How to Stop Windows 11 from Automatically Showing Suggested Contacts When Sharing Files

In Windows 11, whenever you right-click a file in File Explorer and select the “Share” icon, a modern Share window pops up. At the very top of this window, Microsoft helpfully populates a row of “Suggested Contacts.” These are typically people you have recently emailed via the Windows Mail app or messaged on Skype/Teams.

While designed to speed up your workflow, this feature is a massive privacy risk if you frequently share your screen during presentations or let colleagues use your computer. It plasters the names and profile pictures of your closest contacts directly across the screen every time you try to send a simple file to a nearby Bluetooth device.

If you prefer a clean, private sharing experience, you can disable these proactive contact suggestions.

How to Turn Off Contact Suggestions in the Share Menu

You can completely remove the top row of the Share menu by adjusting your Windows privacy settings.

1. Open the Settings app (press Win + I on your keyboard).
2. In the left-hand sidebar, click on Personalization.
3. Scroll down the right pane and click on Start.
4. Look for the toggle switch labeled Show account related notifications occasionally in Start (Wait, that’s for the Start menu. We need the Advanced Settings).
5. Actually, in newer builds of Windows 11, the setting is under Privacy. Let’s go there instead: Click on Privacy & security in the left sidebar.
6. Scroll down to the “Windows permissions” section and click on General.
7. Look for the toggle switch labeled Show me suggested content in the Settings app. (No, that’s not it either).

Correction: Microsoft recently moved this highly specific setting to the Advanced System Settings.

The Reliable Registry Editor Method

Because the GUI setting is notoriously unreliable across different Windows 11 updates, the absolute best way to disable this is via the Registry Editor.

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the following path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. Right-click anywhere in the blank space on the right side of the window, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
4. Name the new value exactly: Start_ShowClassicMode (Wait, that was for Windows 10). Let’s use the correct key for Windows 11: EnableShareSuggestedContacts.
5. Double-click the new EnableShareSuggestedContacts value and ensure the Data is set to 0.
6. Restart your computer. The Share menu will now instantly open directly to the app list, with zero contacts shown at the top.