Windows 11 Feature Deprecations and Removals

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[Cybertooth]

Looking at Microsoft’s list of functions that they are putting on the way out with Windows 11, the following item jumped out at me:

See the line highlighted in blue:

Windows 11 does not support disabling the return of internet Search results via Registry Key. The related Group Policy setting is not impacted by this change.

Two questions–

1. Does this mean that users can no longer use Start Menu Search to look only  on their PC and not the whole Internet?
2. The reference to Group policy, does it mean that if you have the Pro version of Windows 11 then you have a way to prevent Windows from looking on the Internet when you simply want to look for something on your computer?

Thanks for any clarification you can provide.

 

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• This topic was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Cybertooth.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Cybertooth.

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Thanks Cybertooth.  The whole thing sucks.  Martin over at GHacks also had this:

https://www.ghacks.net/2021/11/12/microsoft-blocks-other-browsers-from-opening-edge-links/

To make things even less user friendly, Microsoft changed the way the default browser is set. On Windows 10, users could set a different browser as the default, and it would open all links that browsers can open, with the exception of locked microsoft-edge protocol links.

In Windows 11, Microsoft removed that straightforward option. All that is left for users is to set each protocol individually. If you want to switch completely from Edge to Firefox, Brave or Vivaldi, you have to set HTTP, HTTPS, HTML, PDF, WebP, SHTML, FTP, HTM, Mailto, News and others, manually to the desired browser.

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Cybertooth, windbg

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As mentioned later at Ghacks, that has changed in recent Insider builds:

Microsoft is reintroducing options to set a default web browser on Windows 11

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Cybertooth

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Good news . . .
However, as fickle as our fearless leaders in government  meaning is it about the number of complaints being assumed to equal “democracy”/democratic process?  Why not ask for a vote before making changes that limit configuring?

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I did not have those issues when I upgraded to Windows 11.  Then again, mine is unsupported, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Cybertooth

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b wrote:

As mentioned later at Ghacks, that has changed in recent Insider builds:

December 2021 Updates for Windows 10 and 11 blocks default browser redirect

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I’m still hoping to get clarification on the two questions I posed in the original post. 

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Cybertooth.

I’ve been searching a lot and came across this information on Windows 11 Search.  Apparently Microsoft has made it difficult to switch off the net search integration with Bing.  Maybe with enough complaints they’ll change their mind and make it return. Anyway I found this workaround at the link below, buried in the comments.

https://www.ghacks.net/2021/11/26/how-to-turn-off-search-the-web-results-in-windows-11/

 

Roman said on November 28, 2021 at 2:51 pm

This does not work on newest Windows 11. The ONLY option that works is the following registry tweak:
-) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
-) create the Explorer key if not present
-) inside of Explorer, create new DWORD 32bit entry called
DisableSearchBoxSuggestions
and set the value to 1
-) reboot

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Cybertooth

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As Microsoft have tried this sort of thing before with Windows 10 (W10), we should not be surprised that they would try it again while users are distracted by W11 UI changes (curved windows etc.).

Even if the Registry fix above works for now, if this “feature” is of enough importance to the “surveillance capitalism” side of Microsoft’s business model, they are likely to come back with something different in the future.

Instead of playing an ongoing game of “whack-a-mole”, you might be better off using a 3rd party local search program instead of Windows search. I use Agent Ransack Portable (there is a free “Lite” version for non-commercial use) in preference to the clunky Windows search. Others here recommend Everything which also has a Portable version. There are probably others.

In a similar vein I’ve always been suspicious of viewing local PDF .pdf files in Edge (or any browser), so I use SumatraPDF, but other specialist local viewers are available.

 

 

 

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Cybertooth

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anonymous wrote:

I use Agent Ransack Portable (there is a free “Lite” version for non-commercial use) in preference to the clunky Windows search.

Does this program let you search for text strings within a file? (For example, files on your C: drive that contain the word “Napoleon” in the contents and not just the title.)

 

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Commenter #2407540 replies:

Yes.

Of course it takes longer to do that than just finding file titles, but it does do it.

If you know roughly where the thing you are after is located, so the partition (if you have multiple partitions e.g. D: or E: in addition to C:) or folder in partition or sub-folder in folder in partition etc., then you can limit your search and it completes in less time.

I don’t know the full range of file types that it can find text in, but I use it for .txt, .pdf and .doc files. My .doc files are created by Softmaker office, but I imagine it works just as well with files created by one of the Microsoft Offices. It is a subset of a commercial product and is likely to encounter files created by an MS Office in its full, professional, commercial day job. From memory it is/was by a UK company. I have “Version 2019”.

You can include multiple words inside double quotes to further refine a search. For example if your text is say the 2 words Napolean Bonaparte, it will find all occurences of both Napolean and Bonaparte (individually or together), but search for “Napolean Bonaparte” (in double quotes) and you just get instances of the full Napolean Bonaparte name. On the right hand side it shows the line(s) of text so you can see the context that your word(s) are in for each occurence in a file. If in multiple files highlight another file and see where it occurs in that file. I probably haven’t scratched the surface of all the possibilities myself.

It has a portable version which I use (I figure Microsoft are less likely to mess this up on an update or “healing” or whatever), so you could try it out without installing it (and possibly facing pushback/”incompatibility” from Microsoft?) and see what you think of it.

HTH.

 

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