In Windows 10 1703 we have some new really great new Group Policy settings for Microsoft Edge, the most important making it possible to sync favorites between Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. We can also set the default search enginge to something else than Bing with group policies.
To do this we first need to create an .xml file that complies with the Opensearch 1.1 framework https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/dev-guide/browser/search-provider-discovery and we need to host that file on a Webserver that the clients can reach and it must use HTTPS.
Update!
This can be done in two ways, the easiest one that I overlooked is to actually use the opensearch.xml file hosted by Google! Method 2 still works, Thanks for the comment on this post!
Method 1
The URL is https://www.google.com/searchdomaincheck?format=opensearch then we don’t have to host any .xml file of our own.
We simply add that to the Group Policy settings and we are done!
Method 2
Here is an .xml file that can be used to set the default search engine to Google instead of Bing using a group policy, it can be downloaded here: Opensearch.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
<ShortName>Google</ShortName>
<Description>Search Google</Description>
<Url method="get" type="text/html"
template="https://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>
We then need to place that on a webserver reachable from the clients that use HTTPS, in my lab I put it on my SCCM server under Opensearch and called it opensearch.xml as well.
Then we configure the Group Policy setting to point to the .XML file we added above.
When logging on the a computer which the group policy is applied to, you can if you are fast enough see that the search engine changes from Bing to Google under Settings\advanced settings.
This can of course be used to change the search engine to something else than Google as well, just create an .xml file that points to that search engine instead and make sure it supports Opensearch 1.1.
Thanks to my colleague Sassan for testing and supplying the .XML file!
So you *have* to use a webserver? No way to do that locally? This is a nightmare.
Couldn’t you use the one hosted on Google?
This is the address: https://www.google.com/searchdomaincheck?format=opensearch
Hi,
Indeed you can! works great! thanks for the headsup will update the blog post.
Regards,
Jörgen
Can be done without webs server??
I tried the 2 solutions on a client computer running on Windows 10 Education 1703 but search engine doesn’t change. I see the parameter applied by GPO in the registry but I still have Bing as default…
I just tried adding https://www.google.com/searchdomaincheck?format=opensearch to the GPO and it worked great on Windows 10 Education 1703 for me. Thanks for the info.
Tried method one but didnt work still bing is default search. (checked and confirmed that GP is applied)
Awsome! Thx Jörgen and Anderson Cassimiro.
This doesn’t work.
I’ve got machines on Windows 10 1703 and I’ve set the GPO settings ‘Set default search engine’ and ‘Configure Additional search Engines’ but neither make a difference
I put in “https://www.google.com.au/searchdomaincheck?format=opensearch” without the quotes and nothing changes.
honestly don’t know what i’m missing here
you need to wrap it inside parenthesis
Nope, doesn’t work here on 21H2.
It seems like only a very limited amount of settings is getting applied properly.
Great article. Even now still valid. I wonder if I could also configure the default homepage in the same XML. Like https://www.itexperience.net/2019/10/06/how-to-set-homepage-in-edge-windows-10-1909/
It would be great to have one xml eventually that contains all settings in open format
Hi,
No you need to do that using a policy instead…
/Jörgen
Hi.. does this still work? I’m getting below error Edge Chromium settings
Version 87.0.664.60 (Official build) (64-bit)
DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL
“https://www.google.com/searchdomaincheck?format=opensearch”
Platform
Device
Mandatory
Error