I cut the start menu out completely and replaced it with Keypirinha. Instant fuzzy search with no shady web requests, just like on Linux with xfce4-whiskermenu/rofi.

The script looks something like this. It's written from memory and I don't have a Windows machine nearby to test it, but it's better than nothing.

    $path = %windir%\systemapps\microsoft.windows.startmenuexperiencehost*
    get-process *startmenuexperiencehost* | stop-process -force
    takeown /f $path /r /d y
    icacls $path /grant "${env:UserName}:F" /inheritance:d /t /c
    rm -recursive -force $path

I try to stay away from Windows, but Keypirinha is my go to as well when I'm forced onto it. That and VirtuaWin make Windows a lot easier to deal with.

Start menu 'web search' is the first thing I disable. Of all the stupid things in windows 10, web search is quite possibly the worst. It's a feature nobody wants except Microsoft.

This comment makes me realize I should go disable it right now. Thank you

Sadly in the latest win 10 update it's no longer a simple setting in group policy. You have to muck around in the registry.

https://www.howtogeek.com/224159/how-to-disable-bing-in-the-...

Create dword with value 0 for BingSearchEnabled in [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search]

I already had disabled Cortana, if not also create CortanaConsent dword with value 0

It may be because I am running a Windows Insider build (19008.1), but this registry tweak doesn't seem to work for me. Any other tips?

Disable websearch, and just start typing right away.

I agree that a lot of Win10 defaults are derpy. But just tune it a bit and its reasonably power user friendly. Maybe not what you want to support personally, but sufficient for professional use.

Windows is like desktop linux from the 00s now. There are several different UI toolkits, all of the settings buried in separate areas, and the desktop defaults are completely unusable without a lot of tweaking.

How do you disable it?

Registry >.> https://superuser.com/a/1325836

Like I said, maybe not the crap you want to put up with in your personal life, but as a professional tool... worth tweaking to suit your needs.

(Oh, and in a full professional environment, can also be set by group policy)

Which displays ads next to the search results, which makes MS money. Coincidence? I think not.

Though as Hanlon's Razer said: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Part of me wants Microsoft to be so evil they have deliberately made the start menu search so impossibly poor that you end up opening a web search half the time and making them money. But I know deep down, that they are just incompetent and can't be bothered with the desktop anymore.

> "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Yes, but: "Sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice"

At the same time I've had instant search in menus in Linux (gnome, kde, xfce, whatever, you name it).