Windows Search Highlights Option Is Greyed Out: 3 Solutions

Microsoft has rolled out the Search Highlights feature since Windows 10 build 19044.1618. This feature can highlight interesting moments in time and recommend holidays, entertainment, and other items in your region. You can change Search Highlights in Windows to fit your requirements. However, some people discover that after this feature has been tested for a long time, the Windows Search Highlights option is greyed out on their computers. Here are some suggestions for you to resolve this issue.

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Fix 1: Modify Corresponding Policy in Local Group Policy Editor

Local Group Policy Editor is a user interface to manage computer and user settings. You can change the corresponding policy to fix computer issues, such as Search Highlights not working.

Step 1: Press Win + R to open the Run window.

Step 2: Type gpedit.msc and hit Enter to open Group Policy Editor.

Step 3: You can now head to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search. Locate the Allow search highlights policy at the right pane.

Step 4: Double-click on the policy to open the configuration window. You should select Enabled and click Apply > OK in sequence.

Fix 2: Enable Bing Search

Some users find that the Windows Search Highlights option is greyed out and it says “Some of these settings are managed by your organizations”. This is probably because your web search results are disabled in search options. You can change this setting with the following steps.

Step 1: Press Win + R to open the Run window.

Step 2: Type regedit and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor window.

Step 3: Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Search.

Step 4: Right-click on the blank space at the right pane, then choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Afterward, rename the newly created key as BingSearchEnabled.

Step 5: Double-click to open the Edit Value window, then change the Value to 1.

Step 6: Click OK to save the change.

Fix 3: Restart Windows Search Services

The last method is trying to restart Windows Search Services to fix Windows Search Highlight option greyed out when this issue occurs as a glitch.

Step 1: Press Win + R to open the Run window.

Step 2: Type services.msc and hit Enter to open the Services window.

Step 3: Scroll down to find and choose the Windows Search service, then click Restart the service.

After this, you can go to Windows Settings to see whether you can enable the Windows Search Highlights feature.

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Bottom Line

This post delivers three methods to help you resolve the Search Highlights not working issue. You can try these methods to see which one works in your situation. Hope you can get useful information from this post.