[German]It seem that Microsoft is running another A/B test with Windows 10 users. I got reports from German users, who are suddenly facing new icons within the task bar's search box. It's obviously the back port of search highlights, Microsoft has announced for Windows 11 and Windows 10 recently with an Insider Preview. Here's what I found out, after a blog reader send me an email.
German blog reader Werner P. contacted me via email and brought an issue to my attention, that I have not encountered before.
New Search Highlights icons in Windows 10 search box
The user contacted me because he suddenly gets new icons like a triangle, a pencil and an olive branch (I'll just call it that) displayed in the search box in the Windows 10 taskbar. In his first email he wrote:
New icon next to search box in Windows
Hello Mr. Born,
I have a new icon next to or rather in the search bar of Windows 10 since today:
None of my colleagues have seen it yet….
Do you know what this is all about?
The arrow in the above screenshot points to the newly appeared icons. I myself didn't realize at first quick glance that it's not a notification in the taskbar status area (I would have guessed application icons). But since the icons are displayed in the search box, it must have some other meaning (now it's clear, it has something to do with search highlight).
Is Microsoft running an A/B test with search?
My guess was that Microsoft is testing a new functionality (a back port from Windows 11 search) and is running an A/B test with selected users. The reader (who contacted me) can't really make sense of these icons and their functionality and I really didn't a clue. A short search on the Internet initially didn't really brought me any further. But Werner wrote the following in a second mail:
It has to do with that:
But the colleagues do not have the choice at all
The context menu entry marked with a red arrow says Show search highlights. And then I got it. There is a similar option for search under Windows 11 – and Microsoft announced the backport to Windows 10 – Windows Insiders were able to test this with Windows 10 version 21H2 starting with build 19044.1618. Microsoft described the whole thing as "Search Highlights" on the Windows blog. A screenshot with similar icons can be found there.
Microsoft describes in this Techcommunity post how to configure the Search Highlights in the search box using group policies. At winaero.com, registry entries to disable them are also described.
Another reference
In a third e-mail Werner posted me this reference in the German Microsoft Answers forum, which he came across. There, a Windows 10 user posted the following text on April 26, 2022.
Icons in the Windows search bar
Hello,
where do these icons come from and how can they be disabled?
The icons can be hidden with a right click and the context menu command Show search highlights (see context menu above). Now the open question remains: Who else has these icons in their Windows 10 search box?