Microsoft is finally looking to fix Windows 11 search: it will be faster and lighter in RAM usage, with nifty new ‘actions’
- Windows 11 Search is getting a major overhaul
- It will be made faster, more efficient with RAM usage, and tweaked to better understand what you’re looking for.
- Microsoft is also adding ‘actions’ to allow users to directly adjust Windows 11 options in the search box, a nifty and convenient touch.
Microsoft has announced that it is moving forward to make Windows 11’s search feature a faster and more streamlined experience.
In a blog post, Microsoft said it is now rolling out this redesigned search experience to Windows 11 testers in the Experimental channel (probably on a very limited basis to begin with).
This new search is based on WinUI 3 (the contemporary interface framework for Windows 11) and, as a result, will be faster and have less impact on your system resources. Microsoft boasts that: “Early tests show substantial improvements in performance and memory usage, so [search] It feels faster and more efficient from the moment you open it.”
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The search panel itself has been reduced to a single list, unlike the current implementation with the list on the left and the preview panel on the right. Therefore, the interface seems less cluttered and it is easier to see what you are looking for.
Microsoft also promises that it will work to ensure that search more easily captures what you’re trying to find, with better handling of typos and guessing what you might mean if, for example, you’re trying to find a system option and you’ve entered the name incorrectly. This is work the company has already started on Windows 11, and the publication notes that Microsoft will continue to fine-tune all of this over the coming weeks.
This is what is happening initially; Then, later this year, Microsoft will test more features. This includes online previews and details that give you all kinds of additional information about the file you’re looking for (such as a thumbnail of an image along with its resolution and size).
Search queries like “weather in London” will display an online card (powered by Bing) with relevant details at a glance, including the day’s temperature highs and lows.
The other big step is to introduce ‘actions’ to Windows 11 search, which means you can simply type a command to change settings in the operating system directly from the search box. Microsoft shows an example of how to type “switch to dark theme,” which displays the option, then you simply click Apply and you’re done.
You can type “mute” to turn off the sound or “dim my screen” to adjust the brightness level automatically and issue a similar variety of instructions using search.
Analysis: some polarized reactions
These are clearly useful changes, although as with much of the work to fix Windows 11 this year, one of the main questions is: why wasn’t it done sooner? Windows 11 Search has long been known to be clunky and slow, with too much panel clutter, so why did it take Microsoft so long to address these points?
A typical comment on Reddit goes like this: “It only took Microsoft decades to solve this abysmal search.” Someone adds that: “The only time search was decent on Windows was on Windows 98 SE.”
Granted, this type of criticism isn’t fair, as other Redditors point out, but it can certainly be said that it’s not acceptable that Windows 11 Search has been in disrepair since the operating system’s release half a decade ago.
It’s good to see that there is a significant movement towards smarter searching, and I will definitely embrace it. Actions are also a nifty idea to quickly change options on the spot (rather than just locating the option and having to use extra clicks to go into Settings and adjust what you want).
As others on Reddit point out, this is sort of a rough draft of some ideas from PowerToys (the Run tool), and something I’ve argued before is that Microsoft should port some of the features from that set of utilities so that it’s in Windows 11 by default. Maybe that’s starting to happen.
Still, there are people on Reddit who don’t want search to be anything more than an ultra-optimized search (instead of offering actions like this). This Windows 11 user complains: “Why isn’t the search bar just for searching? Why does it do a million other things besides?”
Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I disagree, and there is a lot of optimization work going on here that Microsoft should be praised for, and the superior additions are useful in my opinion. Still, this shows that the level of hatred towards Microsoft is still palpable, and whatever the software giant does, it will have its critics.
One of the biggest moves with search that just rolled out in the most recent Windows 11 update is the introduction of the ability to disable web results clutter. Again, this was a long time coming, but at least Microsoft is getting there…finally.
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