How to disable the Bing button in the taskbar search on Windows 11

Windows 11 22H2 introduced a Bing button in the search box on the taskbar. When clicked, it opens the Chat AI dialog, which allows interacting with Microsoft' bot in Edge. While the company is gradually rolling out this feature, there is a chance that you already see it.

Here's how it looks.

Once you click on the button, a Microsoft Edge window will open to the Bing Chat page. There, you can continue to type text queries in order to receive some AI-generated replies from the bot.

The new button replaces the fancy Search Highlights feature of Windows 11, which were tied to some meaningful dates and events around you. Sadly, Microsoft doesn't offer to pick between the Bing Chat and Search Highlights feature. It is the OS that decides that to show the user.

Luckily, there are several ways to get rid of it. Obviously, you can simply disable the Search Highlights, making them disappear along the Bing icon. Alternatively, you can try to keep Search Highlights, but only remove the Bing icon.

If you're not interested in Bing Chat AI, following the steps below to disable the Bing button in the taskbar.

Disable Bing Button in Taskbar Search

1. Open the Settings app with the Win + I key sequence or by clicking on its icon in Start.
2. Navigate to Privacy & Security > Search Permissions.
3. On the next page, scroll down to the More Settings section.
4. Finally, turn of the "Search Highlights" option. This will instantly disable the Bing button in the search box in the Windows 11 taskbar.

You are done. Enjoy the clean Windows 11 search box without the Bing logo.

Also, there is one more method to get rid of the annoying icon. To disable the Bing button in search, you can simply change the search box appearance in Windows 11 Settings. Let's review this method, too.

Disable the Bing logo in the taskbar with Settings

1. Open the Settings app (Win + I), and click on the Personalization section on the left.
2. On the right, click on the Taskbar button.
3. Now, under Taskbar items, select "Search icon and label" from the drop-down menu.
4. Voila, you now have the plain search box in the taskbar, without extra icons or images.

The downside of this method is that the search control is no longer interactive, as it doesn't allow you to type in it directly. On the other hand, it takes less space and consumes less system resources.

It is worth mentioning that you can select some other option from the drop-down menu, e.g. "Search icon" or completely hide it. This will also do the trick.

However, if you like the appearance of the search highlights, the above methods could be not your way. Luckily, it is possible to remove the Bing icon from the Windows search in the taskbar but keep the search tidbits on.

ℹ️ Note: The next chapter of the guide has been successfully tested in stable Windows 11 version 22H2 releases up to build 22621.2160. It may stop working at any moment, as it involves a third-party ViVeTool app. If the steps below fail for you, please share the Windows version you have installed. For that, type winver in the Run box (Win + R) and type the Windows version and its build number in the comments.

So, to remove the Bing icon from the Windows 11 Search in the taskbar, do the following.

Remove Bing Icon from Windows Search

1. Download the ViVeTool from this page on GitHub.
2. Extract the app files to the c:\vivetool folder.
3. Now, press Win + X, and select Terminal(Admin) from the menu that appears on the screen.
4. In Windows Terminal, type c:\vivetool\vivetool /disable /id:43572857,42922989, and hit Enter.
5. Restart the computer to apply the changes. Voila, you just restored the former version of search that only shows highlights. The Bing icon is no longer appears in the taskbar.

💡Tip: To undo the change, run the opposite command c:\vivetool\vivetool /reset /id:43572857,42922989. It will restore the default configuration of the search feature. Just don't forget that you need to run it as Administrator.

So, while the ViVeTool method may stop in a forthcoming update, the rest methods will remain fully functional. Do not hesitate to share what method works best for you.

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