Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25120 introduces a search bar on the desktop
Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25120 to users in the Dev Channel. It introduces a search bar on the desktop
What's new in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25120
The Redmond company is calling it a "lightweight interactive content". Why not call it what it is, that is a desktop widget. You will need to reboot the computer after installing the update to trigger the search bar. Users can paste a URL in it, or type in their query to perform a web search via Bing (via Microsoft Edge?)
Image credit: Microsoft.
Microsoft says that the search bar isn't available for everyone just yet, as it is being A/B tested. The search widget may be rolled out on a wider scale if it receives positive feedback from users. I'm not a fan of the giant Bing search bar, but does this mean more desktop widgets are on the way? I miss the Windows 7 gadgets, they were really cool.
How to disable the desktop search bar in Windows 11
Not a fan of the new search bar on the desktop? You can remove the widget quite easily. Right-click on the desktop, select "Show more options", and click on the "Show Search" option to toggle it.
Microsoft is offering Build 25120 for ARM64 devices.
Fixes in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25120
The Suggested Actions feature which debuted a week ago, in Build 25115, has been updated to support more date and time formats. It should now work more reliably. Viewing the battery usage graph will no longer crash the Settings app. The Wi-Fi section in the Quick Settings panel is faster to display available wireless networks. Text on the Task Manager's performance page is now readable when a contrast theme is active. Windows Update will not stall or roll back updates for users who have WSA enabled on their computer.
Known issues in Windows Insider Preview Build 25120
Games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause a blue screen of death on your PC, with a bug check. The issues related to Live Captions which were present in the previous build remain unfixed in the current build. You can read the announcement article at the Windows Insider Blog, for more details.
My Windows Update got stuck at 99% downloaded, and wouldn't progress. I didn't have WSA enabled. A few others seem to have had this issue. I also had an Update Stack Package version 922.415.111.0 failing to install with an error code 0xc4800010. The issue is, this stack update had been installed successfully in the last week of April, but Windows 11 wanted to re-download it, and failed every time it tried to install it. I'm not sure about this, but the stack update bug may have corrupted the Windows Update files, which maybe why the Build update wouldn't get past 99%.
This had been happening for the last few Insider Builds, but usually I got around it by restarting the VM and checking for updates again, running Disk Cleanup to delete the update files, or by resetting the Windows Update components. None of these steps fixed my issue in the last build, I even deleted the SoftwareDistribution and Catroot2 folders, but ended up upgrading the OS manually using an ISO that I downloaded from UUdump.
The same issue occurred today with Build 25120, so I clean installed it using the previous build's ISO, after which the VM was able to download the Build 25120 update and install it. If you're facing similar issues, you can download the current build's ISO directly from Microsoft, take a backup of your data, and clean install the operating system.
Do you like the new search widget?
OMG at every turn MS is trashing it’s own software, cannot wait to retire
I am amused at the fact all of this crap makes Windows 8, look good
MS keep making windows more and more into a mobile style os.
It only keeps getting worst every build. Nothing of worth checking out. Its time they scrap Windows 11 and start over with Windows 7 as the base for Windows 12.
Useless, 99.99999% of the time my desktop is not visible to me. I have app open for work/play. The 0.00001% of the time the desktop is shown is when I reboot after a system update before I started launching the apps I need running.
Much more relevant to me is or I can replace the Redmond company his “lightweight interactive Bing content” with much more lightweight interactive DuckDuckGo content?
Who asked for this rubbish? Who is in charge of Windows development? Bunch of unskilled teens? Where are the adults? Panos Panay is a worthless snake oil salesman and doesn’t care about Windows.
It appears widget trash is the only thing, they can develop; nothing more advanced than that. Still, the new start menu, taskbar, right click menu is rotting with zero functionality and parity to the old one. But they put effort into some web-based widget trash no one will use. They need to fire every single person working on this horrible operating system.
It’s been more than 40 years since Microsoft was founded, sadly those skilled adults were already retired.
Every time Bing starts it’s ad revenue in Microsofts pocket. Every search. Every website visited. Every popup. Kachinggg! That’s where they have placed all their bets and EXPECTED profits. That’s why Edge and Bing is baked into absolutely everything in Windows. Ad money. Tracking money. Data harvesting money. YOU are the cash cow. Every time you use Windows and do not use any of Microsofts ad-trap programs, you are of no use to Microsoft. If you listen to your local music on a non-Microsoft music player, you generate no cash. We will never ever get rid of this user-exploiting hardcoded malware on a Windows operating system, just live with it and be exploited and happy or look for the only alternative..
Good lord. Please MS, stop putting messy and pointless crap in and just fix the taskbar like people are asking. It was the same story with Windows 10. Mess around with 3D Paint and other gimmicks whilst putting next to no effort into fixing the mess of Settings/Control Panel.
Oh my god, one terrible decision after the other. MS’s design and UX teams are a joke!
“You can remove the widget quite easily. Right-click on the desktop, select “Show more options”, and click on the “Show Search” option to toggle it.” At least this feature is easy to remove, not like some other ones. By the way I like the other fixes, very interesting in my opinion, mainly “The Wi-Fi section in the Quick Settings panel is faster to display available wireless networks”. Thanks @Ashwin for these articles about Windows 11 insider releases. :]
A detailed guide on how to completely nuke every trace of that garbage from my computer next, please. Thank you.
This Search Bar was the first thing I turned off after the PC finished booting