Sounds like this is an ongoing issue for at least two years now and hasn't been fixed yet. I found that if you go to View, then select "Top Icon Bar", you can then go to "View" and choose "Customize Icon Bar". After choosing "Customize Icon Bar" select, than de-select "Show Search Box in Icon Bar". Afterwards you can go back to "View" then "Hide Icon Bar". That removed the annoying search box for me that was taking up valuable screen real estate.
