Similar to previous versions, Windows 11 has a built-in search engine that allows users to find files and folders stored on the hard drive as well as search the Internet, through the bar at the top of the Start menu or by clicking on the magnifying glass icon on the taskbar.
But the problem that some face when using this search function is that the system uses the Bing search engine and Microsoft Edge browser to display results when searching on the Internet. Unfortunately, there is no built-in option in the settings that allows changing that, but there are side solutions that can be adapted to change the search engine in Windows 11 To google easily, let us review below one of these effective solutions according to our experience.
This solution is based on a third-party tool called MSEdgeRedirect which is completely free. The tool works in the background permanently and waits for any search process to be performed on the system, whether through the integrated bar with the Start menu or when you click on the magnifying glass icon in the taskbar, then the tool performs its function by redirecting all search results links that appear in the Search window to an engine Google instead of Bing. But the only condition for the tool to work is that you set a browser other than Microsoft Edge as the default browser, such as Google Chrome, Firefox, or Opera...whatever it is. It is actually very simple, just follow the steps below.
At first, head to the Settings app in Windows 11 through the Start menu or by pressing the Win + I (E) keys together on the keyboard, then click on “Apps” from the left side menu, and then click on “Default apps.” Now scroll down and click on the name of the second web browser installed on the computer, whether Chrome, Firefox,, or Opera, then on the next page click on the “Set default” button and wait until a check mark (✔) appears, which means that this program is set as the default browser instead About "Microsoft Edge", which is required as the first step.
The second step is to install the MSEdgeRedirect tool on the device, so go to the tool page on the GitHub repository and scroll down to the "Assets" section where the download links are located, click on "MSEdgeRedirect.exe" if you want to download and install the tool on the device, or " MSEdgeRedirect.zip" if you want to use the tool without installing.
In any case, after running the tool for the first time, a warning message may appear asking you to change the default browser, otherwise, the tool will not work at all, so we stress the need to take this step as we explained in the previous paragraph. If the warning message does not appear, you will be prompted to select the "Service Mode" or "Active Mode", which is the recommended mode for the tool to work efficiently, after selecting it, press "Next".
On the next screen, select "Edge Stable" and then in the "Additional Redirections" section activate the "Bing Search" option and choose from the drop-down list the search engine that is required to replace the Microsoft search engine "Bing" and certainly Google is included in the list, so select it. Note that the tool also allows setting other redirects, such as redirecting weather information from the Weather app to AccuWeather for example, or setting another program to display PDFs instead of Edge, etc. These are all optional but potentially useful features. In the end, press the "Install" button, and the tool window will disappear but remain in the background.
That's all it takes, you can now perform a search through the Start menu or from the icon pinned to the taskbar or you can quickly open the search bar by pressing Win + S keys together, and as soon as you press Enter the default browser opens You select either Google Chrome or Firefox and then display search results on Google instead of Bing — as shown in the image attached above.
