The Wasted Taskbar Space
By default, Windows 10 places a massive, elongated search box directly on your taskbar, right next to the Start button. While this makes it very obvious where to click if you want to search for an app or a file, this enormous white rectangle consumes a significant amount of your valuable taskbar real estate.
If you use a smaller laptop screen or if you simply like to have many application icons pinned to your taskbar, the search box takes up room that could be used for two or three more app icons. Because you can actually initiate a search in Windows simply by clicking the Start button and immediately typing on your keyboard, the dedicated search box is entirely redundant. You can shrink it down to a simple, compact magnifying glass icon.
How to Hide the Taskbar Search Box
You can change the appearance of the search feature directly from the taskbar context menu.
- Move your mouse cursor down to the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen.
- Find an empty, blank space on the taskbar (do not hover over an app icon) and Right-click.
- A context menu will appear. Move your mouse up to hover over the word Search.
- A sub-menu will fly out to the side. You will see three options: Hidden, Show search icon, and Show search box.
- Click on Show search icon.
The massive search box will instantly disappear, replaced by a single, sleek magnifying glass icon. If you ever need to use the dedicated search panel, you can click that small icon, but remember that pressing the Windows Key and immediately typing works exactly the same way without requiring a click.