Microsoft apparently wasn’t satisfied with making Bing the default search experience inside Windows and Edge, so it has built an entire standalone app to encourage users to put Bing in other browsers too. Called Microsoft Recommended Search Settings, the Windows 11 utility can install Bing extensions and change search settings in browsers including Chrome, Firefox and Edge.
Yes, Microsoft actually built an app for this
The app is distributed as a standalone MicrosoftSettings.exe rather than through Windows Update or the Microsoft Store. According to Windows Latest, the roughly 22.2MB installer opens with a recommendation to set Bing as the search engine, with the option already toggled to “Yes.” Accepting the setup then prompts browsers to install Microsoft’s Bing extension.
The extension doesn’t exactly have a tiny job, either. Chrome warns that Microsoft Bing Homepage & Search can read and change data on websites, display notifications, and modify the browser’s homepage, search, and start-page settings. If a user accepts it, Bing becomes the default and the new-tab experience gets Microsoft’s familiar MSN feed.
Things get particularly funny when Chrome notices what’s happening. Windows Latest found that Chrome immediately offered to switch the search engine back to Google, while Microsoft responded with its own warning that doing so would disable the Bing extension and remove access to Bing Search and wallpapers. So, for a brief moment, the browser becomes a tiny corporate battleground, which makes it even more amusing that Microsoft is simultaneously trying to declutter Windows Search by removing some of the MSN tiles, sponsored shopping cards and trivia that had made it increasingly busy.
But do we really need Bing everywhere?
To be honest, there’s nothing inherently wrong with Microsoft promoting Bing. Users can still change their search provider, and Bing offers plenty of legitimate features. But building a dedicated app to push Bing into browsers that users have already configured feels like a lot of engineering for a problem nobody was exactly begging Microsoft to solve.
Microsoft clearly wants more people using Bing, and that’s fair. But when Chrome, Firefox, and Brave users have already picked their search engine, the question isn’t whether Microsoft wants Bing everywhere. It’s whether Bing can take the hint and stop knocking.