Update KB5011543 brings Search Highlights to Windows 10

Update KB5011543 for Windows 10 is being rolled out to users as a cumulative preview update. It brings a new feature called Search Highlights.

You might know this if you read my article on Windows 11 Build 22572, which was released for Insiders. In a nutshell, Search Highlights is Microsoft’s way of displaying trending searches, holidays, anniversaries, important days in your region, etc., right inside the search app window.

Business users will have a slightly different experience, as Search Highlights will display contacts, files, and updates from your organization, rather than pull results from the web.

KB5011543 Update for Windows 10 adds Search Highlights to the Start menu

The real surprise was that Microsoft said that this would not be exclusive to Windows 11 and that it would bring Search Highlights to Windows 10. And now it has done exactly that, update KB5011543, even before the Windows 11 stable channel has received that.

Click on the search bar on the taskbar and you should see the new interface with search highlights. You can click on a result to open the corresponding result in your web browser.

Don’t be surprised if you install the new Windows update, but don’t find the new feature working on your system. The announcement mentions that it will be gradually rolled out to users in phases over the next few weeks, and that it could take months for it to be available to all users.

While some people may find Search Highlights useful, users who don’t care about web results in the first place may be more bothered by the feature. If you want to disable Search Highlights in Windows 10, Martin explains how you can do it in 3 simple steps.

There is an alternative way to disable Featured Search using a new policy that is available in Windows 10 Group Policy Editor. Run the Gpedit.msc tool and go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search. In the right pane, select Allow search highlights and set its value to disabled.

Fixes in update KB5011543 for Windows 10

Update KB5011543 fixes an issue in SearchIndexer.exe that caused it to stop responding in Remote Desktop, when users performed an unmount operation. Recent emails from Microsoft Outlook will appear in offline search. Fixed a bug that caused the back button in the login window to become invisible in high contrast black mode.

The full list of changes in the update has been posted on Microsoft’s support portal. Update KB5011543 is available for Windows 10 21H2, 21H1, and 20H2. It shows up as a preview update that you can choose to install from the Windows Update page in the Settings app. Alternatively, the package can be downloaded manually from Microsoft Update Cataloggram.

Adding a new feature to an older OS is one thing, but is that what Microsoft is doing here? Or is the plan to get people used to these things to convince them to upgrade to Windows 11, because it feels the same?

What do you think about Search Highlights?

advertising