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How do I make the Search Bar in my Windows 10 taskbar appear vanilla, without any images for upcoming events/holidays?

I'm not a Windows user. I only use windows to take screenshots for other Windows users when writing documentation. For documentation purposes, I want a clean screenshot that's as close to a fresh install of Windows as possible -- without distractions that will confuse the user.

Unfortunately, I discovered today that my Windows 10 Search Bar (the one just to the right of the Windows Logo for the Start Menu) displays an illustration of Roses. When I click it, it says that today is the Portland Rose Festival.

How do I make the Windows 10 Search Bar not display such images?

Michael Altfield
  • 1,760

1 Answers1

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The illustration in the search box that you're referring to is called Search Highlights. It was added by Microsoft to Windows 10 in March 2022.

Disable Search Highlights

To make the illustrations in the search box go away, disable Search Highlights.

To disable Search Highlights, right click on the Search Box. Under Search uncheck Show Search Highlights

Disable News and Interests

If you want to further cleanup your screenshots so that they're "vanilla," you may also want to disable News and Interests.

To do so, right click on the taskbar. Under News and Interests, check Turn off.

Michael Altfield
  • 1,760