The taskbar shortcut is no more for now

(Image credit: Microsoft, Shutterstock)

It seems that Microsoft’s much-hyped AI-enabled Bing button on the Windows OS taskbar has already come to an end, according to several user reports.

As reported on by MSPowerUser, Windows 10 and 11 users have stated that the button is no longer on their taskbar, replaced yet again by the previous Bing-free taskbar search. There’s no official word from Microsoft as to why it removed the AI search, but most likely this feature was one of many tests and we’ll most likely see Microsoft try a better-integrated tool in the near future.

Considering how poorly it was received, it makes sense for Microsoft to pull back for now. The Windows 11 update that brought along the Bing AI taskbar created a huge issue: if you customized the user interface of the OS, there’s a bug that causes the PC to fail to boot.

Update: A Microsoft representative reached out to TechRadar with the following statement: 

"The Bing icon in the Search Box is being shown through the existing Search Highlights feature which shows daily rotating content. We will continue to rotate content over time, including the Bing icon. We welcome those in the preview to give us feedback so we can continue to learn and tune the experience over time."

Plenty of issues with the AI Bing taskbar

Even without that major fiasco, there have been plenty of complaints about the forced integration of the new taskbar from users, since it takes away the choice to use the AI search or not.

Another issue is that the way Microsoft represented just how the AI Bing taskbar works has been misleading at best. According to the official blog post: users have “the amazing capabilities of the new AI-powered Bing directly into the taskbar.” But instead, all the taskbar did was launch Bing’s new chatbot without having to type in the address. This means that you get whisked off to the Microsoft Edge browser and then are only allowed to use Bing if you registered, otherwise you needed to make an account.

If and when the tech giant decides to reintegrate AI-enabled Bing on Windows OS, let's hope it’s done properly and with a way to opt out of the whole process if you’re not into AI chat.

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