Did update ditch my search box?
Q The search box in the lower-left corner of my screen has disappeared. My local computer guru tells me this is due to a recent Windows 10 update. Is this so and how do I restore it?
Ray Burgess
A Earlier this year there was a short-lived bug that led to the search box displaying a blank pane after executing a search, but Microsoft quickly squashed that. We suspect that’s what your computer buff was talking about. At least, we’re not aware of any other Windows 10 update that has intentionally removed the search bar.
However, it has long been possible to hide the search bar and replace it with a button – or indeed to disable it completely. So, perhaps you somehow did that accidentally? Or it could be that an update quirk caused the box to disappear.
Either way, it’s pretty easy to fix. First, right-click on any blank part of the taskbar at the bottom of the Windows 10 desktop, and then point to Search. Here you should see two or three options: ‘Hidden’, ‘Show search icon’ and ‘Show search box’. Assuming the last one is there, just click to tick the latter and that’s the job done (see screenshot right).
If you see only the first two options, this is because you have an option set to display small taskbar icons. In this mode, only the search icon is an option. So, if you want the box, you’ll need to disable small taskbar icons.
To do this, click Start followed by the Settings cog, and then Personalisation followed by Taskbar. Now, in the righthand pane, click to flip the ‘Use small taskbar buttons’ switch to its Off position (see screenshot above).