Windows 11 May Finally Respect Your Default Browser in Search

Microsoft could be preparing a long-awaited change for Windows 11. A discovery in the Edge browser suggests that searches made from the taskbar may soon open in your default browser and with your chosen search engine.

This would mark a big shift from Microsoft’s current approach, which forces results into Bing through Edge, regardless of user settings.

For years, people using Windows outside the EEA had no real choice in how search worked. When they typed in the Windows Search box, the results always went to Bing in Edge, even if Chrome or Firefox was set as the main browser.

In the EEA, rules already give users more freedom. Now it looks like Microsoft may bring that same choice to all users.

The change was first spotted by well-known leaker Leopeva64, who noticed new experimental flags in a recent build of Edge Canary. Some of the new flags, such as “msExplicitLaunchNonBingDSE” and “msWSBLaunchNonEdgeDB,” may support both non-Bing search engines and non-Edge browsers.

Included in the name of the new flags is “DSE”, which may stand for Default Search Engine, and “WSB” likely refers to Windows Search Box. Together, they suggest that typing a query into the taskbar could soon respect your chosen settings.

That means results might open in Google through Chrome, or DuckDuckGo through Firefox, instead of being forced into Bing and Edge.

If this change rolls out, users would gain far more control over how they search. Right now, many set Chrome or another browser as the default, but still get pushed into Edge for search.

That mismatch has long annoyed Windows fans, and the new change would at last make the system respect each person’s choice.

It is worth noting that these flags are only in Edge Canary, which is Microsoft’s test channel. Features tried there do not always reach stable builds.

Microsoft has not given a release date, and there is a chance this update may never move past testing.

Even so, the finding shows that Microsoft may be rethinking its plan. Letting the Windows Search box use the browser and engine that each user prefers would bring Win 11 closer to what people expect from a modern system. For now, attention is on future Edge builds to see if this long-requested feature will reach everyday users.