SOLVED: Search on Windows 10 constantly pops up by itself

By Kevin ArrowsUpdated on April 28, 2024

Kevin is a certified Network Engineer

Windows 10 is a pretty nifty platform. However, it comes with its fair share of quirks and intrigues. You may encounter some bugs which just leave you outright dumbfounded. The good thing with Windows 10 however, is that most of these bugs can be easily dealt with without necessarily reaching out to Microsoft.

A frequent problem in Windows 10 is one whereby the search box just keeps on appearing when you are working on your machine. Some users have experienced a message box popping up incessantly on the left side of the screen providing information about Cortana. The obvious thing to do in this case would be to turn Cortana off completely; but no! You will realize that the box will keep on popping up; prompting you to start keying in for a web search or an app search.

The duration between consecutive pop-ups is intermittent as well. You may get a 20 to 30 – second pause before the next pop up or as much as 2 to 3 minutes. Quite annoyingly you cannot find the ‘X’ or ‘CLOSE’ feature.

Stopping the Search Box from Constantly Popping up on Windows 10

Click on “Start” and then go to settings.
On the resulting window, choose “Devices”. Select “Mouse and TouchPad”.
Scroll downward until almost at the bottom of the screen/window. You will see the option “Additional Mouse Options.”
When you select the additional options for mouse, a box appears containing the information of the touchpad that your device has. In most cases, you will see “Synaptics TouchPad”. Whatever yours reads, click on its settings and proceed.
When you click on settings, a new box will appear. In it, there is a tab labeled “Tapping/Taps”. When you open this tab you will see “Three Finger Tap” and “Four Finger Tap”.
Uncheck these boxes and then click on APPLY.
Exit the settings, and if you so wish, restart the computer. The search box should no longer appear. The Search/Cortana box may have been detecting your tapping as an instruction to invoke it all along.

NOTE: If under “Settings” you cannot find information about your touchpad, you might need to update your touchpad drivers. Otherwise, you can also proceed to Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Synaptics Touchpad. Here, all the gestures associated with the touchpad will be listed. The three-finger and four-finger tap will be under “Tapping”

Invoking Cortana

We have cut out the annoying Search or Cortana box. But that does not mean that we do not need it from now henceforth. Whenever you need to use Cortana the below key combinations on your keyboard will sort you out.

WINDOWS KEY + C – Calls Cortana and makes it ready to listen to voice instructions.

WINDOWS KEY + S – Invokes Cortana and makes it ready to receive typed input.

There you go; Cortana can now be only seen at your convenience.

Comments

Manachi Jan 30, 2019

Thank you – this 100% resolved my issue on my Dell laptop with Windows 10. It was very frustrating and this has solved it. Great advice, thank you!

K F Oct 23, 2019

Awesome! I couldn’t figure out that the search pop up window was related to a 3 finger touch of a touchpad.
Thank you so much! it took me so long to find this answer

Sfancik Nov 23, 2020

I disabled the two finger tap function but the search window keeps popping up. So, not solved for me unfortunately.

Muhammad Zubyan Author Nov 24, 2020

Click the start button and select settings. Then select Devices. Click on Mouse and TouchPad and scroll to the bottom and select “Additional Mouse Options.” This brings up a box that should have the information and name of the type of touchpad your computer has. Click on settings and then in the new box that pops up you should see a tab that says “Tapping”. Open that tab and you should then see “Three Finger Tap” and “Four Finger Tap”. Uncheck those boxes and then click “Apply”. That should take care of it.

Cathy Coleman Dec 1, 2020

I do not have a touchpad. Most of the time, I cannot type anything because it will start populating the search field. I have done a lot of research and it keeps coming back to the touchpad options, which I do not have. Any other suggestions?

Muhammad Zubyan Author Dec 5, 2020

Do you have a touch screen? Also, It’s possible that your Windows still have touchpad drivers installed you can check if that’s the case by trying this:-1. Right-click on the start menu and press “Device Manager”
2. Check if there is anything that says “Touchpad Driver” or anything similar. If you don’t have it than it’s another issue.
3. If you manage to find any touchpad driver simply right-click on them and press “Disable”Hope this fixes your problem keep me updated.

AFSarge Mar 25, 2021

I have a desktop computer with windows 10, whenever I’m typing like an email or putting notes on my calendar or posting a comment, I get this annoying search box popup that shows up randomly. I don’t know if it is from fat thumbing keys or it is something I’m typing that activates this stupid search window. I’m also having a problem with tabs that suddenly reload when typing and I lose everything I typed and it has happened 2 times while I was typing this. I had to go to my email, type it out there and copy and past it here. This is a new computer and I’ve run my malware and virus scans, nothing shows up. I do not play stupid games on this computer nor do I go to sites with questionable security. So I know it is not a virus or malware causing this. It seems like this happens when I’m typing and I either hit the W, R, or T keys but it doesn’t happen all the time, just randomly. Is there some shortcut key or keys that are causing this? Is there some way of deactivating this popup and tab reloading? I will never use that windows search popup or cortana. In fact cortana is turned off. This is a home desktop computer, I’m not an office worker, but these popups and other problems are starting to make me think about going to another IO system and dumping windows.

The biggest problem I have with microsoft and windows is that they force these programs on everyone, with no notification and no instructions. I didn’t even know this stupid search window popup existed until a few months ago. To top it off I can’t find anything on it in my computer. The same thing with that moronic Xbox for gaming and it’s tool bar. I do not want it, I do not use it and I want it out of my computer. All those junk programs do for me is make my computer run slow.
Now how do I get rid of that stupid popup search box and cure the tab reloading along with microsoft’s geek fantasy new search app that keeps asking me if I want to install it?

Muhammad Zubyan Author Mar 26, 2021

It seems like you have adware installed on your computer. It can be either preinstalled if you downloaded Windows from a 3rd party website or it can be because of a 3rd party program you installed. However, I will need a screenshot to confirm what’s happening in your case.

Ron Apr 21, 2021

I had this problem, the solution above didn’t work on my version of Windows 10, 20H2. What worked for me was to open settings, select devices and goto touchpad, deselect “leavetouchpad on when mouse is connected”. No more popups!!

B00K3R Jul 20, 2021

Thank you very much.

Malakie Oct 1, 2021

I am on a full size PC and this happens.. It will not stop happening.. I type extremely fast and that seems to be a major problem for this issue. If I slow my typing, it does not happen. This IS a windows BUG and it needs to be fixed. PERIOD.

Melanie Smith Feb 8, 2022

For some issues of a random search box popping up and being unresponsive, you just have to click on your keyboard (PC SCREEN ONLY), it’s usually around the f4 button, it’ll pop up and ask if you want 4-5 different versions (duplicate, extend, etc) and you click PC SCREEN ONLY and whala! Problem solved, the stupid search box disappears. AMEN! LOL

Stopping the Search Box from Constantly Popping up on Windows 10

Invoking Cortana

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