If your Start Menu feels too big or too small, you can easily
resize it and make more space to pin apps. To resize the Start
Menu, you simply have to position your mouse cursor on its edge
and drag your mouse. However, there’s a catch – the Windows
Search interface is also affected when you change the size of
the Start Menu.
In Windows 10 version 20H2 or older, the Windows Search
interface respects the size of the Start Menu. You’ll notice
the responsive UI of Search when you position your cursor on
the top edge of the Start menu, then and drag your mouse up or
down. This will change the height of the Start Menu, and
Windows Search will also stay that way.
In some cases, when you reduce the height of the Start Menu,
some Search UI elements might not scale properly, preventing
users from viewing all the main functions of the search
feature, such as the Bing screenshot search or “Switch to
Microsoft Edge” banners.
In the preview builds, Search and Start Menu have become two
separate entities in terms of window size too. You can now
change the height of the Start Menu without affecting the
Search interface.
That’s a major move and it’s possible that Microsoft will
introduce a new way to change the height and the width of the
search interface.
Since the Windows Search interface can be controlled via
server-side updates, we wouldn’t be surprised if they bring
this change to older versions of Windows 10.
Windows Search and Microsoft Edge integration
In addition to the aforementioned change, Microsoft is also
working on another feature that will allow
Edge to share your browsing data with Windows Search. In
the upcoming version of Microsoft Edge, you can use a new sync
service to share browser data across the search services on
Windows 10, such as the taskbar search.
This setting is currently accessible in the Canary builds of
Edge under the Settings > Profiles page. When the feature is
enabled, Windows Search will get access to your Microsoft Edge
browser data, such as your browsing history, frequently visited
sites, bookmarked pages, and more.
At the moment, Microsoft is testing Edge integration in Windows
Search only, but it’s possible that the feature will also
come to other service-based services, including the digital
assistant Cortana.
