How to Change the Default Search Engine in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox

By | February 12, 2023
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How to Change the Default Search Engine in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox

We have recently had a lot of folks asking us how to change their browser’s default search engine. In this tip, we’ll show you how to change your default search engine on the desktop (Windows) versions of the three most popular browsers, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. This tip is for Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Google Chrome

To change the default search engine in Google Chrome, follow these steps:

  • Open Google Chrome.
  • Type or copy & paste chrome://settings/search
    in the address bar and press Enter.
    Change search engines in your favorite browser. Cloudeight
  • Scroll down to the “Search engine” section and click on the down arrow to the right of “Search engine to be used in the address bar”.
    Set search engine - Google Chrome - Cloudeight
  • In the “Search engines” list, click on the search engine you would like to use as your default engine when you search from the Address bar. (See screenshot above”
  • Next, click on “Manage search engines and site search”
  • Under “Search engines”  click the 3 horizontal dots to the right of the search engine you want to use and click “Make default” (see screenshot below):
    Change Default Search Engine - Google Chrome - Cloudeight
  • Close the “Settings” tab and your new default search engine will be used from now on.

Note: If you don’t see the search engine you want to use in the list, you can add it by clicking on the “Add a new search engine” button and following the on-screen instructions.

Microsoft Edge

  • Type or copy & paste edge://settings/search in the address bar.Change default search in Edge - Cloudeight
  • Scroll down the page until you find  “Search engine used in the address bar”.
  • Next, click the little down arrow (see screenshot above) and choose whichever one you want. The default choices are Yahoo, Google, and DuckDuckGo.
  • You can add more search engines if you want but those choices should be enough to get you started.

Mozilla Firefox

  • Type or copy & paste about:preferences#search in the Firefox address bar.
    type about:preferences#search in the Firefox address bar. Cloudeight
  • Under “Default Search Engine” click the down arrow next to the current default search engine (see screenshot below)…Change default search in Friefox - Cloudeight
  • Select the search engine you want to set as your default from the menu that appears.Choose your default search engine in Firefox. Cloudeight InfoAve
  • After you make your choice the search engine you chose will be your default.
  • As with Chrome and Edge, Firefox allows you to add more search engines to the list of search engine choices.

And now you know how easy it is to change your browser’s default search engine.

One thought on “How to Change the Default Search Engine in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox

  1. Mary McCracken

    thanks for this information. would you recommend one over the other? they really promoted edge when i bought this computer i found it restricted some attachments or links. thanks for all your tips.

    Reply

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