The Windows search tool claims to do a lot. You can use it to find specific things like apps from the Start menu, music from File Explorer, and settings. It even lets you run web searches right from the search box and quickly access your most-used apps and files. But in practice, it’s pretty underwhelming and slow, especially since the search panel gets cluttered with Bing results. However, you don’t have to settle for a subpar experience. Here are 7 ways to improve search in Windows 11, whether you're using a work PC or one of our favorite gaming laptops.

7 Use PowerToys Run

If you’re a power user, chances are you’re already using PowerToys to streamline tasks. Windows 11 packs over 20 tools into PowerToys, including a fast system search tool called PowerToys Run. Just hit Alt + Space, and a search bar pops up in the center of your screen.

While PowerToys Run falls short of Windows’ native search in a few areas—it doesn’t offer instant answers to simple queries or filters for narrowing down results to just apps or documents—it makes up for it with its flexibility. You can tweak it to run shell commands and customize it within the PowerToys Settings app, where you can enable various plugins and adjust their priority in your search results.

6 Search by category

When you type a query in Windows search, it pulls up everything related to your search, whether it’s a photo or a document. If you want more organized and accurate results, you can filter out the extra stuff using categories. The six categories you can use are Apps, Documents, Web, Settings, Folder, and Photos.

To filter by category, just click the one you want at the top after typing in your search query. You can also type the category name, followed by a colon, then your query. For example, if you want to search on the web, type web: and then your query. This will show only web results and leave out everything else.

5 Tweak Indexing Options

Windows search might not be the best, but one reason you may not find the files you’re looking for is that they aren’t being indexed. To improve this, you can adjust the indexing options and ensure that Windows includes all your files in its search. You can even choose specific folders and libraries to index, which can make your searches faster and more efficient.

1. Open the Search bar from the Taskbar and type index.
2. Select Indexing Options from the search results.
3. In the Indexing Options window, click Advanced, then go to the File Types tab.
4. In the Add New Extension to the List field, type the file extension you want to include and click Add. Hit OK to save your changes.
5. Back in the main Indexing Options window, click Modify. Check the boxes for the folders you want to include in the index.
6. Click OK and let Windows complete the indexing process.

4 Enable cloud content search

If you use the same PC for both work and personal tasks, you probably know that Bing can be set up to show work-specific results. These results can also appear in Windows search, as long as you're signed in to both your work and personal accounts. To use this feature, you'll need to enable cloud content search in the Windows settings. This will also allow Windows search to pull results from OneDrive, Outlook, and SharePoint, making it easier to find what you need across different platforms.

1. Open Windows search by pressing Win + S, and then click the three-dot icon in the upper right corner.
2. Click Turn On Cloud Search for Your Microsoft Account.
3. In the Cloud Content Search section, turn on the Microsoft Account toggle. If you have a work or school account, turn on the Work or School Account toggle.

3 Filter results better

Another way to make Windows search more efficient is by using filters for your results. When you're in File Explorer, after typing your search term in the search bar, you can refine the results using the "Search options" drop-down. This lets you filter by criteria like modification date, file type, or file size. Windows 11 gives you predefined choices to speed things up, and you can even combine filters for more specific results.

For instance, if you are looking for an Excel spreadsheet where you track your household budget, enter part of the file name in the search bar, then select 'Document' for Type and 'This year' for Date modified. This narrows the search by excluding files that don’t meet these criteria.

2 Disable Bing search

One reason why Windows search isn’t very effective is that it’s cluttered with Bing search results. You almost never need web results when you're searching for something using Windows search, but Microsoft includes them anyway. While there’s no option to disable Bing search results in the settings, you can work around it using the Registry Editor.

Open Registry Editor from the Start menu and go to:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

Right-click the Windows folder, hover over New, and select Key.

Name the new key Explorer and press Enter.

Right-click the Explorer key, hover over New, and select DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Name it DisableSearchBoxSuggestions, then double-click and set its value to 1, and click OK. Finally, restart your PC to disable Bing Search.

1 Use Everything

A simple way to improve search in Windows 11 is by avoiding Windows search altogether. Instead, you can use Everything – a tool built for faster, more efficient search. Everything is a third-party tool that is lightweight and quick, allowing you to find any file or folder on your computer instantly. You can also refine your searches using filters to match file names or formats.

While Windows search indexes both file names and their content, Everything only indexes file and folder names, which makes it much quicker. Plus, Everything keeps track of changes in your system in real-time, updating right away when you add, delete, or rename files. Windows only does that periodically, so it’s not as quick or current.

Installing and configuring the Everything app on Windows 11 is easy, and you can always check out these tips and tricks to make the most of the tool.

Find stuff faster on Windows

You can make searching on Windows 11 much better by following the tips and tricks we discussed. If you’re still not getting the results you’re looking for, there may be some other issues. Try troubleshooting Windows search using these solutions.