Windows 11 build 25197 gets Windows 10-like taskbar search, here is how to enable it

Microsoft's Insider builds for Windows can often reveal interesting upcoming features. The latest Windows 11 Dev channel build 25197 has received some new features like Tablet-optimized taskbar, though the company has acknowledged it is a bit buggy at the moment. Additionally, some more unannounced features like live kernel dump, as well as hidden features like new Spotlight UI have also been discovered.

Likewise, in the preceding build 25193, the company brought back Tablet mode UI, that was later officially released in 25197. Today, Twitter user PhantomOcean3 uncovered another piece of a new feature in an earlier build 25193, whereby it looks like Microsoft will soon be adding a Windows 10-style search directly into the Taskbar in Windows 11. Back with Dev channel build 25158, Microsoft added, among other things, new taskbar search styles. There were five variants of it back then and we published a guide on how to enable them. This one becomes the sixth variant and should work in a similar fashion.

It somewhat mirrors the Windows 10 styled Search bar in Windows 11 including highlight:

As you can see in the image above, the highlights of the day are also displayed, but it can be turned off by disabling search highlights (via PhantomOcean3 on Twitter).

How to enable the new Taskbar search in Windows 11 build 25197

1. Download ViVeTool from its repository on Github and extract the files whenever you like. For example, in the root of drive C.
2. Right-click the Start menu button and select Terminal (Admin).
3. Switch Terminal to the Command Prompt profile using the arrow-down button on the tab strip.
4. Navigate to the folder containing Vive files using the CD command. Here is an example: CD C:\Vive.
5. Execute the following command:
   • vivetool /enable /id:39072097 /variant:6
6. Restart your computer (optional).

Let us know what you think of it in the comments.