How to Get Rid of Bing On ‘Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Cortana’

Bing is the second most commonly used search engine in existence, next to Google (duh!). Owned by Microsoft, Bing has been around for quite some time. While most people do believe that Google is the much better search engine and even though most people consider Bing to be an inferior alternative to Google, Bing still has a significant user-base. Just how many of those users are unwilling users, however, is somewhat of an unknown. Bing is known to force its way into computer users’ live in various forms – Bing has a toolbar that is installed as an add-on while installing a variety of different yet completely unrelated programs, Bing can sometimes force its way into becoming the default search engine for your internet browser, and Bing is also heavily integrated into Cortana (your personal assistant and search handler on Windows 10).

Bing’s deep integration into Cortana is why, when you search for something using Cortana’s search bar in the taskbar on a Windows 10 computer, you also see results for the term you searched for from the World Wide Web. Users who don’t really like Bing and would rather use a different search engine or simply not see Bing in Cortana’s search results or in their internet browser’s toolbar simply want to get rid of it. There are so many diversified ways Bing forces itself into users’ lives that there is no one universal method that can be used to get rid of Bing – the method that will prove successful for you depends on the form Bing has manifested itself into in your case.

What’s important to know, however, is that no matter what shape or form Bing has taken in your life, getting rid of it is most certainly possible regardless of what areas of your computer it has integrated itself into or what version of the Windows Operating System you are using.

To get rid of the Bing toolbar

The installers for many, often completely unrelated programs offer to install the Bing toolbar on your computer as an add-on along with the program you’re actually trying to install. These installers are configured to install the Bing toolbar by default, and they do so unless the user explicitly instructs them not to install the toolbar. If the Bing toolbar has already made its way onto your computer, however, you can still get rid of it. All you need to do is:

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. Search for “add or remove programs“.
3. Click on the search result titled Add or remove programs.
4. In the list of programs installed on the computer that you see, look for any programs you do not recognize or any programs with Bing in their names. The most common Bing toolbars and applications include Babylon, Bing Bar, Bing.Vc, Bing Protect, Conduit, Search Module and Search Protect. If you see any of these applications or any other applications with Bing in their names, one by one, right-click on them and click on Uninstall.
5. Follow the onscreen instructions and prompts to uninstall the program from your computer.

To get rid of Bing on Chrome

1. Launch Google Chrome.
2. Click on the Options button (represented by three vertically stacked dots).
3. Click on Settings.
4. Under the Appearance section, check to see if a web address belonging to Bing is set as Chrome’s home page. If it is, simply delete the web address and choose the New Tab page as Chrome’s home page. 
5. Under the Search engine section, open the dropdown menu located directly next to the Search engine used in the address bar option (if it is set to Bing), and click on any search engine other than Bing to switch to it. 
6. Click on Manage search engines.
7. Click on the More actions… button (represented by three vertically stacked dots) next to the listing for Bing, and click on Remove from list. 
8. Click on the Back button to get back to the main Settings page.
9. Scroll down to the On startup section.
10. If the Open a specific page or set of pages option is enabled and Bing is listed as one of the web addresses, click on the More actions… button (represented by three vertically stacked dots) next to it and click on Remove. 
11. Close the Settings page and the changes you have made will be saved, effectively getting rid of Bing on Chrome.

To get rid of Bing on Microsoft Edge

The best you can do to get rid of Bing on Microsoft Edge is to replace it as your default search engine for terms you search for in Edge’s address bar with a different search engine. To do so, simply:

1. Launch Microsoft Edge.
2. Click on the Menu button (represented by three dots in a horizontal row).
3. Click on Settings.
4. Scroll down and locate and click on View advanced settings.
5. Open the dropdown menu under the “Search in the address bar with” option, and click on <Add new>. 
6. You’ll find a list of search engines that you have visited while using Microsoft Edge – click on the one you want to set as your new default search engine to select it and click on Add as default. 
7. Make sure the search engine you just added as default is set as Microsoft Edge‘s default search engine in the previous dropdown menu.

To get rid of Bing on Mozilla Firefox

1. Click on the icon of the search engine you last used to search for something on Firefox on the left end of Firefox’s Search box.
2. Click on Manage Search Extensions.
3. Click on Bing in the list of available search engines to select it and click on Remove.
4. Click on OK to confirm the action.
5. Click on the Menu button (represented by three vertically stacked lines), and click on Tools.
6. Click on Add-ons.
7. Click on Extensions.
8. Check to see if the Bing extension is installed. If you see it, click on it to select it and then click on Remove.
9. If prompted to restart Firefox, click on Restart Now.

To get rid of Bing from Cortana

As stated before, on Windows 10, Bing is also heavily integrated into Cortana and, by extension, Windows Search. If you want to remove Bing and Bing search results from Cortana and Windows Search, you can definitely do that. To do so, simply:

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. Click on the Cortana button in your taskbar. This is Cortana’s “all-seeing eye” located right next to the Search bar.
3. Click on the Gear icon.
4. Disable the Search online and include web results option by turning its toggle off. 

Alternatively, you can also achieve the same results if you:

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. Search for “cortana & search settings“.
3. Click on the search result titled Cortana & Search Settings.
4. Disable the Search online and include web results option by turning its toggle off.