How to completely disable Web Search in Windows 10

Microsoft has integrated web search from Windows 8.1, in addition to the native search available in previous Windowseditions. Thus when you search for anything on your Windows computer, if you’re connected to web, web search results are displayed automatically. This is also continued with Windows 10, and here Cortana – the voice assistant leads the flag.

Now, some users may be okay with fact that web results are displaying additionally even when they don’t looked forward for them. However, some other community of users may not be convinced with this fact. The reason behind this could be unnecessary data consumption by your system in order to fetch web search results. Thus, if you also belongs to latter community of users, you may want to disable web search results completely from being displayed in Windows 10.

Here is what you need to do:

Disable Web Search in Windows 10

1. In Windows 8.1 or later; Pro & Enterprise Editions, press Windows Key + R combination, type put gpedit.msc in Rundialog box and hit Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor.

2. In the left pane of Local Group Policy Editor window, navigate here:

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Search

3. Moving on, in the right of above shown window and scroll down to look for Settings named Do not allow web searchand Don’t search the web or display web results in Search. Both of these are Not Configured by default. Double click on any one of them:

4. Finally in the above shown window, select Enabled and click Apply followed by OK. Enable the other Setting in similar way. Close Local Group Policy Editor now. Reboot the machine to make changes effective. After restarting the machine, you’ll find that web search results are no longer displayed. In case, if you later want to get web search results, simply restore both policies to Not Configured status.

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DelFix: Remove disinfection tools from Windows PC

If you are a regular user of some online computer help forums, you might have faced this problem. When we run the anti-malware tools and troubleshooters suggested in these computer help forums, many associated files and log files land on our Windows PC and remain there even after the troubleshooting is completed. We even forget to delete the disinfection tools from our computers, even after their work is over. For instance, we may used a standalone second opinion antivirus scanner to remove malware from our computers and then forget about deleting the tool. After some times, its definitions would get outdated and it would make sense to delete it.

DelFix for Windows

This is where DelFix can help you. It is a program which will will reset system settings, clean your system thoroughly and removes various tools installed on your PC along with their associated and the leftover files. After the completion, it creates a log file of disinfection tools removal.

DelFix is a tool developed by Xplode, the makers of AdwCleaner, which can remove all portable virus cleaning and disinfection tools you’ve ever used. It will also reset the restore points of your computer systems making it even safer.

The program makes some other adjustments to your PC too which include:

• Activate UAC: It activates the user account control after cleaning the log files and the unnecessary clutter in your PC.
• Remove disinfection tools: Removes the tool you’ve ever used to disinfect your PC.
• Create registry backup: The program creates a registry backup and stores it under % windir% \ ERUNT \ DelFix.
• Purge system restore: Deletes all your older restore points and creates a fresh one.
• Reset system settings: It resets the system settings after the removal process is completed.

DelFix is a useful program designed specifically to remove the disinfecting tool when no longer needed. Developer’s page says it is compatible with 8 in 32 & 64 bits, Win 7, Vista and Windows XP, but it worked well on my Windows 8.1 PC too.

Just download the program from here and run it on your computer system. There is a default check-mark on feature ‘Remove disinfection tools’ and you need to check other feature manually before running the program – should you wish to. Wait for a few minutes and your computer system will be free of all unnecessary files.

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System Compression in Windows 10

As the release of Windows 10 is nearing up, Microsoft is giving more information about the new operating system that is supposed to fit all the devices. In its blog, yesterday, Microsoft explained how Windows 10 uses system compression techniques to save space on devices. Or in other words, how does Windows 10 manage to run using smaller space on local storage in tablets, laptops and phones.

How Windows 10 saves space on devices

Windows 10 uses two distinct factors, so that the operating system takes up as less space as it can. It has to fit on a variety of devices with different storage limits and under those terms, it will not be feasible if the operating system takes up much space. Lower storage space also means faster working of the operating system.

The first of the two factors is file system compression. The second one is a recovery enhancement system that we’ll talk about in the next section.

Windows 10 System Compression

Windows 8.1 achieved significant footprint reduction using Windows Image Boot or WIMBOOT. This feature enabled Windows 8.1 devices to have all the goodness of an efficient compression algorithm without any compromise in responsiveness. Windows 10’s compaction is the evolution of WIMBOOT!

According to Microsoft, Windows 10 employs an efficient algorithm for compression of files. With the current build of Windows 10, the compression algorithms save up to 1.5 GB for 32 bit operating systems. For 64 bit operating system, the compression algorithms free up at least 2.6 GB.

Recovery Enhancements in Windows 10

Normally, hardware vendors use a static recovery image so that users can revert to it when things go wrong. This static recovery image takes up a good amount of space on the hard disk drive or other storage devices. The static recovery enhancements have been eliminated completely in Windows 10 so that it occupies just a little space.

This does not mean that users can no longer revert to the default state when required. The technique has changed, but not the features. The Windows Refresh and Reset features now use a technology that is dynamic. That is, Windows will reconstruct the recovery image using the inbuilt algorithms when required. This way, there is no need to store a static image of Windows 10. This removal of static image and building recovery images dynamically reduces the storage needssignificantly in storing the operating system.

Normally, the static images take up too much space and by using dynamic recovery, Windows 10 will save up to 12 GB of storage space on hard disks drives or other drives from where it is running. Thus, the space released by operating system will be used by users for storing documents, photographs, videos and music etc.

Smart System Compression in Windows 10

System compression of files in Windows 10 need not affect the performance of the operating system in a negative way. For the purpose, the compression algorithms are used that calculate how much to compress the files without posing any risk to the efficient working of Windows 10.

For example, Windows 10 takes into account the amount of RAM available and the speed of processor on the computer being used. Based on these two factors, the system compression algorithms in Windows 10 check out how much time it takes to decompress the files for processing them. The time taken to retrieve the file, decompress them and process them should be much smaller than what a human can perceive. The compression algorithms in Windows 10 do just that. This means that the amount of compression would be different on different machines. A machine with a faster processor will see low usage of space by operating system while on a slow computer system, the operating system will take up more space.

Thus, not only does Windows 10 make use of intelligent algorithms for reducing system footprint, it also saves space for Windows apps. If the system files are compressed, app files are also compressed the same way so that they can provide more on systems with lower storage capacities.

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