Make Google Your Default Search Engine

Tagged: Windows

Registry edits for making Google your default search.

The windows search button in the top toolbar brings up the search channel on the side of the screen. Usually it defaults to Microsoft’s search engine but others are available.

Interestingly enough… google is not.

Here are Google’s registry imports to set google as your default search engine in your search channel. Just click on them to download, select Open, and then reboot when finished. If you don’t like one, you can try the other. These three files all edit the registry in the same place and will override each other safely.

– Google In Search Bar. Searches stay in search bar.
– Google In Search Bar. Searches open in main window.
– Window’s Default for the Search Bar

–== Old School Manual Style ==–

For those of you who wish to understand why this works. The above registry imports just edit the appropriate area of the registry. The steps below will help you do this manually.

Microsoft explains this registry editing in this knowledge base article.

Notice that the Microsoft support article does not mention google at all! You can manually change this to google however. Use regedit to change the default value of the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl

to…

www.google.com/search?q=%s