Microsoft promises to make Windows 11 search better — and it's about time

Windows 11 search is getting a major overhaul It'll be made faster, more efficient with RAM usage, and be tweaked to better understand what you're searching 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's forging onwards with making Windows 11's search function a faster and more streamlined experience.

In a blog post , Microsoft said it's rolling out this redesigned search experience to Windows 11 testers in the Experimental channel now (likely in a very limited fashion to begin with).

This new search is built on WinUI 3 (the contemporary interface framework for Windows 11 ), and as a result it'll be faster and will have less impact on your system resources.

Microsoft boasts that: "Early testing shows substantial improvements in performance and memory usage, so [search] feels faster and more efficient from the moment you open it." The search panel itself has been pared back to a single list, as opposed to the current implementation with the list on the left and the preview pane on the right.

The interface therefore looks less cluttered, and it's easier to see what you're, well, searching for.

Microsoft also promises it'll work on ensuring that search more readily grasps what you're trying to find, with better handling of typos and guessing what you might mean if you're, say, attempting to find a system option and have entered the name incorrectly.

This is work that the company already started in Windows 11 , and the post notes that Microsoft will continue to fine-tune all this over the coming weeks. (Image credit: Microsoft) This is what's happening initially; then, later this year, Microsoft is going to bring more features into testing.

That includes inline previews and details that give you all kinds of extra info on the file you're searching (like a thumbnail for an image along with its resolution and size).

Search queries like "weather in London" will bring up an in-line card (powered by Bing) with the relevant at-a-glance details, including the likes of temperature highs and lows for the day.

The other big step is to introduce 'actions' to Windows 11 search, meaning you can simply type a command to change settings in the OS directly from the search box.

Microsoft shows an example of typing 'change to dark theme' which pops up the option, then you simply click apply and you're done.

You can type 'mute' to turn off sound, or 'dim my screen' to adjust the brightness level automatically, and issue a similar range of instructions via search.