Bing Desktop is a Microsoft Windows application designed by Microsoft itself. It is basically a desktop search application for Bing, but there is also an option to automatically download and use the Bing wallpapers as Windows background. It brings the power of Bing search to your desktop. This app allows you to search Bing for images, videos and more. You can find top news, popular searches, trending images and top videos as well.
You can download Bing Desktop app from the Microsoft Bing website. The download is an installer application of around two megabytes. During the installation, Bing Desktop installer offers to set Bing as your default search provider, Internet Explorer as your default web browser and so on. If you do not want these changes, then be careful during the installation and uncheck the options in the setup.
After the installation, Bing Desktop is set to automatically run with Windows. You can run it from its Start Menu shortcut (or in Windows 8 from the Start screen). As you would expect, the draggable Bing Desktop app can be used to instantly search for any term from your desktop. In the following snapshot, I am searching for “Jesus Saves”. Clicking on any of the suggested search terms or pressing Enter after typing a keyword, would launch your default browser showing the search results page. You can also clear the search history or turn off the search history from the suggested items dropdown list.
If you want to use Bing Desktop app to download the Bing wallpapers from the Bing webpage, then click on the information icon next to the searchbox. It would display the latest Bing wallpapers. You can check the checkbox labeled Make the Bing homepage image your desktop image to let Bing Desktop automatically download these images and set them as your desktop background.
Bing Desktop also allows you to find the latest top new, top videos, trending pictures and popular searches. You can click on the newspaper icon next to the information icon to open this section. You can navigate through different tabs and click on the forward and backward arrows and find different items under a category. Clicking on the thumbnail of these items would open them in your default web browser.
Bing Desktop app can be customized by clicking on the gear like icon and selecting an appropriate sub-item. To change the app color from black, blue, green and purple. You can set the hotkey to bring Bing Desktop app to focus (by default it is Win + Y). You can set if you want to automatically start it with Windows. You can also set the search history options and the default location for searching the web. You can choose from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, France, Germany or Japan.
Bing Desktop works on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and Windows Server 2008 and 2012 for English, French, German, Chinese and Japanese. If you want to start your day with a new fresh desktop background downloaded from the internet, then you can give Bing Desktop App a try.
You can download Bing Desktop from http://www.bing.com/explore/desktop.