How to Turn Off That Irritating “Trending Now” and Web Suggestions in Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge

If you’ve opened Windows 11 Search or Microsoft Edge lately and felt bombarded by “Trending now” topics and web suggestions you never asked for, you’re not alone. The good news: you can switch most of this off with built‑in settings and, if needed, a simple policy tweak.

In this guide, we’ll walk through how to turn off or reduce “Trending now” in Windows Search, stop Start menu search from sending queries to Bing, and disable Edge’s Bing trending suggestions for a much cleaner and more private search experience.

Last updated September 2026 for Windows 11 25H2 and Microsoft Edge with Copilot integration.

What’s new in 2026

Windows 11 25H2 is the current release, and Microsoft has pushed even more Bing- and Copilot-flavored surfaces into Search and Edge since the original guide was written. If you last turned these off a year or two ago, expect a few new switches.

• Copilot inside Edge is now the default sidebar. The May 2026 Edge update retired the standalone “Copilot Mode” and folded cross‑tab reasoning, Journeys, Voice, and Vision into the regular Copilot sidebar. None of these change the trending‑search behavior in the address bar, but the new tab page was redesigned around Copilot, so the tiles you see there look different from the 2024 layout.

• Semantic search on Copilot+ PCs. On Copilot+ hardware, Windows 11 25H2 adds on‑device semantic indexing to Search. Turning off Search Highlights still works the same way, but your local results feel smarter — you can search phrases like “change my theme” and Windows understands you.

• Agent in Settings. 25H2 also puts a Copilot‑powered agent inside the Settings app on Copilot+ PCs. It doesn’t affect trending suggestions directly, but if you can’t find the Search Highlights toggle by scrolling, you can just ask Settings to take you there.

• Bing’s trending list is still Bing. Even in 2026 the “Show me trending searches from Microsoft Bing” toggle in Edge is the switch that matters — Copilot in Edge doesn’t replace it.

What “Trending now” and web suggestions actually are

On Windows 11 and Edge, Microsoft uses a few different features that all feel like “trending stuff” bolted onto search. Understanding the names Microsoft uses will help you find the right toggles.

• Search Highlights in Windows 11: The feature that shows news, holidays, and “what’s popular now” content in the Windows Search box and search home panel.

• Web results in Start and taskbar search: When you type into Start or the taskbar search, Windows can send your query to Bing and mix web results into the list with local apps and files.

• Bing “Trending now” in Microsoft Edge: Edge can show trending Bing searches in the address‑bar suggestions and on the new tab page.

For a local‑only, distraction‑free search experience, you’ll want to adjust all three areas.

How to turn off “Trending now” in Windows 11 Search

The fastest way to remove the tiles and trending content in Windows Search is to disable Search Highlights in Settings.

1. Open Settings (Start > Settings, or press Win + I).

2. Select Privacy & security in the left‑hand menu.

3. Under Windows permissions, click Search.
   

4. Scroll down to the More settings section.

5. Turn Show search highlights Off.
   

Microsoft’s Windows IT Pro blog and support docs confirm this toggle controls the extra “today’s highlights” and “trending” content in search, on both the taskbar and the full search window. Once it’s off, the search panel goes back to a plain look focused on your apps and recent activity.

If you’re an IT admin, the same experience can be centrally managed using Group Policy or MDM configuration policies that target Search Highlights, as documented in Microsoft’s group configuration guidance.

How to stop Start menu search from sending queries to Bing

Turning off Search Highlights doesn’t stop Windows 11 from sending your typed queries to Bing when you search from Start or the taskbar. To keep search local‑only, Microsoft exposes a policy called DisableSearchBoxSuggestions that disables web suggestions.

Here’s the registry‑based method described in Microsoft’s own Q&A documentation:

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter to open Registry Editor. You will likely need to accept a User Account Control prompt.

2. Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer.

3. If the Explorer key does not exist, create it under Windows.

4. In the Explorer key, create a new DWORD (32‑bit) Value named DisableSearchBoxSuggestions.

5. Set the value of DisableSearchBoxSuggestions to 1 and click OK.

6. Sign out of your account and sign back in (or restart) for the change to take effect.

Once this policy is active, Start menu search stops pulling in Bing suggestions and sticks to local content such as apps, files, and system settings. This is the Microsoft‑supported way to fully disable Bing web search in the Start search box.

In managed environments, admins typically set the same policy via Group Policy or mobile device management, pushing the registry value to all users automatically.

How to turn off “Trending now” in Microsoft Edge

On the browser side, Edge has its own “Trending now” behavior powered by Bing. This is what you see when you click in the address bar and a list of popular searches appears before you type anything.

Microsoft documents a specific toggle for this:

1. Open Microsoft Edge.

2. Click the Settings and more button (three dots) in the top‑right corner and choose Settings.

3. In the left menu, select Privacy, search, and services.

4. Scroll down and click Address bar and search.

5. Under Search suggestions and filters, turn Show me trending searches from Microsoft Bing Off.

Microsoft support responses and documentation for Edge’s “Trending now” feature point to this exact path—Privacy, search, and services → Address bar and search → Show me trending searches from Microsoft Bing—as the supported way to disable it. After switching it off, the address‑bar drop‑down focuses on your own history, favorites, and typed suggestions instead of global trends.

Optional: Clean up Edge’s new tab page

Even with Bing trending searches disabled in the address bar, the new tab page itself can still show news and trending content tiles. Since the May 2026 Edge update, that page is Copilot‑centered by default — the layout is customizable, but the modules are more aggressive out of the box.

To tone it down:

1. Open a new tab in Edge.

2. Click the Customize (gear) icon on the page.

3. Adjust the layout (choose the minimal or “Focused” layout) and look for toggles that control news, content, or the new Copilot module.

4. Turn off or minimize news, trending, and Copilot cards according to your preference.

Microsoft’s documentation and community guidance make it clear that new tab content is configured separately from the “Show me trending searches” toggle, so you may need to change both for a truly distraction‑free Edge start page.

Common problems and fixes

These toggles are simple on paper, but Windows and Edge sometimes act as if you never touched them. Here are the issues we see most often in 2026 and how to fix each one.

• Search Highlights keeps turning itself back on. After a cumulative update or a Windows Feature Experience Pack refresh, the toggle can flip. Re‑check Settings > Privacy & security > Search permissions > More settings after every big Windows update.

• DisableSearchBoxSuggestions doesn’t seem to work. Confirm you created it under HKEY_CURRENT_USER (not HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE), that the type is DWORD (32‑bit), and that you signed out and back in. On managed devices, a Group Policy from your IT department will override anything you set locally.

• Edge still shows trending in the sidebar Copilot. The “Show me trending searches” toggle only governs the address bar. Copilot in Edge draws suggested topics from your open tabs and history — turn off Personalized ads and offers and, under Copilot settings, disable browsing history access to trim it down.

• New tab tiles keep changing. Edge A/B tests new tab modules. If a new tile appears after an update, open Customize on the new tab page and untick any new content categories.

• Corporate‑managed PC won’t let you turn Highlights off. Your IT admin has almost certainly locked it. Ask them to disable the AllowSearchHighlights policy or the equivalent Intune setting rather than fighting the registry.

Pro tips for advanced users

If you want to go further than the built‑in toggles, a few power‑user moves make Windows 11 25H2 feel genuinely quieter.

• Kill the Widgets board while you’re at it. Widgets shares the same Microsoft Start feed as Edge’s new tab page. Right‑click the taskbar, choose Taskbar settings, and turn off Widgets — or open Widgets, click the gear, and switch to “My Feed” only.

• Point Windows Search at a smaller haystack. Under Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows, switch to Classic indexing and remove folders you never search. Local‑only search becomes much faster.

• Set a non‑Bing default search in Edge. Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Address bar and search > Manage search engines lets you set Google, DuckDuckGo, or Kagi as the default. Trending suggestions disappear entirely because they’re a Bing feature.

• Use Group Policy on Pro editions. Instead of the registry, run gpedit.msc and set Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search > Allow search highlights to Disabled. It survives Windows updates cleanly.

• Try Copilot+ semantic search if you’re on the right hardware. On a Copilot+ PC, once you’ve turned off trending highlights, the semantic index in 25H2 gives you a genuinely useful local‑first search — no Bing round trip needed.

Who benefits most from turning this off

Not everyone needs a spartan search box. But for a few groups, silencing “Trending now” is the difference between a workday and a distraction.

• Remote knowledge workers. If Start is your app launcher, you don’t want a celebrity news tile appearing every time you hit the Windows key. Turning off Highlights and DisableSearchBoxSuggestions gets you a keyboard‑driven launcher that’s all local apps and recent files.

• Presenters and screen‑share sessions. Nothing derails a demo faster than a trending headline pop‑up. Turning both settings off before a big call — plus enabling Focus assist — keeps whatever shows in Search professional.

• Kids’ and family PCs. Bing’s trending list is filtered but not curated for children. On a shared machine, disabling trending suggestions in Edge plus the Highlights tiles removes a whole category of “why does Google know that” questions.

• Privacy‑conscious users. Anything that leaves your device is a data point. The DisableSearchBoxSuggestions policy is the most complete way to stop Start search from talking to Microsoft’s servers.

• IT admins deploying Windows 11 25H2 at scale. Baking Search Highlights off, DisableSearchBoxSuggestions on, and Edge trending searches off into your baseline image is a five‑minute change that measurably reduces helpdesk tickets about “that weird ad in my search.”

Which settings should you use?

If you’re trying to decide how aggressive to be, here’s a quick way to think about it:

• Just annoyed by the tiles in Windows Search? Turn off Show search highlights in Settings and you’re done.

• Want privacy and local‑only search on Start? Apply the DisableSearchBoxSuggestions policy so Start search stops talking to Bing.

• Hate seeing global trending searches in Edge? Turn off Show me trending searches from Microsoft Bing under Edge’s address bar settings.

• Want a minimal browser start page? Customize the Edge new tab page layout and content settings to hide news, trending, and Copilot modules.

With these switches flipped, Windows 11 25H2 and Microsoft Edge become much calmer: search focuses on what’s actually on your device, and your browser surfaces your own activity instead of whatever the internet is obsessed with today.

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