unable to change search engine for the address-bar

Iron Contributor

I tried to change the standard search engine of the address-bar to Google, but failed:

Edge uses always Bing, despite 'Google' is the search engine marked as default in the settings! Even when I delete Bing, Bing is used nevertheless!

Resetting all settings to default also had no result. Curious is, that after resetting to default, 'Google' remains a defined search-engine!

Also strange: everything works OK on my Windows 10 Pro, the error exists on my Windows 10 Home system.

42 Replies

@Deleted   I had the same issue - changing search engines via Settings didn't work, had to use the old Edge method of actually going to the search engine page and entering a query, then it would retain that as the choice for search engine.  Old Edge when it is closed leaves remnants in memory and it is getting in the way of Edge Chromium.

 

 Edge Chromium is supposed to work just like Chrome - change the engine via settings and done.  The fix for me was restart the PC to flush the old Edge debris from memory  and open Edge Chromium, go to Settings, Privacy, Address Bar change search engines and the address bar now uses that choice.

 


@Eric__W wrote:

@Deleted   I had the same issue - changing search engines via Settings didn't work, had to use the old Edge method of actually going to the search engine page and entering a query, then it would retain that as the choice for search engine. 


Strange. All I have to do is go to the search engine page. I don't have to enter a query.

@NicolSD 

 

Thanks for the reply.  I deleted my Google entry, went to Google.com, and then went back to the settings, but there was no Google entry.  Was this supposed to be automatically added back?  If so it didn't happen for me.

@Andypseymour , Thank you for this. With this setting, are you still getting Bing as your address bar search engine?

@Deleted It worked like that for me for Duck Duck Go, but I just tried it with Ask.com and I had to do a search in Ask before it got added to my list automatically.

@NicolSD 

 

I tried doing a search on the page and then going back to the settings and there was no Google option added back to the list.

 


@Deleted wrote:

@NicolSD 

 

Thanks for the reply.  I deleted my Google entry, went to Google.com, and then went back to the settings, but there was no Google entry.  Was this supposed to be automatically added back?  If so it didn't happen for me.


@Deleted , If a search engine is removed, you will need to reset settings in order to get it back. I also think there should be an easier way and will file an issue on this.

@Deleted Okay, we've tried everything. It's a true bug. Sorry, I wasted your time. These steps worked for me. As I said, I was able to add Duck Duck Go just by visiting the site and Ask.com by making an inquiry.

@NicolSD 

 

No time wasted, it was worth trying.  Thanks for the help.  

@jessemMSFT 

 

Yes, I agree it is way too difficult to get this to work.  It really needs to be fixed by the developers.  As Google is probably the world's most used search engine, it should just work out of the box if selected in the options.  Thanks for your help.

@Deleted I just did another test using Dev. and I was able to add Ask.com just by going to the web site, no search necessary. Meanwhile, in Canary, I had to do a search before it got added. There is indeed a bug here and it is more extensive than we thought.

Thanks for this information. I will take a look. It's possible the open search descriptor that Ask provides is not working in Canary.

@jessemMSFT I just tested a copy of Canary (no plugins) on my Surface Pro. It had no difficulty adding Ask to my list of search engines. All I had to do was go to the Web site. No inquiry needed.

@NicolSD 

 

I just was able to make it work.  I had added another entry to the list called TEST that used Google search.  I deleted the entry called Google, but forgot to delete the entry called TEST.  I deleted that and then tried your method and it worked!  I did have to go to google.com and enter a search, but when I did it added Google to the list of entries.  I set it as the default address search engine and it seems to be working fine.  Thanks!

 


@jessemMSFT wrote:

@Andypseymour , Thank you for this. With this setting, are you still getting Bing as your address bar search engine?


@jessemMSFT no, google is search engine from address bar. 

This is how I set Google:

{google:baseURL}search?q=%s

 

Thats a copy from the 3rd row, the URL setting

@jessemMSFT 

 

While you're at it, can you add the ability to change a search engine in New Tab page search field? Any way to do it now?

@sambul95 

 

This is not native to Edge, but I use the extension New Tab Redirect to set the new tab page to use Google search.

@Deleted 

 

Thanks, but that removes all New Tab features including Speed Dials etc. I just want the ability to change the search engine in the Search Bar. There is a little logic in allowing to do it on Start page and Address Bar, but not in New Tab Search Bar.

@jessemMSFT I'm seeing a similar issue -- today address bar searches with Google are redirecting to Bing (eg. see the auto-generated icon). After testing, it seems the {google:baseURL} variable is getting replaced with "https://www.bing.com/".