The Verge⁠51%

Microsoft tests Windows Search without all the ads and fluff⁠50%

By Emma Roth⁠65%

7/13/2026, 9:53:20 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 0 faulty reasoning types, including no named faulty reasoning patterns yet, with no single egregious example has been isolated yet. Analysis detected 0 faulty-reasoning hits from 262 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 50.3% and a BS Rank of ⁠50% (7,962 of 15,659 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 50.80% of the article peer group.

Microsoft is testing a cleaner version of the Windows 11 search menu that strips it of recommended content and ads. In a blog post on Monday, Microsoft announced that it’s rolling out the decluttered Search Box to Windows Insiders in the Experimental channel as the company looks to regain trust with users and fix Windows. One of the biggest changes is a revamped search homescreen that displays only your recent searches. Currently, when you open the search menu, it shows your recent searches alongside several distracting tiles on the right pane, containing things like the image of the day, daily quizzes, trending searches, and game recommendations. Microsoft is cleaning up web results, too, as the search menu will surface the “most relevant answer” first, rather than showing “related products and promotions.” Aside from doing some decluttering, Microsoft is testing other notable improvements to its search menu. It will more clearly show metadata, along with a preview of the file in the pane on the right side of the search menu, making it easier to figure out where the result came from. The Windows 11 search system will also prioritize results from your local files, apps, and settings, which will “more reliably appear” ahead of web and Microsoft Store recommendations. Testers can now turn off web and Store recommendations entirely from the Settings menu. There are a few quality-of-life updates, too, as Microsoft says the search system it’s piloting can better handle typos, extra letters, and partial words, while offering some performance improvements.

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Anchoring Bias
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Availability Heuristic
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Representativeness Heuristic
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Overconfidence Bias
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Framing Effect
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Out-Group Homogeneity Bias
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Halo Effect
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Horn Effect
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Dunning-Kruger Effect
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Recency Bias
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Primacy Effect
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Ad Hominem
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Bandwagon
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Tu Quoque
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Anecdotal
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No True Scotsman
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Middle Ground
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262 words analyzed.

Analysis

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