How to Disable Explorer Search Box Suggestions in Windows 7

Earlier we saw how to clear the search MRU entries in Windows 7. Are you one of those who find the Search Box suggestion pop-ups annoying, and don’t require this feature? Here is a registry edit which disables the search box suggestions in Windows Explorer.

1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press ENTER

2. Navigate to the following branch:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Explorer

Note: The above key may not exist by default, and you may need to create the above branch manually.

3. Create a DWORD value named DisableSearchBoxSuggestions

4. Double-click DisableSearchBoxSuggestions and set its data as 1

5. Exit the Registry Editor.

This setting disables suggesting recent queries for the Search Box and prevents entries into the Search Box from being stored in the registry for future references.

Registry Fix

To automate the above download w7-disable-search-suggest.zip, unzip and run the enclosed REG file. To reverse the changes run the file undo.reg

Using the Group Policy Editor

This is only for Windows 7 editions that include the Group Policy Editor.

1. Launch the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)

2. Navigate to the following branch:

User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Explorer

3. Set Turn off display of recent search entries in the Windows Explorer search box to Enabled

4. Exit the Group Policy Editor.

Note: If you enable this policy, Windows Explorer will not show suggestion pop-ups as users type into the Search Box, and it will not store Search Box entries into the registry for future references. If the user types a property, values that match this property will be shown but no data will be saved in the registry or re-shown on subsequent uses of the search box.

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