Microsoft has apparently discovered the free time to construct a standalone app whose solely job is switching your default search engine to Bing throughout each browser in your PC. It’s not force-installed by way of Home windows Replace but, and it’s not accessible within the Microsoft Retailer both. It’s a standalone executable hosted on Microsoft’s official obtain servers, and we marvel why it even exists.
The app is named Microsoft Advisable Search Settings, and as soon as put in, it prompts you so as to add extensions to all of your put in browsers, which does the job of switching to the Bing homepage expertise. After ending set up, you additionally get redirected to the Microsoft Rewards web page, which is principally a bribe for switching.
MicrosoftSettings.exe exists solely to alter your browser defaults
The executable is named MicrosoftSettings.exe, and its complete goal seems to be asking whether or not you wish to change your default search to Bing, then opening rewards.bing.com/m365offer as soon as setup finishes.
The app has a WinUI shell with WebView2, constructed solely to put in a Chrome extension throughout each browser on the PC, an odd quantity of engineering effort certainly.
What bothers me right here is that Microsoft already has a stack of bloated WebView2 apps and OS elements it has not mounted. The default Weather app uses roughly 1.2GB of RAM, about 5 occasions what macOS Climate wants, and nonetheless exhibits advertisements. As a substitute of switching such apps to WinUI3, Microsoft spent assets constructing a WinUI shell with the one job of putting in a browser extension.
I examined the extension, and Chrome fought again virtually instantly
I downloaded MicrosoftSettings.exe and ran it on my check PC. The installer is 22.2MB. I’ve Chrome and Courageous arrange with their very own defaults, and looking out from both pulled up Google and Courageous Search respectively.
The primary display screen is titled “Welcome to Microsoft Advisable Search Settings,” with a toggle already switched to “Sure” for setting Bing as your search engine. Small textual content beneath says the change applies to Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome.
Clicking “Settle for and proceed” kicks off a brief setup that ends on a “You’re all set!” display screen with a End button, and hitting End is what opens the Microsoft Rewards web page in Edge.
On the browser facet, Chrome and Courageous each flagged a brand new extension known as Microsoft Bing Homepage & Seek for Chrome. Chrome’s warning exhibits it could possibly learn and alter all information on all web sites, show notifications, and alter the house web page, search settings, and begin web page to bing.com.
The Microsoft Bing Homepage & Seek for Chrome extension someway has a 4-star ranking from 110 evaluations and 5 million customers!
For those who skip these warnings from Chrome and click on “Allow extension” anyway, Google has one other trick up its sleeve to forestall Microsoft from taking on Chrome. Google’s browser popped up a immediate asking, “Change again to Google Search?” noting that the Microsoft Bing Homepage & Search extension had modified search to make use of bing.com.
Underneath that immediate, with an arrow pointing instantly at Chrome’s “Change it again” button, Microsoft had positioned a second field studying “Wait, don’t change it again!” It warns that reverting will flip off the Bing extension and trigger you to lose entry to Bing search and wallpapers, then nudges you towards “Hold it” to proceed with Microsoft Bing.
It’s genuinely humorous to see two of the largest corporations on the planet arguing, inside your browser, over which search engine you need to use. This standoff is just not new, although. Home windows Newest reported on a nearly identical Bing pop-up war in Chrome back in March 2024, the place Microsoft used the same two-layered immediate to speak individuals out of reverting to Google. Both manner, Microsoft is clearly not achieved operating this playbook.
As soon as I accepted Bing in all places, Chrome’s new tab web page became the acquainted cluttered MSN feed, the sort of homepage that makes you remorse each determination that led you right here.
Microsoft retains discovering new methods to push Bing whereas promising to wash up MSN
Microsoft has spent the previous 12 months publicly strolling again MSN muddle elsewhere. Home windows Newest examined a decluttered Windows Search that finally dropped years of MSN tiles, sponsored purchasing playing cards, and each day trivia, and we additionally reported how Redmond had Home windows 11 Widgets turn off the MSN feed and ads by default.
Again then, I questioned how it could be a loss of their income from MSN. However now, the corporate is quietly constructing a brand new app to push Bing and its MSN homepage into your browser!
Sure, Microsoft will go the additional mile to make you employ Bing. The corporate now lets you sign into Bing with a Google or Apple account as a substitute of a Microsoft account, eradicating another excuse to not use it.
In even crazier information, the software program large ran a sweepstakes offering $1 million to Bing users, which additionally says lots about how exhausting it’s to unseat Google by way of product high quality alone, whereas additionally keeping a fake version of Google’s own homepage design on Bing for a 12 months and a half after dealing with backlash over it.
And it’s not like Bing is struggling to get a significant person base both. Satya Nadella confirmed that Bing crossed 1 billion for the first time. But it surely appears as if the corporate desires to make use of shady practices as a substitute of bettering the standard of Bing, which is now sitting at an unimaginable alternative due to Google’s AI push into their Search, incomes them a much-needed backlash.
The brand new Microsoft Advisable Search Settings app was first spotted by Windows tester Xeno Panther, who uncovered MicrosoftSettings.exe and identified that it prompts customers to modify their default search to Bing earlier than opening Microsoft’s Rewards provide after setup.
Nonetheless, we doubt whether or not company habits ever change. Microsoft desires Bing in all places badly sufficient to maintain constructing new doorways into it, even whereas different elements of the corporate are busy making an attempt to shut those already open.
