Windows 11 Start menu gets a mysterious new feature – but you’ll have to search for it
Windows 11 just got a couple of sizeable new additions with its latest patch, although these flew under the radar, as they’re hidden and need to be enabled using a special configuration tool.
Neowin (opens in new tab) flagged up that PhantomOcean3, an avid Windows tester and leaker on Twitter, posted about the hidden search features that come with Windows 11’s KB5022303 patch (which has just been deployed for January).
Shouldn’t be surprising, but you can enable new taskbar search and even the unannounced new start menu search in .1105 with ViVeTool. That doesn’t mean you should, but you can :)IDs: 40887771 for new taskbar search, 38937525 for new start search.You’ll also need 39281392 pic.twitter.com/dFjUH7uOqzJanuary 10, 2023
They consist of a search bar along the top of the Start menu, and a search box for the taskbar (Windows 10 style, as seen in Windows 11 preview builds already).
With the search box for the taskbar, not only can you enable this, but there are a few options available to choose from, such as having the full box or just an icon.
As mentioned, you won’t see these additional search functions in Windows 11 as they’re lurking behind the scenes. They can, however, be enabled using the Windows configuration utility ViVeTool, as Neowin describes. However, you’re probably best off not turning these things on just yet, as we’ll discuss next.
Analysis: Features are hidden for a reason
So why not turn on these search functions? For starters, you’ll need to be a little tech-savvy to use ViVeTool (it’s not particularly difficult to turn on a hidden feature using its assigned ID in the tool, but less confident computing types may feel a bit intimidated by the process).
Moreover, though, once you’ve turned on these features, they could behave oddly and mess with your Windows 11 environment, and that’s not something you want on your main PC. Remember, these features are tucked away for a reason – they aren’t ready for release yet, and may cause problems. As PhantomOcean3 points out in their tweet, you might be able to turn them on, but that doesn’t mean you should.
What this does show us is that Microsoft is likely on the cusp of introducing these features to Windows 11 soon enough. As ever, though, there are no guarantees anything in testing or still behind the scenes will make the eventual cut for inclusion in the OS.
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