How to disable search suggestions on Microsoft Edge

On Windows 10, the new version of Microsoft Edge based on the Chromium engine can speed up the search process by showing search and website suggestions using the characters as you type in the address bar.

Although this can be a useful feature, it might not be for everyone, especially for those with privacy concern as even before you press Enter every character you type is sent over the internet to the search engine. For this reason, Microsoft Edge, includes a setting to enable or disable search suggestions from the address bar.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to disable (and enable) search suggestions when typing characters in the address bar in the Chromium version of Microsoft Edge.

• How to disable search suggestions on Microsoft Edge
• How to enable search suggestions on Microsoft Edge

How to disable search suggestions on Microsoft Edge

To disable search suggestions on Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Microsoft Edge.

2. Click the Settings and More (three-dotted) button on the top-right corner.

3. Click on Settings.

4. Click on Privacy and services.

5. Under the “Services” section, click the Address bar option.

6. Turn off the Show me search and site suggestions using my typed characters toggle switch.

   

   Quick tip: In this page, you can also change the default search engine (Bing) to anything you want.

Once you complete the steps, when typing characters in the address bar, you will no longer send information to the default search engine to see a list of search suggestions. However, you’ll still see suggestions for history and favorites.

How to enable search suggestions on Microsoft Edge

To enable search suggestions on Microsoft Edge, use these steps:

1. Open Microsoft Edge.

2. Click the Settings and More (three-dotted) button on the top-right corner.

3. Click on Settings.

4. Click on Privacy and services.

5. Under the “Services” section, click the Address bar option.

6. Turn on the Show me search and site suggestions using my typed characters toggle switch.

   

After you complete the steps, Microsoft Edge will send every character you type in the address bar to the default search engine to display relevant suggestions.

We’re focusing this guide on Windows 10, but the instructions should also work the variants of Microsoft Edge for Windows 8.x, Windows 7, macOS, and Linux.