Change Default Search Engine in Microsoft Edge to Google (and Fix New Tabs)

To change the default search engine in Microsoft Edge, open Settings > Privacy, search, and services, scroll to Address bar and search, and pick Google, DuckDuckGo or another engine under Search engine used in the address bar. The fastest route is to paste edge://settings/search into the address bar. Here is the catch that makes most people think it did not work: the search box in the middle of Edge's new tab page keeps using Bing even after you switch. To make new tabs follow your choice, change Search on new tabs uses search box or address bar to Address bar on the same page. And the registry trick that circulates online for forcing Google only applies on work-managed PCs. On a home PC, Settings is the way.

Ethan's uncle switched from Chrome to Edge on his new laptop and lasted two days before calling. "I set it to Google, and it's still giving me Bing every time I open a tab." Jake had him open a new tab and type in the address bar at the top: Google results. Then the big box in the middle of the page: Bing. "That box is a separate thing," Jake said, and talked him through the one extra setting that ties it to the address bar. Ten seconds later, every search on every tab went to Google. That is where this page starts: switching Edge's search engine on Windows, Mac and phones, the new tab trap, adding any engine you like, fixing a search engine that keeps changing back, and the policy settings IT teams use to set it for everyone.

Microsoft Edge comes with Bing as its search engine, which makes sense for Microsoft and less sense for anyone used to Google, DuckDuckGo or another engine. Switching takes under a minute and is fully supported; Edge simply puts the option a few levels deep. Everything below applies to the current Chromium-based Edge on Windows 11, Windows 10 and macOS. The very old Edge that shipped with Windows 10 in 2015 used a different menu and no longer exists on supported systems.

How to change the default search engine in Edge (Windows 11 and 10)

1. Open Edge and click the three dots (Settings and more) at the top right, then Settings. Or press Alt + F, then S.
2. In the left menu, choose Privacy, search, and services. If the menu is hidden in a narrow window, click the three-line icon beside the Settings title to show it.
3. Scroll down to Services and click Address bar and search. On some versions this section sits under a heading called Search and connected experiences.
4. Next to Search engine used in the address bar, open the drop-down and choose your engine: Google, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, or any other listed.
5. Close the Settings tab. The change takes effect immediately, with no restart needed.

To skip the menus, paste edge://settings/search into the address bar and press Enter. It opens the Address bar and search page directly, and it is the quickest way to guide someone over the phone.

Changing the search engine does not make Edge your default browser, and making another browser the default does not change Edge's search engine; the two settings are independent, so links from email and other apps keep opening in whichever browser Windows uses by default. Now test it: click the address bar at the top, type a search such as "weather" and press Enter. The results should come from your new engine. If they do, the address bar is set. If you also use the big search box on the new tab page, read the next section, because that box has a mind of its own.

New tab page still uses Bing? The fix

This is the single most common complaint after switching, "change default search engine edge new tab" in search terms, and it is not a bug. Edge's new tab page has its own search box, separate from the address bar, and by default that box always searches Bing, whatever engine you chose above.

1. Go back to edge://settings/search.
2. Find Search on new tabs uses search box or address bar.
3. Change it from Search box (Recommended) to Address bar.

Now, when you click the new tab search box and start typing, Edge moves your typing up to the address bar, which uses your chosen engine. Every search, from every place in Edge, goes to the same engine.

If you would rather not see the Bing box at all, you can also customize the new tab page itself. Click the gear icon on a new tab to change the layout and turn off content you do not want; our guide to turning off the news feed on Edge's new tab covers that. Some people go further and set new tabs to open a blank page or their own search engine's homepage, under Settings > Start, home, and new tabs.

Make Google the default search engine in Edge

"change default search engine edge to google" is the most searched version of this question, so here it is on its own:

1. Paste edge://settings/search into Edge's address bar and press Enter.
2. Next to Search engine used in the address bar, choose Google.
3. Set Search on new tabs uses search box or address bar to Address bar.
4. Optional: under Settings > Start, home, and new tabs, set Edge to open https://www.google.com when it starts.

If Google is not in the drop-down, visit google.com once and run a search there. Edge notices search engines you use and adds them to its list. Then go back to the settings page and select it. If it still does not appear, add it by hand as in the next section.

When you switch, Edge may show a small prompt asking whether you are sure, or suggesting you keep Microsoft's recommended setting. That is a nudge, not a requirement. Your choice stays unless you change it, and you can switch back to Bing at any time from the same drop-down.

Add any search engine to Edge (DuckDuckGo, Startpage, Ecosia, and more)

Edge lets you add any search engine that accepts searches in its web address, which is nearly all of them.

1. Open edge://settings/searchEngines, or click Manage search engines on the Address bar and search page.
2. Click Add.
3. Fill in three boxes:
   • Search engine: a name, such as "Startpage".
   • Shortcut: a short keyword, such as sp.
   • URL with %s in place of query: the engine's search address, with %s where your search words go. For example, https://www.startpage.com/do/search?query=%s.
4. Click Add, then click the three dots next to the new entry and choose Make default if you want it as your main engine.

To find any engine's search URL, go to the engine's site, search for a word like test, and copy the address of the results page. Replace the word test with %s, and you have the URL Edge needs.

Keyword shortcuts: search several engines without switching

The Shortcut field is a hidden gem. Type the shortcut in the address bar, press Space or Tab, then type your search, and Edge searches that engine just this once. So with Google as the default, typing yt then Space then "bread recipe" can search YouTube, and w then Space can search Wikipedia, if you add those shortcuts. It is the fastest way to use several engines without changing your default.

Remove or clean up search engines

Edge quietly collects search engines from sites you search, so the list in Manage search engines can grow long. To tidy it, open edge://settings/searchEngines, click the three dots next to any engine you do not want, and choose Remove. The current default cannot be removed until you make another engine the default. Removing an unfamiliar engine you never added is also a good security habit, because hijackers sometimes leave one behind as a fallback.

Use an AI answer engine as your default

Some people now prefer AI answer engines that summarize sources instead of listing links. Any of them that accepts a query in its web address can be added like a normal engine. Perplexity, for example, works with https://www.perplexity.ai/search?q=%s. A practical setup is to keep a traditional engine as the default and add the AI engine with a short keyword, such as ai, so you can choose per question. Answer engines are good at explanations and comparisons and weaker at finding a specific page, a local shop's hours or the newest news, which is where a traditional engine still shines.

Search engines compared: which one to choose

Most people pick the engine they already know. If you are open to a change, here is how the common choices differ in practice.

There is no wrong answer here. The engine that finds what you need fastest is the right one, and keyword shortcuts mean you never have to commit to just one. Try a new engine for a week before judging it; the first few days always feel strange simply because the results page looks different.

Every search setting in Edge, and what it does

Edge spreads search-related options across a few pages. This map shows each one, where it lives, and a sensible choice for most people who have switched away from Bing.

Setting the first two is enough for most people. The rest fine-tune privacy and appearance.

Right-click search, visual search and Copilot: what follows your choice

Changing the default engine changes most of Edge's searching, but not every search feature. Knowing which ones stay with Microsoft prevents confusion.

Right-click "Search the web for". Select text on a page, right-click, and Edge offers to search the web for it. This follows your default search engine, so with Google set, it opens Google results in a new tab.

Visual search and image search. Right-clicking an image may offer visual search, which looks up the image itself. That feature is built on Bing, and it stays Bing even after you change engines. To search an image with Google instead, open images.google.com or Google Lens in a tab and upload or paste the image.

Copilot and the sidebar. The Copilot button and the sidebar's search are Microsoft services. They use Bing and Microsoft's AI regardless of your address bar engine. That is not your setting being ignored; they are different tools. If you do not use them, turn them off under Settings > Copilot and sidebar, and the toolbar gets a little calmer too.

Find on page. Ctrl + F searches the page you are on, and has nothing to do with search engines. It is still the fastest way to find a word in a long article.

Search engines and Edge profiles: work and personal

Edge keeps separate settings for each profile, and the search engine is one of them. If you use a work profile and a personal profile, setting Google in one does not change the other. Check the profile picture at the top left of the Edge window to see which profile you are in before changing settings.

Work profiles are often managed. When you sign in to Edge with a work or school account, your organization may set the search engine through policy, and that applies to the work profile only. Your personal profile, signed in with a personal Microsoft account or not signed in at all, stays yours. That is the cleanest way to keep work rules out of personal browsing on a shared laptop: separate profiles, each with its own search engine, favorites and passwords.

Profiles also explain a common puzzle: "I changed it, and now it's back." If Edge sometimes opens a different profile, for example from a link in Outlook that opens in the work profile, you may be looking at the other profile's setting. Edge's Profile preferences let you choose which profile opens external links.

What you give up by leaving Bing

To be fair to Bing: switching away has a couple of small costs worth knowing before you decide.

Microsoft Rewards. Microsoft's loyalty program gives points for Bing searches made while signed in, redeemable for gift cards and donations. Leave Bing and those daily points stop. If you collect them, keyword shortcuts are a neat compromise: keep Google as the default, and use a Bing shortcut for the searches you want to count.

Some Edge and Windows integrations. Features such as Copilot answers in search results, some shopping and travel panels, and Windows Search's web results are built around Bing. Most people do not miss them, but if you liked a Bing-specific panel, it will not appear in Google results.

Nothing else is lost. Favorites, passwords, history, extensions and sync all work exactly the same with any search engine.

Search inside one website from Edge's address bar

Two techniques make the address bar far more powerful than a plain search box.

The site: operator. Type site: followed by a website and your words, such as site:logeshwaran.org battery report. Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo all understand it, and return results from that site only. It is often better than a website's own search box.

Site search shortcuts. For sites you search constantly, such as a store, a wiki or a forum, add them as search engines with a keyword in Manage search engines, using the site's own search URL with %s. Then the keyword, Space, and your words searches that site directly. Edge sometimes offers to add sites automatically after you have used their search box a few times.

Your own history and favorites. Typing in the address bar also matches pages you have visited and saved. If you remember part of a page title but not the site, start typing it. Edge's history (Ctrl + H) and favorites (Ctrl + Shift + O) pages have their own search boxes for when you need more.

Can't change the default search engine in Edge? Causes and fixes

"can't change default search engine edge" and "why did edge change my default search engine" usually point to one of four causes.

1. The option is grayed out with a building icon. A policy is setting it. On a work or school PC, your IT team chose the engine, and only they can change it. On a home PC, a policy usually means a program set one, often an unwanted "search helper". Open edge://policy and look for entries beginning with DefaultSearchProvider. Our guide to removing "Managed by your organization" shows how to find and remove the program or policy responsible.
2. It keeps switching back after a restart. An extension is changing it. Open edge://extensions, look for anything you do not recognize, especially search, coupon, PDF-converter or "new tab" extensions, and remove it. Edge often shows a notice saying an extension changed your search settings, with a button to restore it. See our guide to managing Edge extensions.
3. A program hijacked it. Free software bundles sometimes install a browser hijacker that changes the search engine, the homepage and the new tab page together. Uninstall unfamiliar programs under Settings > Apps > Installed apps, sorted by install date, then run a full scan in Windows Security.
4. The setting will not stick at all. Edge's profile may be damaged. Reset Edge with edge://settings/resetProfileSettings and choose Restore settings to their default values. It keeps your favorites, history and passwords, and turns off extensions, so you can re-enable the ones you trust. Our guide to resetting Edge covers what is kept and what is not.

After any of these, set your search engine again and restart Edge to confirm it stays.

Edge asking you to "switch back" to Bing

After you change engines, Edge sometimes shows a banner or pop-up asking whether you want to keep your new search engine or restore Microsoft's recommended settings. It can appear after an Edge update, after a reset, or when Edge thinks a program changed the setting without you.

Read it before clicking. If you changed the engine yourself, choose the option to keep your choice; "restore recommended settings" puts Bing back. If you did not change the engine, and a strange search engine has appeared, the prompt is doing you a favor: restoring the settings is the right move, followed by the extension check in the troubleshooting section.

The prompt is not a sign anything is broken, and your choice is fully supported. It simply errs on the side of asking, because search hijacking by bundled software is common, and Edge cannot always tell a person's deliberate change from a program's sneaky one.

Search engines on a child's or family PC

If you set up Edge for children, the search engine choice also affects filtering. Every major engine has its own SafeSearch setting that hides explicit results: in Google it is under Search settings, in Bing under the SafeSearch option in Bing's settings, and in DuckDuckGo under Safe search in its settings. Set it in the engine you choose, ideally while signed in so it sticks.

Microsoft Family Safety adds its own layer when a child signs in with a family-managed Microsoft account. Its web and search filters are designed around Edge and Bing, so if you rely on them, check Family Safety's settings after changing the engine to confirm filtering still applies the way you expect. For a young child, keeping Bing with Family Safety's filters may be simpler than switching; for a teenager, a chosen engine with SafeSearch locked on is a reasonable middle ground.

No filter is perfect. Keeping the family PC in a shared room, and talking about what to do when something upsetting appears, matters more than any setting.

A faster search workflow in Edge

Once your engine is set, a few keyboard habits make searching quicker than reaching for the mouse.

• Ctrl + L, Alt + D or F6 jumps to the address bar and selects it, ready to type a search or address.
• Ctrl + E jumps to the address bar ready for a search.
• Alt + Enter after typing a search opens the results in a new tab, leaving your current page alone.
• Ctrl + Enter after typing a single word adds "www." and ".com" around it and goes to that site.
• A question mark first. Typing ? and a space before your words forces a search, useful when your search looks like a web address, such as a file name like "report.pdf".
• Ctrl + Shift + T reopens the last tab you closed, for when you closed the results by accident.

Pair these with keyword shortcuts, and most searches take a couple of seconds without touching the mouse.

Windows taskbar search and the Bing question

A common surprise: after making Google the default in Edge, the search box on the Windows taskbar still shows Bing results. That is because Windows Search is a separate feature from Edge. When you type in the taskbar search and choose a web result, Windows sends it to Bing and opens it in Edge, regardless of your Edge search engine or even your default browser in most regions.

There are a few exceptions. In the European Economic Area, Microsoft has changed Windows so that web results from Windows Search can open in your default browser, and lets you choose other web search providers in some cases, as part of its compliance with EU rules. Outside the EEA, Windows Search web results stay with Bing and Edge.

If you want web searches to use your preferred engine everywhere, the practical route is to search from your browser's address bar rather than the taskbar. If you do not want web results in Windows Search at all, you can turn them off in Windows Search settings, or with a policy on Pro and Enterprise editions. Then the taskbar search box finds only apps, files and settings on your PC.

Change the search engine in Edge on Mac, iPhone and Android

On a Mac, the steps match Windows: Edge > Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Address bar and search > Search engine used in the address bar. The edge://settings/search address works the same way, and so does the new tab setting.

On an iPhone or iPad, open Edge, tap the menu (three dots or lines at the bottom), choose Settings, then General (or Search on some versions), and select your search engine. iOS also lets Safari use a different engine, set separately in the iPhone's own Settings app.

On Android, open Edge, tap the menu, choose Settings, then General > Select search engine, and pick from the list.

Edge does not sync the search engine choice between devices in every case, so if you use Edge on a phone and a PC, check both. Menu names on mobile change more often than on desktop; if the option has moved, look under Settings for anything mentioning search.

Edge on Linux and Kali

Microsoft Edge is also available for Linux, including Debian-based distributions such as Ubuntu and Kali, as a downloadable package from Microsoft. Its settings are identical: edge://settings/search works the same, and so do Manage search engines and keyword shortcuts. On Linux there is no Windows Search to override your choice, so the address bar engine you pick is the one you get everywhere in the browser.

How to check which engine a search actually used

When results look unfamiliar, check before changing anything. The results page's address shows the engine: google.com/search, bing.com/search, duckduckgo.com, and so on. If it is an engine you have never heard of, or the address passes through an odd intermediate site before landing on a familiar engine, something is redirecting your searches, which is the classic sign of a hijacker. Open edge://settings/search to see what Edge thinks the default is, and edge://policy to see whether a policy is setting it. If Settings says Google but searches land elsewhere, an extension is intercepting them, and removing it is the fix.

The same change in Chrome and Firefox

If you use more than one browser, here is the matching setting in the other two big ones, for consistency.

Google Chrome: Settings > Search engine > Search engine used in the address bar, or paste chrome://settings/search. Chrome's Manage search engines page works like Edge's, with %s in the URL and keyword shortcuts.

Firefox: Settings > Search > Default Search Engine, or paste about:preferences#search. Firefox adds new engines from sites that offer them; open the site, then right-click the address bar to add it.

Changing the search engine in one browser never changes it in another. If you want a different browser to be the one that opens links, that is a Windows setting, covered in our guide to changing the default browser.

Search suggestions, privacy and what Edge sends

When you type in the address bar, Edge shows suggestions as you go. To do that, it sends what you type, letter by letter, to the search engine's suggestion service. That is how suggestions work in every browser. It also means your chosen engine sees partial searches even when you do not press Enter.

On the Address bar and search page, you can turn off Show me search and site suggestions using my typed characters. Edge then only suggests from your own history and favorites, and nothing is sent until you press Enter. It is a small change with a real privacy benefit, especially on shared or work PCs.

Two more settings on the same page are worth a look. Show me suggestions from history, favorites, and other data on this device controls local suggestions. And Edge may offer Copilot or Bing-related suggestions; those follow Microsoft's privacy settings rather than your chosen engine's. For a fuller privacy setup, our browser hardening guide covers the bigger picture.

Old Edge vs new Edge: why some guides look different

If a guide shows a menu with "View advanced settings" and "Search in the address bar with", it was written for the original Edge that shipped with Windows 10 in 2015. That browser, now called Edge Legacy, was retired and replaced by the Chromium-based Edge in 2020. The steps on this page are for the current Edge, which has the same settings layout on Windows 11, Windows 10 and macOS.

Not sure which you have? Open the three-dots menu and look for Help and feedback > About Microsoft Edge. If it shows a version number like 130 or higher, you have the current Edge. Our guide to finding your Edge version walks through it.

For IT admins: set the default search engine with GPO, Intune or the registry

"set default search engine edge gpo", "intune" and "registry" are common searches from admins. Edge reads the same policy settings from all three.

The policies

• DefaultSearchProviderEnabled: set to Enabled (1) to turn on a managed default search provider.
• DefaultSearchProviderName: the display name, such as "Google".
• DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL: the search URL with {searchTerms} where the query goes, such as https://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}. Note the placeholder: policies use {searchTerms}, not the %s used in the Settings page.
• DefaultSearchProviderSuggestURL (optional): the engine's suggestion URL, if you want suggestions from it.
• DefaultSearchProviderKeyword (optional): the keyword shortcut.

In Group Policy they are under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge > Default search provider, once you have imported the Edge administrative templates. In Intune, they are in the settings catalog under Microsoft Edge > Default search provider. As registry values, they live under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge.

Why the registry trick does not work at home

Microsoft documents the default search provider policies as applying only to managed devices: those joined to an Active Directory domain, joined to Microsoft Entra ID, or enrolled in device management. On an unmanaged home PC, Edge ignores them, which is a deliberate protection against hijackers that used to set search engines through the same registry keys. That is why "change default search engine edge registry" guides fail for home users. Use Settings at home, and policies on managed fleets. Check what is applied on any machine with edge://policy.

Let users change it, or not

Setting the policy locks the choice, and users see it grayed out. If you only want a default users can change, use the recommended version of the policies, under the matching "Default search provider" folder in the recommended section of the templates, which sets the starting value without locking it.

Test before you roll it out

Apply the policy to a small pilot group first and check three things on a pilot machine: edge://policy shows the policies with a status of OK, a search typed in the address bar lands on the intended engine, and suggestions appear if you configured a suggest URL. A typo in the search URL, such as a missing {searchTerms}, fails quietly: users simply get broken searches. A five-minute pilot catches it before the help desk does. When you later change engines, remember that users who added their own engines keep them, but the managed default overrides their choice.

Changing Edge's search engine: frequently asked questions

Ethan's uncle stayed with Edge in the end. With Google in the address bar, new tabs following it, and a keyword shortcut for YouTube that he now uses more than anything else, he said Edge finally felt like his browser rather than Microsoft's. A month later, after installing a free PDF converter, his searches suddenly went to an engine he had never heard of. This time he knew exactly where to look. He opened edge://extensions, removed the one he did not recognize, and switched back in thirty seconds. Knowing where the setting lives is useful once. Knowing why it changes is useful for good.

Revision note. Written October 2, 2026, rewriting our 2016 guide for today's Edge. May your searches land where you expect, on every tab.