Change Default Search Engine & Set Firefox as Default Browser for Windows 10 Search Box

Windows 10 has makes it very easy to search the web for something through the search box given in the taskbar. And if you do not like it to take up that much space in the taskbar then, you can actually hide the search box or reduce it into a search icon. Even though it provides ease of searching the web from the taskbar without launching a browser first, most people are ticked off at the fact that it uses Bing as the default search engine and Edge as the default web browser. Fortunately Microsoft has designed Windows 10 to be very easily configurable and you can change the default search engine and browser used by the Windows 10 search box. Moreover Mozilla has redesigned the new version 40 of Firefox to seamlessly integrate with the new features of Windows 10.

Here is how you can set Firefox as the default browser for Search Box in Windows 10 and change the search engine used by the Search Box:

  1. First of all install the latest version of Firefox on your Windows 10 PC. At the time of writing this, version 40 is the latest stable version available.
  2. The Firefox browser will perhaps ask you to set itself as the default web browser during the setup, but if you miss the opportunity, then you can follow the steps in how to set default web browser in Windows 10.
  3. Launch Firefox browser, type about:preferences#search in the address bar and press Enter. This will open search related settings for Firefox.Change Windows 10 Search Box Search Engine & Browser
  4. Choose one one of the search engines from the list as the default search engine and make sure you have checked the checkbox Use this search engine for searched from Windows.
  5. Close Firefox and start searching for anything in the Search Box of Windows 10 taskbar. I decided to look for the deadly fugu fish.Change Windows 10 Search Box Search Engine & Browser
  6. Click/touch on any of the web search results and it will ask you for the default app to open them. Choose Firefox from the list, check the checkbox labeled Always use this app and click/touch the OK button.
  7. The web search results shall be opened in Firefox (or any other browser you selected) and will use the default search engine for that browser. So if you want to change the search engine used, then just change the default search engine for that browser from the browser settings.Change Windows 10 Search Box Search Engine & Browser

Mozilla has made it fairly easy to change the default web browser and the search engine used for the search box given in the Windows 10 taskbar. You can choose Firefox as the default browser and change the search engine to anything from Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo or anything else you prefer.

2 comments

  1. This DOES NOT WORK !!!!
    There is no option under search in Firefox to “use this search engine for searches from windows”

    Windows 10 is absolute crap in so many ways and this is just one of them.
    🙁

  2. This doesn’t work. Windows don’t ask anything when we click on the results of the search, it simply opens with Bing and the Edge navigator.

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