When you use the Windows Search (the search bar next to Start button), it opens the results in the Edge browser. And by default the results appear in the Bing search. If you don’t prefer Bing search and Edge, you can make Windows Search use Google Search instead of Bing on Edge browser. Also, you can make Windows Search open Chrome browser and use Google Search in it. Here’s how to do that.
Pro Tip: You can enable parallel downloading on Chrome, and check how effective it is under different situations and on different devices.
Make Windows Search Open Google Search in Chrome or Edge
Microsoft’s PowerToys is an open-source tool loaded with extra features to tweak your Windows with some extra features. Download and install PowerToys from GitHub or Microsoft Store.
Open the PowerToys app and enable the PowerToys Run module. You can set it up as per your preference and assign a universal keyboard shortcut to launch it. By default, pressing Alt+Spacebar keyboard shortcut launchs Windows Search while any app or window is open.
Anything you search for in PowerToys’ universal search bar, it will open in your default browser and search engine which can be Google Chrome and Google Search, respectively. For my computer, I’ve set it to open Google Search in Edge.
Make Chrome Default Browser for Windows Search
- On PC, opens the Settings apps > Apps > Default apps.
- Search for Chrome and open it.
- Click on Set default in the top-right corner.
If this doesn’t work smoothly, toggle off and on PowerToys Run module. Here is how it looks.
If you want to use Edge browser with Google Search, go back to Settings, go to Apps and search for Edge, and set it as the default browser. Inside Edge, you can choose any search engine as your default.
Here’s how to set another Search Engine in Edge browser:
Open the Edge browser, click the three-dot icon > Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Address bar and search. Then, use the drop-down next to Search engine used in the address bar and select Google.
And that’s it. Check out some tips and tricks for the Edge brower to make the best of it And when have too many tabs open, you can close those unused tabs automatically.
