The EU is cracking down on labels in Windows 11’s Start menu

By Judy Sanhz Published February 6, 2025

The Surface Pro 11 on a white table in front of a window. — Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

To align with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Microsoft is updating Windows 11’s Start Menu Search, but only for users in the European Economic Area, as Tech Radar reports. The software giant is introducing more transparent labels to distinguish between web search results and local ones. This move is part of broader changes that let users uninstall Edge and turn off Bing integration, reinforcing transparency and user choice.

The changes are in a new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build, build 27764. Notably, X user @alex290292 shared a screenshot that shows the new Start menu user interface with the “Windows” and “Web search from Bing” sections. These changes are great news since they give users more control over Windows 11. Specifically, the modifications include adding custom web search providers to Windows Search, letting users remove the Edge browser, and turning off Bing web search.

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What is the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA)? It’s a set of rules that prevent big tech giants from leveraging their dominance to stifle competition. With this set of rules, Microsoft has to play nice and not force users to use their services only.

Other great changes are coming, including right-clicking on a pinned app and seeing a new “jump list.” When you right-click on the Start menu or taskbar, this change gives you quick access to recent folders, files, or tasks associated with an app. However, Microsoft has not released any official information that mentions these changes are coming to more countries, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Moreover, beyond these search improvements, Microsoft is also testing an improved Windows Search on Copilot+.

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Computing Writer

Judy Sanhz is a Digital Trends computing writer covering all computing news. Loves all operating systems and devices.

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