Windows 10 Web Search gets a tad more useful

Martin Brinkmann
Jul 24, 2017
Search, Windows, Windows 10
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20

The most recent Insider Build of the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update comes with extended web search functionality that makes it a tad more useful than it is right now in stable versions of Windows 10.

Microsoft integrated web search capabilities into the default search functionality on Windows 10. This means that Windows 10 users may get search results returned to them when they run searches on the device.

I did not find this particularly useful, as Windows 10 returns search suggestions only. This means that you don't get any results displayed to you, but only some suggestions.

One of the first guides that I published for Windows 10 was a guide that explained how to turn off web search on Windows 10. Microsoft removed the option to disable web searching in the Cortana and Settings user interface in the Anniversary Update version of Windows 10.

It is still possible to disable web search on Windows 10, but one needs to either use the Group Policy or the Registry for that.

Windows 10 Extended Web Search

windows 10 extended web search

If you run a search on a recent Windows 10 Insider Build, you may notice that it offers extended search functionality now. What is meant by that is that search returns more information to you than just search suggestions.

Note: This seems to be live for US English search systems only right now.

Basically, what happens is that you get the current search suggestions of Windows 10 search on the left, and a snapshot of Bing's results page on the right.

Since you get live results, running searches from your Windows 10 desktop may provide you with answers right away. It depends on what you are looking for obviously.

You can scroll the results in the right pane, and even click on some content links to have them displayed directly on the page (those provided by Bing usually, like the see more link you see on the screenshot above).

You can use the mouse to select a different suggestion, and get instant results on the right pane based on the selection.

A click on links opens the result in Microsoft Edge. You can click on any of the links on the right preview pane as well to load this page directly.

Closing Words

I find this more useful than the current implementation as it provides some content that users may find useful. The fact that you are limited to Bing and Microsoft Edge is a bummer. While I do not mind that the results are opened in Edge, I very much like to run searches on my preferred search engine and not on Bing.

Now You: What is your take on web search functionality on Windows 10?

Summary
Windows 10 Web Search gets a tad more useful
Article Name
Windows 10 Web Search gets a tad more useful
Description
The build-in web search functionality on Windows 10 displays web results right away now when you run web searches, and no longer suggestions only.
Author
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Lange said on July 25, 2017 at 7:37 am
    Reply

    I had to whitelist ghacks.net in Ublock Origin, No big deal I actually thought I had done it already.

  2. Anonymous said on July 25, 2017 at 12:25 am
    Reply

    had the issue with umatrix, disabling scripts on ghacks.net cleared it up — the message saying network issues or go to adblock forums is definitely cute.

  3. Konstantinos said on July 25, 2017 at 12:23 am
    Reply

    What’s the site not loading if I have an adblock? Is this how we’re gonna do it?

  4. John M said on July 24, 2017 at 9:57 pm
    Reply

    There is an script in your page that is causing this issue. I have ghacks whitelisted in ublock O, but I need to enable noscript for ghacks for the page to work.

  5. Jeff said on July 24, 2017 at 8:12 pm
    Reply

    Nothing that cannot be accomplished inside a web browser with Google search :)

    1. aristofeles said on July 24, 2017 at 8:20 pm
      Reply

      And google works worldwide. What a concept!

  6. justakiwi said on July 24, 2017 at 7:19 pm
    Reply

    off topic- seems that you have updated yr web site as uBlock Origin needs to be disabled to view this page,(all the fricken adverts on here.damn) and this has only happened overnite. cheers

    1. Rick A. said on July 25, 2017 at 11:27 am
      Reply

      okiehsch is right. it’s blocking adiode.com that’s causing the issue. i did testing on it and i believe he was referring to uBlock Protector List when he typed “I will add a fix for ghacks.net, so anybody who wants to block adiode.com can block it.” on Github, as i enabled it and adiode.com no longer caused the issue. What’s funny is when i disabled uBlock Protector List to try it again adiode.com no longer appeared in Privacy Badger or uBlock Origin “Cell” – (i use Medium Blocking Mode. i never used uBlock Protector List as it says it’s only for Chrome, uBlock Origin and uBlock Protector Extension, but i guess it works after all. Somebody should update these https://jspenguin2017.github.io/uBlockProtector/ and https://github.com/jspenguin2017/uBlockProtector/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.MD

      1. Rick A. said on July 26, 2017 at 12:56 pm
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        okiehsch – Okay, thanks for the reply and info.

      2. okiehsch said on July 25, 2017 at 2:09 pm
        Reply

        When I said “I will add a fix for ghacks.net, so anybody who wants to block adiode.com can block it.”, I meant that i will add a filter to “uBlock Origins filter” list, not “uBlock Protector List” – I have nothing to do with that list – that will fix the problem for all uBlock Origin users with a default setup, i.e. with uBlock Origins filter list enabled.
        If your “uBO-filter list” is up to date you can now use ghacks.net even if you block adiode.com.
        As you rightly observed adiode.com no longer appears in Privacy Badger or uBlock Origin “Cell”, because
        uBlock Origin now disables the part of the inline-script of ghacks.net, that triggers a connection to adiode.com.

    2. T J said on July 24, 2017 at 8:22 pm
      Reply

      justakiwi

      ublock O is not having any effect when I load ghacks. It must be another blocker causing your problem.
      I use the Firefox browser.

      NB I usually disable ublock O on ghacks. I enabled it to test your claim.

      1. Paul(us) said on July 24, 2017 at 11:34 pm
        Reply

        I have the same problem this afternoon. Maybe it is the No-script update from today to 5.0.71.? When I started this new update fresh up one and also gave rights in No-script to adiode.com the page was working again. But then I started getting canvas fingerprint attempts. So that’s not nice. I had this problem with No-script in main Chrome browser with the add-on script block I do not have any problem.
        So is it No-script I am wondering?

    3. Martin Brinkmann said on July 24, 2017 at 7:48 pm
      Reply

      I don’t have this issue with uBlock. Do you run any other security extensions besides uBlock?

      1. okiehsch said on July 24, 2017 at 10:02 pm
        Reply

        Your users will have issues, if they use any blocking extension or host-file that blocks all
        xhr-requests to adiode.com on your site.
        https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/issues/574

      2. justakiwi said on July 24, 2017 at 9:22 pm
        Reply

        sorted. thanks. had to whitelist yr page. cheers. now, back to reading yr goodies

      3. Martin Brinkmann said on July 24, 2017 at 9:28 pm
        Reply

        Thank you, glad that you figured it out ;)

      4. justakiwi said on July 24, 2017 at 8:44 pm
        Reply

        this is the only security extension i have. all my other extensions work , had tested them by enabling/disabling one by one. I have the same problem as Jed in the comment above.cheers and no, have only the default lists in uBlock Origin

      5. Martin Brinkmann said on July 24, 2017 at 8:45 pm
        Reply

        Did you load other lists in uBlock Origin besides the default ones?

    4. Jed said on July 24, 2017 at 7:39 pm
      Reply

      I have the same problem: http://i.imgur.com/SvLLUug.png

  7. RG said on July 24, 2017 at 5:52 pm
    Reply

    Let Aubameyang transfer to Milan ;)

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