New Windows annoyance on taskbar

October 14, 2023 11:33 AM

Since three days ago I've seen a new annoyance on my taskbar imgur link. I think it is SearchApp.exe from Microsoft. It wants to show me news, weather and other meaningless things, as well as logging much of my system - just MS stupidity. I want it gone! zapped. But it seems to be designed stop this being done.

It's also 'offering' to translate stuff on my screen - like my bank record, which means it 'sees' everything I do. This suggests it's a pain to remove or kill, but maybe a mefite has worked out a better way. Any ideas welcome.

Linked superuser article says it disables windows search but I only use Everything and Ransack for searches, the only Windows search I do is in Outlook (and I would hope that is separate from this search process).

posted by unearthed to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Right click on the taskbar, "Taskbar Settings", then set the "Search" option to "Hide".
posted by sagc at 11:36 AM on October 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

What sagc said. It sometimes comes back when Windows updates.
posted by neckro23 at 12:00 PM on October 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

There are scripts you can run under searches for "Windows 10 debloat" which turn off a bunch of telemetry/spyware and disable this search service. Your data is at risk from this going wrong causing a reinstall, so take backups.

Aside, if you do need to reinstall, there's tools like Tiny10 which take an installer and strip it down to minimal content, removing this search service.
posted by k3ninho at 2:04 PM on October 14, 2023

Right-click any blank space on the taskbar and select News and interests >Turn off. When you turn off news and interests, the weather will no longer appear on your taskbar.

For a more complete removal, run these from a PowerShell prompt

# Disable "news and interests" on the taskbar
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Feeds" -Name "EnableFeeds" -Type DWord -Value 0

# Remove "News and Interest" from taskbar
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Feeds" -Name "ShellFeedsTaskbarViewMode" -Type DWord -Value 2
posted by Lanark at 3:32 PM on October 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

The first command gave the following error message:

C:\WINDOWS\system32> Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Feeds" -Name "EnableFeeds" -Type DWord -Value 0
Set-ItemProperty : Cannot find path 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Feeds' because it does not
exist.
At line:1 char:1
+ Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Win ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (HKCU:\SOFTWARE\...s\Windows Feeds:String) [Set-ItemProperty], ItemNotFo
   undException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetItemPropertyCommand

The second command seemed to run without any errors.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:54 AM on October 15, 2023

This should work instead of the first command, it is changing the 1 (enabled) to a 0 (disabled)
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Feeds -Name IsFeedsAvailable -Value 0

The \SOFTWARE\Policies key would be for reversing a change made with local policy.
posted by Lanark at 4:26 AM on October 15, 2023

This just showed up on my taskbar after an update. Moving the cursor to the taskbar and right clicking will get you the menu to turn it off. As above, click search then hide. Poof! gone.
posted by bluesky43 at 6:39 AM on October 15, 2023