Google, Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go and Baidu are still the five most dominant search engines in the world. While every Windows PC comes standard with Microsoft's Bing, there will no doubt be many users who prefer Google. In this article you can read how to get Windows to say goodbye to Bing.
01 Choose it yourself
We don't mean to impose our opinion of Bing's quality on you. Chances are, however, that you already prefer Google's popular search engine over Bing. Bing is called by default in several places in Windows 10. Well-known examples are the search from the start menu (search on the web), the browsers Internet Explorer and Edge, Cortana (not yet available in Dutch Windows versions) and the built-in search function of Office. The solutions discussed in this article all offer a "Bing Ban" guarantee.
02 Other browser
If you're not a fan of Bing, you probably already use a browser other than what Microsoft offers by default. Google Chrome is obvious because of its merger with the search engine of the same name, but Firefox is also an excellent alternative to Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer is still present in Windows 10, but is hardly being developed and is therefore not recommended.
You also have the Opera browser. According to the Consumers' Association, this browser best protects users against malicious phishing sites. In addition, Opera has a built-in ad blocker, which is easy to use and makes it harder for sites to track you. Firefox has that built in too.
If you're trying to break free from Microsoft in general and Bing in particular in terms of browser, install Chrome or Firefox as your favorite browser.
03 Default browser
Windows 10 works just like the previous Windows versions with a standard browser. This is the browser that launches when you click on a web link anywhere in Windows. If you have Chrome or Firefox installed, you can set your browser as the default browser as follows. Use the key combination Windows key+I to open Windows settings. Go to System / Default apps and choose at web browser in front of Chrome or Firefox. Unfortunately, this step isn't enough to properly redirect Cortana's search traffic or your start menu. Your operating system will still be Edge in either case.
04 Search from Home
Make sure web search is enabled for your start menu. Click on Start, enter any search query and open the settings of your start menu via the gear icon. Make sure the option Online search and web results use is enabled. Put it to the test by giving another search query in your start menu. If you don't see any internet search results, click Web. Edge will now launch and Bing will provide the search results. Now you know that web search is enabled. We will make sure that your default browser becomes active and the results from Google are shown.
05 SearchWithMyBrowser
Microsoft makes it nearly impossible to redirect searches from Windows to your default browser. Instead, it stubbornly opens the browser Edge for this. In order to use your default browser for this, a few tricks are needed. Go here and get the files from SearchWithMyBrowser with the button Clone or download / Download zip. Create the folder C:\SearchWithMyBrowser using Windows Explorer. Extract the contents of your download to this folder. Press Windows Key+X and click Command Prompt (administrator). From the prompt, navigate to the folder using the c: (Enter) and . commands cd c:\SearchWithMyBrowser (Enter). Give the order make.cmd (Enter).
06 Spartan commandos
A few files are created. As soon as the notification Done is displayed, the necessary scripts are ready. Give the order now SearchWithMyBrowser.exe /register (Enter) and then the command install.cmd (Enter). The script wants to know where the file SearchWithMyBrowser.exe can be found. Enter as location C:\SearchWithMyBrowser and confirm with Enter. The script reports that a question is being asked from Windows. In the dialog box, choose SearchWithMyBrowser.exe and confirm with OK. Restart your computer for all changes to take effect.
Search tips
You may have already switched to Google completely, but you are not completely satisfied with it. Of course you can opt for an alternative, but these days the possibilities of Google are endless, so you may not be using the search engine efficiently. That's why we've collected 20 tips to help you search better with Google in this article.
07 You're almost there!
After the previous step, searches via Cortana or your start menu will be redirected to your default browser (Chrome or Firefox). Unfortunately, the search is still performed in Bing. A browser extension ensures that your browser forwards all searches in Bing to Google. The extension you need in Chrome is called Chrometana. For Firefox users, there is the extension Bing-Google. With the completion of this step, the bag of tricks is complete. Searches in Windows are redirected to your default browser via SearchWithMyBrowser. The extension Chrometana or Bing-Google then ensures that the Bing command ends up at Google.
08 Undo
If you ever want to go back to the default settings, go through the following scenario. Open Command Prompt as Administrator again via Windows Key+X and navigate to the folder SearchWithMyBrowser. Give the order SearchWithMyBrowser.exe /unregister followed by Enter and restart your computer. Optionally, choose Edge as your default browser again. You can undo the extensions in Chrome or Firefox in the browser. Open in Chrome chrome://extensions in the address bar. Remove Chrometana via the trash can icon. If you're using Firefox, type about:addons in the address bar, after which you can remove the extension Bing-Google.
Duck duck… go!
The search engine DuckDuckGo is a popular alternative to Google. At DuckDuckGo, privacy is of paramount importance, while that is not the case at all with Google and Bing. The search results of DuckDuckGo are supplemented with information from Wikipedia, among others. If you've always used Google, you may have to get used to DuckDuckGo, but that goes quickly! You can also set up DuckDuckGo as an alternative to Google (step 7). In Chrometana's options, you can choose DuckDuckGo directly. Firefox users will need a separate extension called Bing to Duck redirect. If you install this extension, it is recommended to remove Bing-Google. This avoids "conflicts" about which extension should capture the Bing search results.
Eavesdropping Cortana
Microsoft considers Cortana to be an important part of Windows. However, for it to work, you have to give up a lot for it. Everything you do in Windows is saved and your PC's microphone is constantly listening. And that's not even talking about whether you'd like to talk to a PC, quite apart from the fact that Cortana doesn't understand Dutch. However, as of Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Cortana can no longer be completely disabled. Does the eavesdropper with the beautiful name make you feel uncomfortable? Then the only remedy is to turn off your microphone completely. To do this, press start, type Device Manager and find your microphone in the list. Right click on it and choose Undo installation.
01 Search…
Most people have Google set as their homepage or simply type in a search term in the address field. In the latter case, the search is performed by the default search engine. Here too, Bing may have nestled. Wondering which default search engine your computer uses? Click in your address bar (in most browsers the key combination Ctrl+L works) and enter a search query, followed by Enter. A page will now open from Bing, Yahoo, Google or any other search engine. You cannot set the default search engine centrally, you have to change it per browser.
02 Edge
We are going to set the search engine of Google, but this may of course also be another search engine. Open Edge and visit the website www.google.com. Go to the settings menu of Edge by clicking on the three dots at the top right of the screen. Choose Settings / Advanced Settings to display. Click below Search in the address bar with on Modify. You will see a list of available search engines. Since you just visited www.google.com, Edge recognizes it as a search engine. Click in the list on google and confirm with the button Set as Default.
03 Chrome
Chrome's default search engine is Google, but you probably guessed that already. You can easily adjust this by setting up DuckDuckGo, for example. In that case, first surf to www.duckduckgo.com. With this, Chrome (similar to Edge) detects the search engine capabilities of this website. Go to the Chrome menu via the three horizontal lines (at the top right of the Chrome browser) and choose Institutions. Under Search you will see a drop-down menu with your default search engine. If DuckDuckGo is not listed here, choose Manage search engines. A more extensive list will now appear. Choose your search engine and confirm it with the button Set as Default.
04 Firefox
Firefox has a separate search field for the address bar, but you can also just search using a command in the address bar. Your default search engine is probably Google, but just like with Chrome, you can easily change this with Firefox. Click the button with the three horizontal lines in the top right corner of Firefox and choose Options / Search. You will now be presented with a window where you can change the default search engine and other search options. It is possible to set multiple search engines and change their priority by dragging them in order.
05 Office: Smart Search
If you edit a text in a recent version of Microsoft Word, you can look up words or a piece of text directly on the Internet. The trick also works in other Office programs. Select your text and right click on the selection. Choose Search with Bing (or something similar). Your search results will now appear on the right side of the screen and are provided by Bing. In the tradition of Microsoft strategy, it is not very easy to change this. To set a different search engine, you have to go to the Windows registry.
06 Edit registry
Use the key combination Windows key+R and give the command regedit.exe. Open the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\General. Right click on an empty spot in the right part of the Registry Editor and create two new strings. You name the first one SearchProviderName with the value google. The second string is named SearchProviderURIA and gives the command to the search engine. For Google this is //www.google.com/search?q=. With a bit of luck (see the "Search everywhere" box) you can now search Google in your Office programs via right-click.
Magnifying glass
Next to the start menu is a search button. You can use it to search for programs, files and settings locally, but it can also be used to search the web. However, when you hit the home button and start typing your search, the same thing happens. If you find that the search button is a bit too double, then you can remove it by right-clicking on it, Search to select and press Hidden to click.
