How to remove Bing Search Bar from Windows?

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing

it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

–William Arthur Ward

In Windows 10, Microsoft has introduced a new feature called Cortana, which helps you to find things available on your PC, manage your calendar, and it can even chat with you. You can either type your question directly into the search box, or you can select the microphone icon and talk to Cortana. But by default, Bing search is integrated into the Start or Home menu. So, everything you search for in the Start or Home menu is sent to the Microsoft Servers to give the best results from Bing Search. This is an issue for many users because Microsoft stores data of your searches to use for things like adverts or promotions of other products. If you no longer want this feature due to concerns of some privacy and want to disable Bing or web integration from the Start Menu, you can easily do so. Remember that the Settings dialog box may appear different, depending upon if you have already configured and enabled Cortana. To change the Bing or web integration settings, type ‘Cortana settings’ in the search box or click inside the search box and then search for settings. If you want to disable Bing Integration from search, then you also have to disable Cortana. So, in the Cortana settings window, first turn off Cortana by flipping the button. As you turn off Cortana, the rest of the settings will change. You will see an option for “Search online and include web results”, flip this switch to turn off the Bing integration from the Start or Home menu. Everything you will search onwards will be from your PC only.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has noticed that lots of people are disabling this feature, and it is becoming bad for business. So, in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, they removed the option to disable Cortana from the Start or Home menu. As a matter of fact, they made it very difficult to disable it.

Note that other large platforms like Android and iOS use their default search engines to send your search results to their servers, but for some reason, people don’t care as much. It may be due to the fact that people don’t do lots of searches on their phones or the sensitive data on the phone or tablet, as compared to the computer, is better protected, and hackers can not easily get to it.

Ever since its release, Cortana has become increasingly restrictive. First, they made it ignore your default browser during searches. Now, Cortana will use only the Bing search engine in the Microsoft Edge browser.

In this article, we are going to show you how to get rid of Bing search in Windows 10. There are two ways to do this:

• Disable Cortana via the Registry
• Disable Cortana, using the Group Policy tweak

Method 1. Disable Cortana via the Registry

If you are using Windows 10 Home, you will need to edit your Windows Registry to make these changes. They can also be performed on other versions of Windows 10. You should note that editing your Registry is a risky process because any mistake here may cause permanent damage to your system. So, we advise you to back up your registry before starting and follow our instructions very carefully. Also, you can create a system restore point to be able to restore your computer to its working state if something goes wrong. Here is how to disable Cortana:

• Press the Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog box, type regedit in the search box and press Enter. This will open the Registry Editor
• Now, go to the following location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search.
• If the Windows search key is not present, then you will have to create it yourself by right-clicking the Windows folder, choosing New > Key, and naming it Windows Search
• Now, right-click on the Windows Search key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value
• Input the name of the value as AllowCortana. Now, open the value and set the value to 0
• If you change your mind in the future and want to restore Cortana, just come back here, find AllowCortana and set the value to 1 or just delete it

Method 2. Disable Cortana via the Group Policy

For a Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise user, this is an easy method to disable Cortana. This is also a very powerful tool. Make sure you follow the instructions very carefully, and if you are using a company’s network, make sure you check with your administrator first. Also, don’t forget to create a backup and restore point before starting. Use the following instructions to disable Cortana, using Group Policy:

• Press the Windows logo key + R on the keyboard to open the Run dialog box, input gpedit.msc in the search box and press Enter. This will open the Local Group Policy Editor
• Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search
• Look for the Allow Cortana setting and double-click on it
• In the next window, disable the Allow Cortana option and click OK
• Restart your computer for the changes to take place

It is only natural that Microsoft will use its search engine in its browser. But you are not forced to use the Bing search engine if you don’t want to even if you choose to stick with the Microsoft browser. We will show you how to delete Bing search bar on Windows 10. All you need to do is to change the default search engine of the browser.

Using the Microsoft Edge browser, you can add whichever search engine you prefer. But it is limited on earlier versions of the Microsoft browsers. Here is how to make the change:

• Click the three dots at the top right-side of the browser and select Settings from the drop-down menu
• Now, click View advanced settings and scroll down and click Change search engine.
• In the drop-down menu click <Add new>
• Add your favorite browser and set it as default
• Microsoft Edge will now use the search engine you chose for all your searches

Recommendation: if you are experiencing lags, crashes and your PC is slow for no apparent reason, you need to check your computer for viruses. It is very important that you protect your system from these types of infections because hackers are looking for all possible ways to steal sensitive information from your PC. To avoid this, we advise you to download and install Auslogics Anti-Malware. This tool will scan your computer for infections and eliminate them. It will schedule regular scans of your PC. The virus definition of this anti-virus is updated on a regular basis to protect your system from newly created infections.

We hope that this article has helped with the Bing issue. Share it with others who need similar information.

We appreciate your ideas and comments.

We are ready to answer all your questions regarding the above topic.