The last few times I even had to disable it, there was no setting for it. RegEdit was the way to disable the search-in-start-menu stuff.
But regardless, I'm still talking about seeing this issue on a fresh install. That's definitely not something that happens because I fiddle with settings.
We change our vocal intonation when delivering it verbally to help make it obvious. Text lacks those subtleties, so it needs a more direct signifier.