Solved Search Highlights image disappeared after 24H2 update

blownwiththeWin · Nov 16, 2024

God bless this guy!

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1aw75v2/windows_11_search_highlights_missing_nothing

.

Just returned the image, worked instantly after restart. So System32/IntegratedServicesRegionPolicySet.json - i updated this file.

This line "$comment": "V2: First party Taskbar Gleam customization is shown.", should be disabled!!

And the line without V2 should be enabled.

However, it's still tricky. As soon as I did that I got an option "Show Search Highlights". However it's greyed out, but enabled. I still didn't get rid from this "Let apps show results" option and if i disable it unfortunately I don't get web search enabled. So at this moment it works for me only if I have a Bing web search app installed and enabled, and this "Show Search Highlights" option greyed out in "enabled" state.

If anyone knows how to fully fix this based on provided solution, I'll be happy to hear. But if not - I don't mind it's still kinda broken for me, but what's most important - the image is there.

glasskuter · Nov 16, 2024

See Brink's answers here Search Highlight Image

Ghot · Nov 16, 2024

blownwiththeWin said:
Okay i just finished the in-place upgrade. It rebooted a few times, finished everything and... nothing literally changed. I still don't have that "show search highlights" in my search options, but i still have that weird "let search apps show results" option. So I guess all i can do is to wait for them to update the system or... get used to the fact i'll not be able to recover Search Highlights option again. However, i'm still wondering why my Search options interface is so much different.

Well, at least you now know that basic Windows itself isn't the problem.

blownwiththeWin · Nov 16, 2024

Ghot said:
Well, at least you now know that basic Windows itself isn't the problem.

yes, they clearly messed up something with permissions and registry and some settings

I would appreciate if you shared your experience with Search Highlights. Do they appear like on my screenshot without Bing app installed? Or you have this app?

Ghot · Nov 16, 2024

blownwiththeWin said:
I would appreciate if you shared your experience with Search Highlights

I'm not sure you understand me that well.
I don't DO Microsoft bloat. I remove it instantly.

Search Highlights was on my computer about 3 seconds before I killed it.
I removed 99% of the Windows "Apps".
I removed Cortana, Copilot, Widgets... etc.
I never use EDGE or Microsoft Defender. I don't have or use "Office" products.
If Microsoft was a country, and had outlaws... I'd be one of them.

Maybe this will give you an idea....

Microsoft started lookin' real suspicious at me
And I jumped up an' said: "stay away from me,
I know yer evil, I've been computin' nearly all of my life".

I'm a faithful follower of Windows XP
Microsoft, you ain't got a hold on me
And I don't even "social media", just call home and ask my wife.

Lines stolen from: Charlie Daniels' "Uneasy Rider"

Rollback_Jockey · Nov 16, 2024

blownwiththeWin said:
Hello, everyone! Unfortunately I got an issue with the feature that is the hardest to recover on Windows - the cute image in the search box from Bing Search Highlights disappeared again, this time after updating to 24H2. I tried all possible things including registry tweaks but seems like nothing is working. I reinstalled Bing Web Search app.... doesn't help.

Check your registry for this entry

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search]

"BingSearchEnabled"=dword:00000001

blownwiththeWin · Nov 17, 2024

Rollback_Jockey said:
Check your registry for this entry

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search]

"BingSearchEnabled"=dword:00000001

of course it is enabled. It was the first thing I did before creating this topic - putting into my registry all possible tweaks I found on web. Unfortunately, this DWORD parameter actually changes absolutely nothing in the logic of Search Highliths or Bing functions :)

Like i said, solution for the image was found. But now I have "Show Search Highlights" feature on and greyed out in that state. And I still have that "Let apps show web results" option below that. So what I did helped with restoring the image in search box and let "Show Search Highlights" option to appear in the menu. However, it's not fully functional since I can't toggle it freely. And it only works for the image, for having those search results with ability to explore the image I still need "Web Search from Microsoft Bing" app installed separately.

@Ghot said he's trying to remove all Microsoft "bloatware" from his PC. But I guess soon it won't be needed, since Microsoft is cutting out its own features from Windows masterfully, much better than any user could do. For example for a few years I have Windows Spotlight for lock screen not working. And it also happened after one of the updates. And it's not coming back. While Microsoft said i need a full clean Install of a new Windows copy to make it work. Which of course i'm not gonna do. Same thing repeated with this search box image. It just disappeared. Luckily I magically got it back now, but not sure how long it will work.

HodorongTronc · Nov 17, 2024

blownwiththeWin said:
God bless this guy!
https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1aw75v2/windows_11_search_highlights_missing_nothing
.

Just returned the image, worked instantly after restart. So System32/IntegratedServicesRegionPolicySet.json - i updated this file.

This line "$comment": "V2: First party Taskbar Gleam customization is shown.", should be disabled!!

And the line without V2 should be enabled.

However, it's still tricky. As soon as I did that I got an option "Show Search Highlights". However it's greyed out, but enabled. I still didn't get rid from this "Let apps show results" option and if i disable it unfortunately I don't get web search enabled. So at this moment it works for me only if I have a Bing web search app installed and enabled, and this "Show Search Highlights" option greyed out in "enabled" state.

If anyone knows how to fully fix this based on provided solution, I'll be happy to hear. But if not - I don't mind it's still kinda broken for me, but what's most important - the image is there.

and now you have Show Search Highlights in Privacy & security ?

blownwiththeWin · Nov 17, 2024

HodorongTronc said:
and now you have Show Search Highlights in Privacy & security ?

Yes i have this option turned on now and greyed out. It's working by providing an image in search box. But it seems like itself it doesn't show Bing suggestions when expanding the search. Because I still have a toggle on "Let the apps to show web results" (which is installed Bing in my case). And without this toggle I don't have those Bing suggestions. So basically now i can't control "Show Search Highlights" option, but it's there now and it's on by default.

HodorongTronc · Nov 17, 2024

for me ...

blownwiththeWin · Nov 17, 2024

HodorongTronc said:
for me ...View attachment 116556

Yes, this is exactly how it looked for me before that JSON file tweak. Did it happen to you after upgrading to 24H2?

HodorongTronc · Nov 17, 2024

blownwiththeWin said:
Yes, this is exactly how it looked for me before that JSON file tweak. Did it happen to you after upgrading to 24H2?

I downloaded from the microsoft iso 24h2 page, put it on the stick and installed it, this is the result!
A shame !!!

blownwiththeWin · Nov 17, 2024

HodorongTronc said:
I downloaded from the microsoft iso 24h2 page, put it on the stick and installed it, this is the result!
A shame !!!

I know, I also used Windows Installer from Microsoft website. Check that you have these settings in the mentioned JSON file:

{
"$comment": "V2: First party Taskbar Gleam customization is shown.",
"guid": "{17bcdbb5-6003-4b4a-8da8-db163a9869d5}",
"defaultState": "enabled",
"conditions": {
"region": {
"disabled": ["AT", "BE", "BG", "CH", "CY", "CZ", "DE", "DK", "EE", "ES", "FI", "FR", "GF", "GP", "GR", "HR", "HU", "IE", "IS", "IT", "LI", "LT", "LU", "LV", "MT", "MQ", "NL", "NO", "PL", "PT", "RE", "RO", "SE", "SI", "SK", "YT"]
}
}
},
{
"$comment": "First party Taskbar Gleam customization is shown.",
"guid": "{61bf5046-c5db-4cd3-b6bf-929e5b421a6a}",
"defaultState": "enabled",
"conditions": {
"region": {
"enabled": ["AT", "BE", "BG", "CH", "CY", "CZ", "DE", "DK", "EE", "ES", "FI", "FR", "GF", "GP", "GR", "HR", "HU", "IE", "IS", "IT", "LI", "LT", "LU", "LV", "MT", "MQ", "NL", "NO", "PL", "PT", "RE", "RO", "SE", "SI", "SK", "YT"]
}
}
}

Let me know if it works for you. However, i'm sure in this file there are more tweaks to do to resolve an issue completely, however I don't know what else to tweak to make it not greyed out.

HodorongTronc · Nov 17, 2024

This line "$comment": "V2: First party Taskbar Gleam customization is shown.", should be disabled!!
for me it is enabled, i tried in sandbox, same, json file, this line it is enabled and work ok...

blownwiththeWin · Nov 17, 2024

HodorongTronc said:
This line "$comment": "V2: First party Taskbar Gleam customization is shown.", should be disabled!!
for me it is enabled, i tried in sandbox, same, json file, this line it is enabled and work ok...

I'm sorry i think I don't get you. You sent a screenshot showing you don't have "Show Search Highlights" option. Is it your screenshot? If yes, try replacing the lines with the ones i showed and see if the problem resolves.

HodorongTronc · Nov 18, 2024

for me it's quite complicated and I want to make a backup on windows, maybe Brink can help us with this problem, notify the people from ms, he is a volunteer moderator on their forum

HodorongTronc · Nov 19, 2024

blownwiththeWin said:
I'm sorry i think I don't get you. You sent a screenshot showing you don't have "Show Search Highlights" option. Is it your screenshot? If yes, try replacing the lines with the ones i showed and see if the problem resolves.

i open in notepad but i cant save, how i need to open in notepad administrator to save json file ???

HodorongTronc · Nov 19, 2024

blownwiththeWin said:
God bless this guy!
https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1aw75v2/windows_11_search_highlights_missing_nothing
.

Just returned the image, worked instantly after restart. So System32/IntegratedServicesRegionPolicySet.json - i updated this file.

This line "$comment": "V2: First party Taskbar Gleam customization is shown.", should be disabled!!

And the line without V2 should be enabled.

However, it's still tricky. As soon as I did that I got an option "Show Search Highlights". However it's greyed out, but enabled. I still didn't get rid from this "Let apps show results" option and if i disable it unfortunately I don't get web search enabled. So at this moment it works for me only if I have a Bing web search app installed and enabled, and this "Show Search Highlights" option greyed out in "enabled" state.

If anyone knows how to fully fix this based on provided solution, I'll be happy to hear. But if not - I don't mind it's still kinda broken for me, but what's most important - the image is there.

thanks man !!!
work !!!
i edit in in safe mode !!!
...
"$comment": "V2: First party Taskbar Gleam customization is shown.",
"guid": "{17bcdbb5-6003-4b4a-8da8-db163a9869d5}",
"defaultState": "enabled",
"conditions": {
"region": {
"disabled": ["AT", "BE", "BG", "CH", "CY", "CZ", "DE", "DK", "EE", "ES", "FI", "FR", "GF", "GP", "GR", "HR", "HU", "IE", "IS", "IT", "LI", "LT", "LU", "LV", "MT", "MQ", "NL", "NO", "PL", "PT", "RE", "RO", "SE", "SI", "SK", "YT"]
}
}
},
{
"$comment": "First party Taskbar Gleam customization is shown.",
"guid": "{61bf5046-c5db-4cd3-b6bf-929e5b421a6a}",
"defaultState": "enabled",
"conditions": {
"region": {
"enabled": ["AT", "BE", "BG", "CH", "CY", "CZ", "DE", "DK", "EE", "ES", "FI", "FR", "GF", "GP", "GR", "HR", "HU", "IE", "IS", "IT", "LI", "LT", "LU", "LV", "MT", "MQ", "NL", "NO", "PL", "PT", "RE", "RO", "SE", "SI", "SK", "YT"]
}
}
},
...

blownwiththeWin · Nov 19, 2024

Well it works better for you. I have this function greyed out. It's working, but it's greyed out. Can anyone suggest a solution here?

UPD! Just solve that... The reason was a wrong faulty suggestion to enable this
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search]
"EnableDynamicContentInWSB"=dword:00000001
from this thread:

Redirecting

If you set "EnableDynamicContentInWSB"=dword:00000001 this, your toggle will be greyed out! Don't do this!
Funny that the author of this thread asked how to make it not greyed out and got a solution that does exactly the opposite. I forgot I added this registry parameter when was trying to solve an issue before... Now i just deleted all those useless entries cause they do nothing, only make it worse. The only solution that is working to restore that function is the previous one me and HodorongTronc used.

Edwin · Nov 19, 2024

Huge undertaking for such a mundane feature!

Solved Search Highlights image disappeared after 24H2 update

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