Bing is one of the most popular and totally legitimate search engines. It is second after Google in the category of search engines, and fifth in the list of the total number of searches.
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Using Bing.com does not bring any harm to your device. However, many users get unintentional redirects to Bing.com, while they are searching on Google.com. This redirection is carried out through the malware known as Browser Hijacker.
In this guide, we would talk more about what Browser Hijacker is and how to remove it from your system to fix Google redirects to Bing.
What is a Browser Hijacker?
A Browser Hijacker, commonly known as the Browser Virus, is a malicious program that gets an entry on your web browser through various means and infiltrates with browser settings, without user permission to promote the fake search engines or the affiliated web pages. Since users do not willingly install them, such hijackers are often considered as Potentially Unwanted Programs or Applications (PUPs or PUAs).
After entering your browser, a browser hijacker would get hold of its settings and change the default home page, search engine, and new tab redirection. All these would be set to raise the dubious web page or search engine.
Usually, these forced redirections are performed to generate advertising revenues or promote affiliated products and services.
You might feel that browser hijackers are not much of a threat to your system, and there is no need to get scared of it. Unfortunately, you’re mistaken. Browser Hijackers itself might not be a significant threat, but when it enters your system, it can bring other greater threats such as spyware, keyloggers, and other malware programs with it. These malicious software can cause extensive damage to you and your system. Also, the webpages it promotes cannot be trusted. They might be filled with illegitimate and malicious content. Once you know about it, removing the browser virus from your system should be your top priority.
Why does Google search redirect to Bing?
If Google is your default search engine, but every search query you type on it is redirected to Bing, then definitely a browser hijacker has compromised your system.
As mentioned in the previous section, the browser hijacker might have altered your system settings, and that’s the reason the search query is redirected to Bing without your permission.
How to stop Google redirects to Bing?
To stop Google redirects to Bing, you have to catch and remove the culprit browser hijacker, which is the root cause.
For that follow these steps:
Step 1: Restart your PC in Safe Mode
Windows Safe Mode is the perfect environment to find out and solve the critical errors in the system. In safe mode, only system programs and some crucial programs run. Safe mode would most likely kill the applications and its files that try to run automatically on your system. Follow this guide to boot your Windows 10 PC in the Safe Mode.
Step 2: Remove Web Extensions From Browser
You might have accidentally installed a malicious browser web extension that is causing the redirects.
If you have many web extensions installed in your Chrome browser, it is time to sort them out and at least disable, if not delete, the ones you rarely use. However, you must remove the useless web extensions instead of disabling them. Because, even after disabling them, they might use the CPU processing power while checking for updates and performing updates.
Here are the steps to manage the web extensions on the Chrome Browser:
- Click on the three dots at the top-right corner.
- Bring mouse cursor over More tools and from the extended menu choose Extensions.
- All the extensions would be on your screen
- Look for the ones you want to disable or remove.
Step 3: Reset Web Browser Settings
If your browser is misbehaving because browser virus, then reset its settings to default.
- Open Chrome and navigate to Settings by clicking on the three-dots at the top right.
- Click on advanced Advanced.
- Under Reset and cleanup, click on “Restore settings to their original defaults.”
- Select Reset settings on the next prompt.
- Relaunch your browser.
Step 4: Uninstall Suspicious Applications
If the Bing redirection is still happening on your PC, try to find the culprit application and uninstall it.
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Right-click on the taskbar and select the Task Manager.
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Watch out for the applications that are consuming the system memory even though you did not install or launch them.
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Right-click on the suspicious application and open its file location.
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Delete the file from its root location.
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Open Control Panel and click on Uninstall a program and check for suspicious apps. One by one, select and uninstall them.
Step 5: Delete Temporary Files
The temporary files folder can also be a carrier of malicious files. You should delete all the temporary files and folders regularly for the smooth running of the system. Removing the temporary files would also clear the unnecessary clutter from your system and free-up the valuable space.
Here are the steps to eliminate thre temporary files:
- Open the Run command window.
- Type %temp% and hit the enter key.
- This run command would navigate you to this path: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp, that is, the temp folder.
- Select all Files and Folders of this folder and delete them. Don’t hesitate to delete them, as they are not essential for any of your tasks.
- Next right-click on the Recycle Bin and select Empty Recycle Bin.
Step 6: Install an Antimalware and Perform a Scan
Manually removing malware can be a tedious task, and it takes a lot of time and effort on our part. Sometimes, it may get irritated for you if you are not much into the technology. There is no need to worry; you can get a robust antimalware like MalwareFox that will scan for malware and remove it.
MalwareFox is a reliable security software that promises to protect your system and helps to handle malware and viruses. MalwareFox will scans, detect, and remove Malware and offers real-time protection. It also protects your PC from most dangerous malware such as Ransomware, Zero-Day Attack protection, Grayware, Keyloggers, etc.
- Download Malwarefox and install it.
- Perform a full system scan to get rid of every malware that is troubling your system.
Final Words
So, these are the steps through which you can remove the browser hijacker and fix the Google redirects to Bing problem. The steps in this guide are applicable to remove any browser hijackers you come across. However, you should always follow the healthy browsing practices to avoid getting browser viruses on your system.
If your Google search has started redirecting to unknown, irrelevant web pages, most probably a malware like Browser Hijacker or Adware has attacked your browser. You can get rid of these malicious programs by following the steps explained in this guide.
Bing is the legit search engine from a reputed tech company Microsoft and is the default search engine for Microsft Edge and Internet Explorer. If you are getting unintentional redirects to Bing.com, it is because a browser hijacker has got an entry on your device.
thank you so much! This helped a lot because I was starting to get worried on my it was bringing me to,”bing”
I know Right! I was getting really scared because this laptop is quite new so i didnt want to reset it again. ive done it too many times.
Yes! It worked for me my laptop is quite new and it is only 5 days old and it’s been since my mom brought it for me now this guy helped all of us a lot right? (this is in 2022 is this from 2018 or 2017 I can’t see the date please reply to be bsfs.)
Thank you, this is very helpful. Got me a bit worried there, it kept redirecting to bing for every search I made.
thanks!
Thank you a lot. For me, it worked when I reset my settings. Thanks again, this was very usefull 😉
Thankd Nicolai, i wasn’t going to go through the whole process. when i saw your post, i tried the settings reset on the browser and it worked!
This Helped! I can’t believe this was true. All i did was go on a website to help me study for my test. thats crazy. thank you 🙂
Wow never realized this worked!!!! Thank you Malware Fox!!!! 😀
thank you it worked when i reset the settings
same in setting, but i cant download malware, but whatever. and its probably because you guys took computer science. me regret school but idk what to do.
Guys, i downloaded linkvertise extension and it was a malware. dont trust linkvertise! and this worked thanks
Thank you! It fixed the problem! 😁
I have been hacked by Microsoft Bing. How can I remove Bing? I’m not interested in Bing. I have sent many requests to remove it, with no luck.
if you’d just read this post it explains how to remove bing, but if it is to complicated i could help you.
Help is always beneficial. Thank you.
Thank you so much, this resolved my issue!!
Muchas gracias por la ayuda. me ha sido muy util.
I only needed to delete those extentions and…. problem already solved!
I did all of this and it still did not work. Someone please help me!!!
Brilliant – only needed to go as far as Step 3: Reset Web Browser Settings – you have helped me fix days of fustration at being redirected to bing!
Thank you so much! This immediately resolved the bing issue.
Thanks so much, turns out one of my extensions was redirecting me to bing… works perfectly now!
This actually worked. I didn’t think it would but it did and fixed the problem! So thank you for whom ever posted this!!
Thank you so much for your great solutions
I’ve tried everything possible to get the malware off of my chrome. I do not have any extensions and it still brings up Bing when I search something. My chrome crashing constantly and opens randomly. Please help.