Windows 11 File Explorer no longer remembers search history; how to reenable?

Are they actually going to release an update to rectify this, or carry on sitting on their hands?

This has gone on for quite some time now without resolution, and is clearly affecting significant amounts of people.

Yet still nothing, pretty poor showing all round.

Seems MS aren't concerned in the slightest.

Some "feature." I've spent days trying to fix all the things with Windows 11 that I hate. It's more than getting used to something, it's a complete loss of productivity!

I read somewhere that Microsoft was concerned about privacy issues in the EU, but what has that to do with File Explorer? Windows Search, I can see that, but gee, that still remembers every dang site you visit unless you disable it.

I'm going to try Explorer Patch and see what happens... Only other options I see are (1) a fresh install of Windows 10, but I think that's dicey (2) try to install an older version of Windows 11 (which I don't think is good due to security patches, etc. and last but not least (3) time to get a MAC!

I wish Microsoft would address this issue openly. They could at least explain their reasons for removing search history from File Explorer. Even their support staff (which have tried to be helpful with remote assistance, etc.) don't even seem to know the feature has been deprecated.

If you're reading these posts Microsoft, PLEASE RESPOND! You're driving your customers away. I seriously regret buying my new PC, which is wonderful in all respects except...Windows 11 lacks basic functionality that has been in place for decades. It's completely unacceptable!

Kathleen

Hi Hahn - MSFT,

Thank you again for your response and for the screen shot. Per your directions:

Click on "Permissions & history."

Under "History," make sure that the option "Search history on this device" is enabled.

Two questions:

1. Typing "Searching" into the search fields opens a screen different from your screenshot example (see attached). Is your screenshot from Windows 11? Or another version of Windows?
2. Neither in your screenshot example, nor on my system, are there options titled "History" nor "Search history on this device." Where do I find these options? Thanks again.

This was definitely how it worked until around this time last year.

Somebody has already stated which update that broke it, but by the time I found this thread, the option to remove the offending update had been removed.

My workflow involves me switching between thousands of directories, usually centring on a dozen or so over a period of a few weeks until a project has finished. Having to search the entire system over and over and over is extremely time-consuming!

Prior to this, all recent directories and files appeared the moment I clicked in the search box.

I just spent several hours testing old Windows 11 builds, starting with 22H2 build 382 from September 2022 and then builds 900, 963, 1105, 1265, and finally 1413 (KB5023706) from March 2023.

All of the builds, prior to 1413, provided a history drop-down list in the Explorer search box. All of those builds also required pressing Enter in the Explorer search box. None of them displayed results as you type in the Search box.

Starting with build 1413, the Search box behavior changed to show results as you type. Also, at this point, the history drop-down list no longer existed.

Based on my test observations, there was never a point where the Search box in Windows 11 displayed results as you type AND provided a history drop-down list.

As I mentioned earlier, it would have been relatively easy for Microsoft to provide a check box to let you select the old or new behavior. That would have been the appropriate, customer-oriented thing to do.

There may have been some other reason behind the change, such as the Bing decoupling required by the EU, and maybe they just reverted to the old search code rather than programming something new. It's hard to get any good information about why/how Microsoft changes/breaks things in Explorer because there's absolutely no transparency when it comes to those UI/UX changes. Microsoft has the terrible habit of bundling Explorer changes with "Security updates" with zero information about the UI/UX changes in the release notes. If they actually documented these changes I wouldn't have had to do all that trial and error testing.

Call me cynical, but I suspect that the Windows 11 coders didn't want to deal with the issue so they took it off the docket by declaring the bug a feature. Just another step toward abandoning Windows 11 entirely.