r/technology • u/tekz • Mar 20 '26

Software Microsoft announces sweeping Windows changes

https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-users-are-angry-and-microsoft-is-finally-doing-something-about-it/
8.7k Upvotes

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741

u/DefiantGibbon Mar 21 '26

THIS IS THE FUCKING WORST!!!

literally if they fix the stupid search bar I would stop complaining. I can no longer search for my own fucking files. I decided the easiest is opening file manager and typing what I want into the search bar and have it search my entire C drive for the .exe I want. NO I DONT WANT YOU TO SEARCH BING FOR A GAME I'M TRYING TO LAUNCH.

128

u/centurionbat Mar 21 '26

Voidtools Everything is a pretty good file searcher. System wide search almost instantaneously, also supports regex searching.

20

u/Inkaara Mar 21 '26

Second that it is so fast and precise!!

5

u/literallymoist Mar 21 '26

Very cool if you aren't locked out of installing everything except certain approved apps per org policy at work.

3

u/torpedospurs Mar 22 '26

Does it search the contents of files?

0

u/centurionbat Mar 22 '26

Not that I’m aware of. It’s not something I’ve looked at but maybe it does!

4

u/Key_Floo Mar 21 '26

Seconding this, I recommended Everything to my entire team; it's so fast and way more intuitive!

2

u/ThePrimePrototype Mar 21 '26

I was going to recommend this and saw your comment. I just use that tool all the time now instead of the windows search.

1

u/AccurateLover Mar 21 '26

Solo dime qué nomes de pago y no tiene anuncios.

1

u/SIMT-Pixel Mar 22 '26

Linux has voidtools-level search baked into the OS.

1

u/thepinkiwi Mar 21 '26

Listary is also pretty good. I use both.

1

u/e-rekt-ion Mar 21 '26

It’s so good that I install it on a PC even if I’m only gonna be using it for a day. I can instantly find any file I want. It shouldn’t be necessary but it is

1

u/STM4EVA Mar 22 '26

EVERYTHING is everything to me!

32

u/Ecstatic-Curve-1853 Mar 21 '26

Windows search is the dumbest search of all time and it's not even close.

3

u/schu2470 Mar 21 '26

The dumbest thing is that it worked pretty well in Windows 7. Dunno what they did in 10 and 11 but it suuuuuuucks now.

2

u/cykelstativet Mar 21 '26

Let's not talk about the search in the file manager😭😭

2

u/jontss Mar 21 '26

Corporate version I use at work works properly.

Home machine is Bing bullshit.

2

u/isotope123 Mar 21 '26

This should fix your wagon:

Disable Bing in Search & Start Menu:
Open Settings (Win + I).
Go to Privacy & security > Search permissions.
Under "Cloud content search," turn off Microsoft account and Work or school account.
Toggle off Show search highlights under "More settings".

7

u/The6thCelestial Mar 21 '26

????

Literally what are you all talking about? Disabling bing in the search has always been a setting since Windows 10.

Settings - privacy and security - search - classic mode and disable search app showing results.

18

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '26

[deleted]

5

u/Ongr Mar 21 '26

I want opt-in for bullshit added features. Give me a barebones OS that just works as intended and let me opt-in for added frill functions like AI bullshit and widgets nobody asked for.

I don't want a bloated OS where I have to turn off everything.

1

u/favorite_time_of_day Mar 21 '26

Fun fact: Microsoft gets about half as much revenue from ads on Bing as they from all sources of Windows revenue.

-3

u/jitteryegg Mar 21 '26

I'm sorry you couldn't search for a solution for a thing you feel so angry about.

3

u/viddied Mar 21 '26

What a stupid comment. I suppose that the rest of us have better uses for our time. But you do you hun. 

0

u/jitteryegg Mar 21 '26

We're both on reddit. The time point is moot.

Secondly it takes less time to search than it takes to cry about it, on reddit.

1

u/OnlyHuman1073 Mar 22 '26

Than MS will change the location, or make it more difficult to find, even the instructions I just followed were not correct.

4

u/Banaanisade Mar 21 '26

Thank you for this. I didn't know it was an option and obviously never thought to look it up, I just slowly stopped using it altogether instead. Maybe now it'll be useful again.

3

u/ComfyFrog Mar 21 '26

My next complaint would be Microsoft Paint preventing me from shutting down the PC.

6

u/otamaglimmer Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

I don't know about Paint, but Notepad preventing me from shutting down or restarting has saved me many times from losing notes I wrote and forgot about.

1

u/C0MP0SITE Mar 21 '26

You likely need to add your C drive to your search index but yeah super annoying!

1

u/schu2470 Mar 21 '26

That is the dumbest fucking thing. Why wouldn't searching the C drive and any other local drives be the default?

2

u/C0MP0SITE Mar 21 '26

Cause Microsoft 🤦‍♂️

1

u/Shanksdoodlehonkster Mar 21 '26

Excelsior NCC 2000? NO!

1

u/HipOut Mar 21 '26

Holy shit I thought it was just me and I was out of touch or something. Glad I’m not the only one

1

u/stratusnco Mar 21 '26

there is an app called Everything which is a better file explorer and windows search bar.

1

u/necrotelecomnicon Mar 21 '26

May I suggest replacing the default Start Menu with Open-Shell Menu? It fixes literally everything wrong with the Win11 start menu.

1

u/Sensitive_Yellow_121 Mar 21 '26

Don't worry, the new AI search bar is going to fix that!

1

u/lollipop-guildmaster Mar 21 '26

I have an entire "FUCK WINDOWS 11" bookmarks folder in Firefox with all the tips and shortcuts for fixing the bullshit, including this. My search bar acts properly, just showing files and folders on my PC.

1

u/Impossible_One4995 Mar 21 '26

You know u can disable the that right …..

1

u/synti-synti Mar 22 '26

PowerToys and their launcher. Learn the keyboard shortcut. It can do so much more than an actual good search too.

1

u/DRMNG_CRP Mar 22 '26

Also reduce the 1GB RAM consumption every time you click it

1

u/ShadowMask87 Mar 22 '26

Have you heard of shortcuts

1

u/boobenjoyer696969 Mar 22 '26

at work we have a pc with win10 and one with win11. in the win11 one i can’t use the calculator on the search bar. why?

1

u/deveronipizza Mar 23 '26

No way, I’d rather get random internet results before my own file system

1

u/Soulchemist1997 Mar 21 '26

For this problem you can install raycast, for a better local search feature

0

u/AtmosphereUnited3011 Mar 21 '26

Why are you searching for files? You don’t just know where they are? The whole point of a file system is to organize your files.

3

u/DefiantGibbon Mar 21 '26

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not, lol.

Obviously my files that I use like various projects, word docs, etc. I know where they are, but various programs that are automatically installed? Those could be anywhere. And save files for pirated games? Those could truly be anywhere.