Earlier today, Microsoft released new Dev Channel and Beta Channel builds. While the latter brings new features like MSA requirement removal from Widgets, the former brings more Settings redesign, as well as the highly anticipated Tabbed Notepad feature.
Insider channel Windows builds also have hidden features that reveal what the Redmond tech giant may be planning. The same is the case for the latest build 25281 too. Spotted by Windows enthusiast and Twitter user PhantomOcean3, it seems like Microsoft may be looking to kill off the desktop search which was first introduced as a hidden feature in Dev build 25120 May last year.
However, there is a possibility that it could make a return as the EXE file is still there even though the velocity feature does not exist anymore.
DesktopSearchBox is finally dead. That took a long time didn"t it?
— PhantomOcean3☃️💙💛 (@PhantomOfEarth) January 19, 2023
The velocity feature anyway. Seems like the .exe still exists?
— PhantomOcean3☃️💙💛 (@PhantomOfEarth) January 19, 2023
The feature began rolling out to Dev channel users with build 25158 alongside the various Taskbar Search styles. The update allowed users to search the web from the desktop itself via Bing.
The feature could have been enabled using the "Show search" option. Our guide here details how users could have enabled or disabled the feature.