see the changes. Alternatively, you can press CTRL + Shift and right-click the Windows taskbar to see an option called “exit Explorer.” If you do this, after you kill the taskbar, you can relaunch it by pressing CTRL + Alt + Delete, launching the Task Manager, hitting New > Task, and typing in “Explorer.”

If this process worked okay, the next time you get on the desktop you should see a new menu option called “Search” when you right-click the taskbar.

Simply click on Search > Show search box and you should see the new feature integrated into the taskbar.

Search box in Windows 10 taskbar (5 Images)

Create/edit the registry using the built-in Registry Editor
Change the value of the key using the built-in Registry EditorThis is what the new option looks like
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