How To Change Cortana's Bing Default Search Engine To Google Using Chrometana

Cortana, the voice-activated personal assistant included with every copy of Windows 10, has the option to search the web hands-free. The only problem is, all the searches go through Microsoft's Bing search engine.

Less than 48 hours after the launch of Windows 10, developers Theo Browne, Claire Pitman, and Maayan Kline have already come up with a workaround for users who want to cast a wider search net. Chrometana is a Chrome extension that redirects Bing searches through a search engine of your choice, allowing you to force Cortana to search through a Bing alternative. The extension is open source, with the source code available on GitHub under the MIT free software license.

In a Reddit thread, Browne suggests one neat trick while using DuckDuckGo as the default search engine. "If you're using DuckDuckGo, you can use a !bang to redirect the search. !g goes to Google, !gi goes to Google Images, etc," Browne said. "This is AWESOME with Cortana. You can search "Darude Sandstorm !yt" and immediately have the Youtube search results pulled up in Chrome."

Your default browser will need to be Google Chrome, however. Without extension support, we won't be seeing an equivalent add-on for Microsoft Edge any time soon. Extension support is planned, and will be rolling out through Windows Update, but until then users will have to stick with Chrome if they want nothing to do with Bing.