Is the web preview of the searched queries missing from your search box. Some Windows users have complained about similar kinds of issues on their devices where they are unable to get any web-related results without opening Edge. This problem occurs if the Web preview is disabled on the respective machine.
There are multiple ways to rectify this issue and enable the Web preview in the Windows search box. Follow any one of those according to your choice
How to enable or disable Web Preview in Windows Search box
Method 1 – Alter the registry manually
You can alter this particular registry key to turn ON the Web Preview.
Steps to Enable the Web Preview
1. At first, tap the Windows key and the R key at the same time.
2. Once the Run terminal appears, type “regedit” and hit Enter.
IMPORTANT–
A simple wrong change of the registry can corrupt your machine, even irreversibly! So, you must follow these steps to create a backup.
a. Once you have opened the Registry Editor, you will need to click on the “File” and then click on “Export“.
b. Save the backup in a secure place.
In any case, if any problem appears regarding the Registry Editor you can retrieve it back easily.
3. Once the Registry Editor terminal appears, navigate to this location-
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
4. Now, on the right-hand side, check if there is a key named “DisableSearchBoxSuggestions“.
5. Then, double click on the key to alter it.
6. Now, just write “0” in the ‘Value Data:’ box.
7. Then, click on “OK” to enable the Web preview.
Once you have altered the registry, close the registry editor. Restart your computer further. This will enable the Web preview for the Windows Search.
Test it out yourself!
Steps to DISable the Web Preview
In if you want to disable this feature in future, just go this way –
1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. After that, go to the same location we have mentioned before. That is –
Computer \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
3. Then, double click on the “DisableSearchBoxSuggestions” key.
4. Finally, set the value to “1“.
5. Click on “OK” to save this change.
This will turn off the web preview in the search box for your machine. Just reboot your computer once.
Method 2 – Reset Cortana
Terminate and reset the Cortana app.
1. Click on the Search bar and type “Cortana“.
2. Then, right-click on the “Cortana” and click on “App settings” to access it.
3. When the App settings open up, click on “Terminate” to terminate the process.
4. Then, click on “Repair” to repair the Cortana app.
5. After that, click “Reset” to reset the Cortana application.
Try searching anything from the search box.
Method 3 – Restart Cortana process
You can restart the Cortana process from the Task Manager.
1. Right-click on the Windows key+X keys together.
2. Then, click on the “Task Manager” to access it.
3. Go to the “Processes” tab.
4. Then, right-click on the “Cortana” app and click on “End task“.
Close the Task Manager.
Reboot your computer.
Cortana will startup automatically. Now, search anything and check if this has worked out for you.
Method 4 – Reinstall Cortana
Reinstall the Cortana app using the PowerShell terminal.
1. First of all, right-click on the Windows icon.
2. Then, click on the “Windows PowerShell (Admin)“.
3. Once the PowerShell terminal appears, copy-paste this command and hit Enter.
Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
After executing the command, reboot your computer.
Check if you can see the web preview for the search queries.
Method 5 – Download & Run registry scripts
If you don’t want to alter the registry on your own, download and run these two scripts according to your requirements to achieve the same results.
Steps to Enable the Web Preview
1. Download this “Turn_On_Search_web_results.reg” file on your computer.
2. Then, unzip the particular zipped file.
3. After that, right-click on the “Turn_On_Search_web_results” registry file.
4. Then, click on “Merge” to merge it with your registry.
5. A prompt will appear on your screen. Click on “Yes“.
Once the process is done, restart the system once.
That’s it!
STEPS to disable the WEb preview
Follow these steps to disable the web preview for the search box.
1. First of all, download the “Turn_Off_Search_web_results.reg” file on your computer.
2. After that, unzip the particular zipped file.
3. Go to the location of the unzipped file.
4. Then, right-click on the “Turn_Off_Search_web_results” registry file and click on “Merge” to merge it with your registry.
5. You will see a warning message has appeared on the screen. Confirm it by clicking on “Yes“.
Once the process is done, restart the system once.
That’s it! This is the way how to enable or disable the search box on your computer.