Changing Internet Explorer 11 Default Search to Google

A common frustration with restricted staff members is the default behaviour of Internet Explorer to use Bing instead of Google. 

Google held over 88% of the search engine market share in January 2014 which is no doubt, a reason why Microsoft have traditionally make it difficult to change the IE default search provider from Bing.

The Default Search provider via the URL can be modified by directly editing the Registry.  The first time Internet Explorer is opened on a freshly built machine, the user instance reads the default Search Scope from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

Instead of creating new “Search Scopes” and changing the defaults for Internet Explorer, it’s even simpler to just replace the URL of the default Bing scope.   The registry keys I’ve change are:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}]

@="Google"

"URL"="http://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}"

"DisplayName"="@ieframe.dll,-12512"