Forum Discussion
I just want search to show apps only
All I care about is getting installed apps or system apps in my search results. There's already a tab that does this—but I'd rather just see apps by default or have the option to only show apps and nothing else.
Anyone know if this is possible? Or is it just something we have to live with?
3 Replies
Unfortunately, Windows 11 currently has no supported setting to make Apps the default search tab or restrict Start search to apps only. Search always opens on All, and it does not remember the last tab you selected.
The built-in options are:
- Press Win + S, enter the app name and select the Apps tab.
- For an apps-only view, press Win + R, enter shell:AppsFolder, and press Enter. This opens a folder containing installed desktop and Microsoft Store apps.
- To make that view easier to access, create a shortcut with explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder as its location and pin the shortcut to Start.
Turning off Search highlights or cloud content search may reduce some online content, but it will not make Apps the default tab or completely change Start search into an apps-only search.
Registry and Group Policy workarounds for removing web results are inconsistent across Windows 11 updates, so they do not provide a reliable way to achieve this exact behavior.
You can do this from the same Advanced indexing options menu by clicking the Advanced button and then Rebuild . This forces Windows to update its database based on your new settings.
Windows 11 does not currently provide a supported user setting that makes the Apps filter the permanent default for Start/Search. The All view is designed to combine local apps, settings, files, cloud content, and web results, while Apps is a filter you select for each search. For an apps-only workflow, open Start and choose All apps, pin frequently used programs, or select Apps after typing the query. You can reduce unrelated results under Settings, Privacy & security, Search permissions by disabling cloud-content options and search highlights, but that still does not change the default category. On managed Enterprise, Education, or IoT Enterprise devices, an administrator can enable the Microsoft policy that prevents web queries and web results; this removes the Bing portion but does not force Apps as the only category. The appropriate product request is Feedback Hub under Desktop Environment, Search.
