One of the highlights of the recently released Windows 10 operating system is the new Cortana. For those unfamiliar with the name, Cortana is a digital personal assistant from Microsoft, like Siri for iOS. With Cortana, you can find files on your PC, search the web, manage your calendar, set a reminder, and more.
While Cortana is currently available in select countries/regions only, the feature will be available in more countries in the future.
As you may have noticed, whenever you search the web using Cortana or the search box on the taskbar (if you have turned off Cortana or searching from regions where Cortana is not available), the Cortana uses Microsoft’s own Bing search engine to search the web. While Bing search has evolved over the years, it doesn’t perform as accurately as Google, especially outside the U.S.
Use Google with Cortana
If you prefer Google search over Bing and want to force Cortana or the taskbar search box to use Google search instead of the default Bing search, there are a couple of ways out there.
We have already covered a way to enable Google search in Windows 10’s taskbar search box with the help of Chrome browser. This time around, we would like to share a Firefox extension to make Cortana use Google instead of Bing for search in Windows 10.
Foxtana Pro is a simple Firefox extension designed to make Cortana use Google instead of Bing in Windows 10. The extension makes it possible by redirecting searches performed with Cortana from the default Bing to Google.
The extension redirects everything that you search using Bing to Google, meaning even if you search for something on Bing in your browser, the extension will automatically redirect the search from Bing to Google.
Since this extension supports only Firefox, you must have installed Firefox on your Windows 10 computer in order to install and use the extension.
Using Foxtana Pro to make Cortana use Google
Step 1: Visit this Foxtana Pro page in your Firefox browser. Click Add to Firefox button, and then click Add button when you see Software Installation dialog to install the add-on.
Step 2: Next, you need to set Firefox as the default web browser in Windows 10. To do that, navigate to Settings app > Apps > Default apps.
Step 3: In the Web browser section, click on the plus (+) icon (or click on the Edge/current default browser’s icon) and then click on the Firefox browser to set Firefox as the default one.
Step 4: Foxtana Pro alone cannot force the Cortana or the Start search to use Google instead of Bing. We need to download a little utility named Edge Deflector. Get it from here. Edge Deflector forces Cortana to use the default web browser (you have set Firefox) instead of the Edge browser.
Step 5: Run the Edge Deflector installer and follow the on-screen directions. When you get the following “How do you want to open this?” dialog, select Edge Deflector from the list. That’s it!
Searches made through Cortana or the taskbar search box will be automatically redirected from Bing search to Google now.
And if you prefer to use DuckDuckGo or any other search engine with Cortana, the add-on supports other search engines as well. Please navigate to Foxtana Pro settings page (click on the Foxtana icon in the toolbar to quickly open the same) and set your favorite search engine. Besides Google, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo!, and Baidu, it allows you to use a custom search engine as well.
