Windows 11 Search will soon correct typos and prioritise local files

Whether you’re coding or hunting for a file, a single typo can be frustrating, and Microsoft is working on a number of improvements for Search in Windows 11 to ease that pain. The Insider Experimental Preview Build 26300.8687, which dropped last week, introduced a “more forgiving” version of Search.

Microsoft wrote, "Search is better at handling typos, dropped letters, extra letters, and partial words for apps. Queries like 'utlook' can still find Outlook." Search will also prioritise local files over web results. Previously, a hastily typed query often returned a Bing result with the spelling corrected; Microsoft’s partner director of design, March Rogers, said on X, "If you want you can turn off web suggestions entirely." Most regular users will wait for features first rolled out in an Insider preview build, but in a non-Insider build (OS build 26200.8655) typing "pwerp" already returned PowerPoint.

Another test in that build — "tskm" — left Search uncertain.

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