Hide the search box on the taskbar (search still works) — via Mauro Huculak, Pureinfotech

Hidden settinglow riskWindows 11

The taskbar search box takes up a lot of room. You can hide it or shrink it to an icon; search keeps working from the Start menu or with Win+S.

Takes effect right away

How to do it

Settings → Personalization → Taskbar → under Taskbar items, set Search to Hide (or Search icon only).
Search any time: press Win and start typing, or Win + S.

This is stored as SearchboxTaskbarMode under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search: 0 = hidden, 1 = icon only, 2 = search box, 3 = search button.

Sources

How to disable Taskbar search box on Windows 11 — by Mauro Huculak, Pureinfotech

Source reviewed: 2026-11-02
Link checked: 2026-11-02
Tested hands-on: Not by Oddbyte.Me

Oddbyte.Me hasn't tried this on every Windows build, so keep the undo handy.

search boxtaskbarhide searchsearchboxtaskbarmode

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