Search (24H2)

As with its predecessors, Windows 11 offers an integrated Search feature that's accessible from the Taskbar or Start. Search helps you find apps and documents on your PC as you would expect, but it also searches the web and can find other types of files on your PC. There is also a search feature built into File Explorer so you can easily find documents and other files throughout your PC's file system and in OneDrive.
Get to know Search
Search is a windowed experience similar to Start that is typically accessed via a prominent Search box on the Taskbar.

This Taskbar item can be configured to display as a more normally sized Search icon or a Search icon with a label. You can also hide the Search icon/box altogether if you'd like: Search is always accessible, regardless of whether it appears on the Taskbar.

To configure how Search appears on the Taskbar, right-click an empty area of the Taskbar and choose "Taskbar settings" from the context menu that appears. In the Settings window that then opens, select the option you prefer.

To display Search and initiate a search, click the Search item on the Taskbar.
Or, type WINKEY + S. Or, WINKEY + Q. For some reason, Search has two keyboard shortcuts.
Microsoft really wants you to use Search because its built-in web integration requires you to use Microsoft Edge (no matter which web browser you chose as the default), Bing, and MSN, and you thus be exposed to Microsoft's web advertising services.
You can also access Search by opening Start: Just start typing a search query.
Search provides the following interfaces:

Search bar. If you configured the Search item on the Taskbar as an icon or icon with a label, or chose to hide it, Search will display a prominent Search box at its top. This control is auto-selected when Search opens so that you can simply start typing to initiate a new search query.

If you left the Search item on the Taskbar configured as a Search box, you will instead type your query in that box when you click it and Search will not display its own Search box.

Recent. On the left, you will see a columnar list of the apps and system settings you searched for most recently.

You can remove any item from the Recent list. Just hover over it with the mouse cursor and select the small "Remove from device history" ("x") button that appears to its right.
You can also access other features related to any item in this list by right-clicking it. The options you see will vary by item.
Search highlights. The largest area of Search is taken up by a feature called Search highlights that exists solely to distract you into clicking on one of its links so you can--wait for it--launch Microsoft Edge (again, even if you chose a different default web browser) and access Microsoft websites like Bing or MSN that are monetized using Microsoft's advertising services.

Search highlights is a problem, but you can at least disable it. We explain how later in this...