Enable or Disable Recent Items in Search in Windows 10

How to Enable or Disable Recent Items in Search in Windows 10

Along with the release of Windows 10 Build 20236 to Insiders, Microsoft rolled out a new Windows Search experience to everyone. It is a server-side change that has become available to Windows 10 version 1809 and above. It has a number of improvements, and also displays your recent searches right in the search pane once you open it.

Windows 10 has a search box in the taskbar, which can be used to perform the search by keyboard or by voice. Once you type something in the search box on the Windows 10 taskbar, search results show but web search results are mixed with local search results, Store apps and content from Bing.

Microsoft used to have Cortana integrated with Search, but in recent Windows 10 builds the company has removed Cortana from system components, and moved it to the Store.

Uninstall and Remove Cortana in Windows 10 version 2004

Windows Search comes with a web backend that mixes your local files with web data. As of Windows 10 version 2004, it is hard to disable this behavior.

Microsoft is constantly updating their server-side portion for Windows Search. After the release Windows 10 Build 20236, the search pane has got the recent list shows the last four items that you’ve searched for and opened from Windows Search Box, which can include apps, files, settings, and direct-nav URLs (for example, like “bing.com”). 

To Disable Recent Items in Search in Windows 10,

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Navigate to Settings > Search > Permissions and History.
3. On the right, turn off the toggle option named Search history on this device.
4. You are done.

This will disable the Recent searches section in the Windows Search pane. Instead of disabling the section, you can remove its individual items.

To Remove Individual Items from Recent Searches in Windows 10,

1. Open the Windows Search pane (you can press Win + S).
2. Hover your mouse over the item you want to remove.
3. Click the "x" button that shows when you hover your mouse over the item.
4. You are done.

Finally, you can re-enable Recent items in Windows 10 at any time by turning on the above mentioned switch.

To Disable Recent Items in Search in Windows 10,

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Navigate to Settings > Search > Permissions and History.
3. On the right, turn on (enable) the Search history on this device option.
4. You are done.

Keep in mind the following:

• If you’ve not used Windows Search Box before and have 0 recent items, the recent list will be hidden.
• If you don’t use Windows Search Box often and have fewer than 2 items in the recent list, an educational string will display in the area to let you know what types of items will appear in the list.