As you know, Microsoft Cortana has become an integral part of Windows 10. I wouldn’t mind Cortana so much if Microsoft didn’t force it upon us. One thing which really bothers me about Cortana is that it defaults to Microsoft Edge and Bing. I am a Google person, so I would prefer if it used Google Search and Google Chrome. Before the Windows 10 Anniversary update, there used to be a way to change the default behavior. Since the update, Microsoft has removed this ability. Luckily, there is still a way to achieve this using a simple registry hack. Using a program called SearchWithMyBrowser, you can change the registry and make Cortana use Google.
What You Will Need:
- Search with My Browser
- Chrometana
Procedure:
First, you need to download Search with My Browser from the link listed above. Go to the Github page, and select the option that reads Clone or Download. Then select the option to Download Zip.
Afterward, extract the zip. You will see a file ( a Windows .bat file to be exact) named Make. Double click this file to run it.
After it runs, you should see three new files. Next, double click the file named Install. A command prompt will open asking where you want the permanent location of the application to be at. You can keep the program (SearchWithMyBrowser.exe) it in the current folder or move it to a new folder. If you know that you will never delete this folder then keep it here. Otherwise, I suggest that you move it to a new folder. If you keep it in the current folder type in _SearchWithMyBrowser.exe _in the command prompt. If you move it to a new location, type the name of the location followed by /SearchWithMyBrowser.exe (but make sure you move it to that new location first).
After that, hit enter. Then hit enter one more time to see if it worked. If it does, you should see a window asking how do you want to open this. Select the option that reads “SearchwithMyBrowser”.
If this option doesn’t appear, don’t worry; you might have to reboot your computer. Either way, I would recommend rebooting your computer after you make these changes.
So finally, if you perform a search using Cortana in the Windows Start Menu, it should open up your default browser. The only problem is that it still uses Bing search. To fix this (unless you don’t mind it using Bing search) download the Chrome Plugin called Chrometana linked above. This will redirect all of the Bing searches to Google Chrome. Of course, this only works if your default browser is Google Chrome [but why wouldn’t it be 😉 ]