Prevent your search default from being changed
The first thing I saw when I booted my PC yesterday evening was a notice that Google had prevented my default search setting from being changed. I certainly didn't want to switch from searching via Google by default. I hadn't even been considering a search change, regardless of Bing's pretty wallpaper.
The Google Toolbar prevented Windows Search from changing my default search setting without my permission.
(Credit: Google)To find out what program was trying to change my search default, I opened Vista's Event Viewer by pressing the Windows key, typing event viewer, and pressing Enter. I clicked Application in the left pane and scrolled to the approximate time the warning popped up. It took all of about two seconds to realize that Windows Search Service attempted to change my search default.
Vista's Event Viewer identified the Windows Search Service as the likely source of the attempt to change my search default.
(Credit: Microsoft)Well, I can't prove it based solely on the Event Viewer logs, but it's safe to say the search service is the prime suspect. I was relieved that Google prevented the change, but I couldn't recall asking the company to do so. I found the alert setting in the options of the Google Toolbar in Internet Explorer.
The Search tab in the Google Toolbar options lets you generate an alert whenever a program attempts to change your default search setting.
(Credit: Google)Ironically, I couldn't find a comparable setting in the latest version (5.0.20090324) of the Google Toolbar for Firefox, which is my default browser.
The Google Toolbar for Firefox lacks a setting that generates an alert and prevents programs when they attempt to change your default search setting.
(Credit: Google)Should you find your search default has been changed unexpectedly, resetting it is a breeze. In Firefox, type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Browse to and double-click browser.search.defaultenginename. Type the name of any search service listed on the search drop-down menu and press OK.
To add a search engine to the list, click Manage Search Engines and then Get more search engines. Download your engine of choice and restart Firefox to see it among the search options on the menu.
To make the same change in Internet Explorer 8, click the down arrow to the right of the search box and choose Manage Search Providers. Make your selection and choose Set as default. Or choose Find More Providers, pick a search service, and click Add to Internet Explorer to broaden your IE search options.
To change your search default in Google's Chrome browser, click the wrench icon in the top-right corner, choose Options, and make your selection in the "Default search" drop-down menu near the bottom of the Basics tab. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to add search providers to Chrome's list, though you may see more options by clicking Manage, choosing one of the services listed, and clicking Add.
Dennis O'Reilly has covered PCs and other technologies in print and online since 1985. Along with more than a decade as editor for Ziff-Davis's Computer Select, Dennis edited PC World's award-winning Here's How section for more than seven years. He is a member of the CNET blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. 
Like Randonm says, if you don't know how to switch it back, why are you on the net? These, and all companies, switch stuff on you without telling you- even Linux and its apps, and especially Apple. So, settle down, and enjoy the ride. Computers and Computing constantly evolve; deal with it.
"Which one are you talking about? M$FT or Google?"
This is funny, and so true. In term of personal privacy, MS rules the desktop space while Google rules the Net.
ton_kerrville
My Firefox did the same thing, but I allowed it to continue to see what it was changing. Guess what.... it was changing it to the new version of Google, but it tripped the alarm along with it. Wow, let's blame microsoft for Google's update!
But its all business as usual in the PC world.
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ms-dotnet-firefox.html
Who cares if the few pages that use dot-net frameworks dont load. It is a big internet, I will go somewhere else.
This sort of stuff will keep pushing me toward Linux, unfortunately, I have a lot of time invested in the MS platforms, and it is hard to leave. But if they push hard enough, I will go. I hold grudges, I have a long memory. I still have not bought anything with a Sony brand since the root-kit scandal
Now it be awesome if we had another chose of OS a real one linux is not viable yet due to all the programs/games run! what i mean is that Linux is not mainstream enough tobe viable yet!! But if Google could come out and run all the programs windows could such as GOOGLE OS / android i would switch.
yes i have tried Linux/ubuntu but it is alot different and harder to use then a normal OS.
How hard was it to use MS-DOS the very first time you tried? Did it get easier? If you can learn to use MS-DOS, you have the capacity to learn to use Linux - you just don't want to, or you'd be doing it.
Is it any wonder, people are looking for other browsers (FireFox, Chrome, Opera, etc...) ? If Microsoft wonders why a large percentage of it's OS owners (such as XP) have failed to upgrade to IE 7 or IE 8, they only have to look toward practices such as this, to explain why many users don't want much to do with anything new from Microsoft.
It is kind of funny to me that not even Firefox is safe from MS's meddling. If I didn't have to run some unstable opensource ports of my favorite games, and wait months after release to get them, or run some buggy emulator, I'd ditch Windows for Linux in a heartbeat. But alas, MS still has PCs by the balls.
this looks like a completely made up article
Still not related to the Windows Search service, and you provided no info on what you installed to have your search reset to Bing.
One thing's for sure, it has no happened to me on Vista, except I supposed when I installed IE 8
I can assure you that none of my Linux boxes switch anything without telling me. Ever. Nothing gets changed unless I change it, and that is what separates the wheat from the chaff (there is a lot more chaff than wheat).
* exceed authorized access.
* conspire to do so (amended by Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act)
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1030.html
1.) Any evidence at all that your search default was being changed to Bing (there are hundreds of malware that alter your search to their own branded search engine)
2.) Any evidence at all that it was a Microsoft update or program that attempted to make the change (the Search service is MS's answer to Google desktop, it indexes your hard drive for searching, it has nothing to do with the web or any browsers).
3.) Anything more than a cursory glance at other possibilities. In fact, if you look just below the "search" service that you pointed out, you will notice "gupdate1c99e2ec...", it's in your own screenshot there. Know what that is? It is *drumroll* the google toolbar updater! So google toolbar just had an update, and a popup said something was trying to change your search default (note it never said what was changing it or what it was changing it to). What do you think did it? A desktop search service, or a google toolbar update?
As another commenter pointed out, this is a GOOGLE search update from GOOGLE updating the GOOGLE search. It triggered the alert, because even google shouldn't be allowed to change google search without your permission.
In other words, you are completely wrong, you idiot moron. God bless.
- by October 10, 2009 4:30 PM PDT
- Apparently Microsoft has found yet another way around fixes! I ran windows updates this morning & found that Bing had hijacked my address bar searches. I tried your fix and another that Mozilla recommended, and both settings in about: config were as recommended, so they've found ANOTHER place to hide the hijack! Don't tell me that Microsoft isn't actively managing these hijacks!
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