[Windows Tip] Disable Search Box on New Tab Page in Internet Explorer

Microsoft’s latest OS Windows 10 comes with Internet Explorer 11 version. The previous Windows version i.e. Windows 8.1 also came with IE11 version and Microsoft has released the same IE11 version for good ol’ Windows 7 OS. Internet Explorer 11 comes with many new features and changes and one of these changes is the addition of search box on new tab page.

When you open a new tab in Internet Explorer 11, it shows a big search box on top along with thumbnails of frequently visited webpages. If you don’t like the search box on new tab page, we have posted a guide to remove this search box long time back at following link:

How to Remove Search Box from New Tab Page in Internet Explorer?

The above guide helps you in removing the search box from IE’s new tab page using very simple and easy to follow methods. But recently an AskVG reader “almostfamous84” asked us about Registry tweak or Group Policy method to remove the search box from new tab page.

So today in this tutorial, we are going to share Registry tweaks and Group Policy tips to disable the search box on new tab page in Internet Explorer 11 version.

If you also want to get rid of the search box in IE11, following methods will definitely help you:

METHOD 1: Remove Search Box from New Tab Page Using Registry Editor

This method has same effect as the first method given in above mentioned tutorial link. When you disable search box on new tab page in IE by unchecking “Search in the address bar and the search box on the new tab page” option in “Manage Add-ons” window, it makes some changes in Windows Registry. So you can directly disable Search box on new tab page in IE by modifying Registry yourself as given in following steps:

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type regedit in RUN and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

3. In right-side pane, look for AutoSearch DWORD. By default its value is set to 1 which means the option “Search in the address bar and the search box on the new tab page” in “Manage Add-ons” window is enabled and the search box is shown on new tab page.

To disable search box on new tab page, double-click on AutoSearch DWORD and change its value to 0

It’ll immediately remove search box from new tab page in IE and the option “Search in the address bar and the search box on the new tab page” in “Manage Add-ons” window will get disabled.

To re-enable search box on new tab page, you can set the value of AutoSearch DWORD to 1 again.

METHOD 2: Remove Search Box and Restrict Changes to “Manage Add-ons” Options

There is another way to remove search box from IE’s new tab page. This method will also restrict users from changing the “Search in the address bar and the search box on the new tab page” option in “Manage Add-ons” window. The option will be grayed out and no one will be able to turn on/off this option.

This method uses Group Policy Editor tool and allows you to remove search box from new tab page as well as disable search functionality in address bar of Internet Explorer.

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type gpedit.msc in RUN and press Enter. It’ll open Group Policy Editor.

2. Now go to:

3. In right-side pane, double-click on “Prevent configuration of search on Address bar” option and set it to Enabled. Apply the changes.

It’ll immediately remove search box from IE’s new tab page.

If you also want to disable search functionality in IE address bar, again double-click on “Prevent configuration of search on Address bar” option, set it to Enabled and select “Do not search from the address bar” option from drop-down box. Now apply changes.

It’ll disable address bar search functionality as well as search box on new tab page in Internet Explorer.

PS: If you decide to restore default settings in future, double-click on “Prevent configuration of search on Address bar” option and set it to Not Configured again.

METHOD 3: Remove Search Box and Restrict Changes Using Registry Editor

If you are using Home edition of Windows OS, you’ll not find Group Policy Editor tool as this Windows edition doesn’t contain this program.

If you can’t use or don’t want to use Group Policy Editor, you can take help of Registry Editor for the same task. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type regedit in RUN and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

3. Under Microsoft key, create a new key and set its name to Internet Explorer

4. Now under Internet Explorer key again create a new key and set its name to Main

So the final key path would be:

5. Select Main key and in right-side pane, create a new DWORD and set its name to AutoSearch

6. Now double-click on AutoSearch DWORD and set its value to 4. It’ll remove the search box from new tab page but it’ll keep search functionality in address bar. It’ll also restrict users from changing the “Search in the address bar and the search box on the new tab page” option in “Manage Add-ons” window.

Similar to METHOD 2, if you also want to disable search functionality in IE address bar along with removing search box from new tab page, set value of AutoSearch DWORD to 0

It’ll remove the search box from new tab page, will restrict users from changing the “Search in the address bar and the search box on the new tab page” option in “Manage Add-ons” window and will also disable search functionality in address bar of Internet Explorer.

PS: If you decide to restore default settings in future, delete AutoSearch DWORD from Registry which was created in STEP 5.