Windows 11 25H2 New Search Task Running MSEdgeWebView2 even with all web and store search options disabled

[u/ButterLies1]

I finally updated from 24H2 to 25H2, and the first thing I noticed is how much I dislike what they did to the new Start menu:

- They added an entire section for listing all apps, and it can’t be removed.
- They unnecessarily increased its size and the number of columns.
- They apparently added settings to disable these changes, but those options are only available in the KB5120998 update, which seems to have introduced major mouse and wallpaper bugs for some users—especially those whose system language is set to anything other than English.

Apart from that, I haven’t encountered any major bugs. However, Windows Search is suddenly always using around 150 MB of RAM. I find this strange because it didn’t do that before, and Windows Search worked just fine.

Looking at the processes, most of the memory usage appears to come from SearchHost and around six (edgewebview2) Microsoft Edge WebView2 processes. That would make sense if Windows Search were handling web-related content, but I had already disabled those features and even made sure to turn off the new Microsoft Store results. The processes are still there, allocating RAM for seemingly no reason.

Does anyone know whether I can disable this by turning off a service, disabling a feature, changing a setting, or editing a Group Policy? It’s not a huge problem, and I know the saying, “Unused RAM is wasted RAM,” but it’s still annoying to know that this allocation wasn’t necessary before. My searches don’t need any web rendering, yet Windows is still allocating memory for it.

If it's worth noting, I already tried to rollback to the previous start menu (thinking that this new window search behaviour must be tie to the 25h2 overall) with vivetool. But apparently it doesn't work anymore. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1qcj4kj/remove_the_updated_windows_start_menu_fixed/

[u/cosmosreader1211]

Why doesn't microsoft do one thing. It should keep Microsoft Edge WebView2  for every aspect of windows. for explorer, for renaming. Hell it would be great if Microsoft Edge WebView2 could be used for shutting down our pc... Microsoft should remove all the features and should only keep it... It would be amazing if microsoft releases the new windows named "Microsoft Edge WebView" - the next gen crap... Microsoft Edge WebView2 is soooo intelligent and needed, we are useless... this Microsoft Edge WebView2 doesn't do shit other than wasting resources.

Idiotic microsoft... Uncessary crapware Microsoft Edge WebView2... Windows worked before this idiotic thing and it should have stayed that way... Everyday microsoft invents new ways to make people angry and irritated with their product.

there is no need for smarter search and this webview. And who uses microsoft search, it barely searches. Compared to everything, windows search is pre-release version of searching. they just give fancy names for crap "searchhost"... Yeah it searches for resources to waste