[Tip] Disable Microsoft Edge from Collecting and Sending Your Search Results

Yesterday while testing the built-in Microsoft Edge web browser in Windows 11 operating system, I received following notification message in form of a fly-out popup from Edge:

Following screenshot shows the notification message displayed by Microsoft Edge:

There were 2 buttons given: Got it and Manage settings. I immediately clicked on “Manage Settings” button given in the popup to manage the feature. It opened “Search and Service Improvement” section on Microsoft Edge settings page. This section was present under “Privacy, search, and services” tab.

There was a single option available to turn on/off which was as following:

This option was responsible behind that “Help us make search better for you” popup shown by Microsoft Edge.

When I checked the same option in Microsoft Edge browser installed in my Windows 10 computer system, first I couldn’t find the option. The whole “Search and Service Improvement” section was missing in Edge Settings page. Surprisingly, after a few minutes, I received the same “Help us make search better for you” popup in Microsoft Edge as shown in following screenshot:

When I checked Edge Settings page, the “Search and Service Improvement” section was also added automatically.

So it means, the feature and its setting option is controlled from Microsoft servers and Microsoft is rolling out this functionality to all Microsoft Edge installations as soon as the device comes online.

If you also receive above mentioned popup fly-out in Microsoft Edge browser and you accidentally clicked on “Got it” button, it’ll permit or allow Microsoft Edge to automatically enable search results collection and sending the data to Microsoft.

Don’t worry! You can still disable or turn off this feature with the help of following steps:

1. Open Microsoft Edge browser and click on the 3-dots menu button present at the right-side of the toolbar. Now select Settings option from the main menu.

Alternatively, you can press ALT+F keys together to show Edge Menu and then press S key to open Settings page.

You can also directly open Edge Settings page using edge://settings/ URL in address bar.

2. Now go to Privacy, search, and services tab and in right-side pane, scroll down and look for following option present under “Search and Service Improvement” section:

If the option is enabled and you want to prevent/restrict Microsoft Edge from automatically collecting and sending your search results data, set the option to OFF i.e. disable the option.

That’s it. You have successfully blocked Microsoft Edge from collecting or sharing your search results data with Microsoft.

Also Check:

[Tip] Disable Online Shopping Features and Notifications in Microsoft Edge

[Tip] Disable Typing Suggestions from Favorites and History in Microsoft Edge Address bar

[Tip] Disable Link Doctor Suggesting Similar Websites for Incorrect URLs in Microsoft Edge