Microsoft Edge shows two search bars (bug)
Reports are coming in that Microsoft Edge started to show two search bars instead of one search bar on the browser's new tab page.
Windows 10 users who run Microsoft Edge on the operating system may get two search bars on the New Tab page after installing the recent updates.
Systems affected by this display the regular search bar at the top, and below that a Bing search bar. Some users report that this happens even if Bing is set as the default web browser, as searches that users run in either search bar lead to Bing search results being loaded in the web browser.
Some users reported that switching the default search engine to Bing fixes the issue, while others that this did not fix the issue.
Microsoft has not confirmed the bug yet. Some users suspected this to be "foul play" by Microsoft, by pushing Bing Search to the search page so that Edge users are exposed to Bing Search.
The most likely explanation is that it is a bug however. The top sites thumbnails listed below the second search box are cut off at the top indicating that something is wrong on that page.
The issue occurs both on stable versions of Windows 10 and Windows 10 Insider Builds as well. One option that users have is to set the page to display a blank page instead for instance
Here are some reports on the issue:
You can see there is an extra search bar in the new tab window. I have no idea where it came from, as it was not there yesterday, and I have definitely not installed anything since. (I think Windows did an update tho).
The search bar takes me to Bing, for some reason. The photo next to it is my Windows account photo. Any idea how I can begin to trouble shoot this, or better yet, remove it?
Popped on for me too.
I had to disable top sites and news completely.
I did enjoy the news feature but I guess MS has lost the few cents they used to get from the occasional ADs in the news feed too.Yup, noticed it too. Was wondering if something was off my Edge since it was fine few days ago. Must've been an update.
Well I found a solution (temporary perhaps while MS fixes it) is to set the behavior of Opening New Tabs in Edge settings. Just set it to "Blank Page" and you won't see the Bing bar anymore.
As you can see, a temporary fix for the issue is to change the page that Edge loads when the New Tab Page is opened to the blank page.
Now You: Have you noticed this issue on your machine?
This may be the one from Firefox :D
yes I have as well. would love the fix when you get it please
Just started yesterday and it won’t let me change the default search bar to see if that fixes it. Hopefully they will release an update that fixes this soon.
Since Microsoft reported that Edge usage doubled, which appeared unlikely, maybe this bug helped the numbers. Just kidding. Microsoft has poor QA these days
I had the same thought. LOL!.
same here … very annoying.
Noticed this myself and sent feedback but got no reply or word from support.
It is really annoying when it cuts off the top sites tiles underneath.
I am considering a switch to a different browser if it isn’t acknowledged and resolved soon as it doesn’t seem to be such a difficult fix. Thanks for the article as I am glad that I am not alone.
Yes, I noticed this yesterday. I sure it’s just Microsoft trying to ram Bing down our throats. Guess what MS, I’m just going to change my home page then.
having same issue here. arrgghh
Yes, happened to me too. Cuts off the main news window too (many heads cut off). Dan
Went away on the 17th for me. Dan
Came with an update to Edge, same one that added the partial Favourites Star to Hub icon.
This happened to me too. Please notify if there’s an update!
I have the same problem. VERY DISTURBING!
I’m not seeing these issues on Chrome/Chromium browsers. I guess I’m missing out on all of Windows 10’s bugs :(
FOR ME, IN UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER IS AN ARROW CIRCLE. I CLICK ON THAT, AS SOON AS IT BLINK,(I DID THIS FAST) I CLICK ON MY TOP SITE (MY GOOGLE). SO FAR, IT WORK GREAT NOW!! I KEEP TRY 3 TIMES, AND JUST KEEP TRY, “IT WILL REMOVE IT!!” MARK
Here’s what worked for me ~ go to https://www.bing.com/ while signed in with your Microsoft account, go to the Settings and under “Customize your home page”, turn “Show menu bar” off. Then go check your Home page and New Tabs to see if it’s fixed. If so, try turning “Show menu bar” back on and see if it STAYS fixed!
Thank you! That worked for me as well
Microsoft is wetting itself. Pathetic. They repair one issue, another one appears, sometimes tied to the previous fix. Medicine for a sick body. Over two years the Win10 calamity appeared, never managed to take-off and hardly avoiding a total crash with discontinued patches, like one medicine after another.
M$FT: “This is a NEW FEATURE!”
I spent an hour last night trying to remove this because I thought it was malware. Then I realized it showed up only on my new tab screen, and began to wonder about my recent windows update.
9/16/2017 – I just noticed that a web search bar for Bing appeared in Microsoft Edge along with my default Google web search bar (Windows 10 OS). The new search bar overlaps the selection below and from an aesthetic point looks awful. It makes web page selections below it unreadable. I’ve found plenty of quirks with Edge already let alone MS adding more.
Do not use GarbEdge!!! Those who use it are idiots!
@Jeff – A lot of people don’t use it as their main browser…..
Seeing issues like this crop up is kind of odd with a company like Microsoft that has so many employees and so many resources, plus a sort of optional permanent rolling public beta channel for the general public (This is not a dig at their stable rolling version of Windows 10 that people use by default- there is actually a testing version that you can sign up for that gets updates “early” with the understanding that you acknowledge there could be issues and you’re basically getting it early so they can fix the issues before rolling it out to everyone else.) that I would imagine probably has the largest number of people to ever participate in basically a permanent rolling public beta or testing version.
Something like this to me points to the possibility that Microsoft isn’t dogfooding their own browser, so its not getting enough direct use within the company to spot this stuff before updates go out to the general public, and that the members of the general public on the testing buildings of Windows 10 use other browsers as well. In a way, its kind of reminscent of that time a Mozilla employee wrote a blog defending his organization’s main product, Firefox, while offhandedly admitting he usually uses Chrome as his primary browser.
I’m not saying this to bash Edge or promote Chrome, neither of which is my primary PC or phone browser. I have no dog in this hunt. However, it looks bad when a company doesn’t seem to be using its own browser. Granted, this really only points to the idea that they weren’t using the beta versions, and beta versions aren’t suitable for a lot of things because they haven’t been, well, tested- that’s why you have betas, to tesr them and work out the kinks. They aren’t getting from A to B here, though.
A one browser monoculture is bad for the web. I don’t care whether it was Internet Explorer in the late 90s or Google Chrome today. Thats not saying anything about the quality of those browsers or lack thereof in an abstract sense, I’m saying that not all users are alike, and because of that, having choices is good, because even if a browser can cater to most of the people most of the time successfully, it won’t be right for everyone.
Further, if one browser takes over, websites start to only work in that browser, creating barriers to competition. This can be the result of intent by the company making the leading browser at any given time, but it doesn’t have to be, and if it is, it often isn’t the sole reason it happens- its natural for web designers to take the easy way out and just design stuff once to run in one browser if they can get away with it.
The ideal situation is probably 5-6 browsers with near equal marketshare. That keeps web designers having to write their pages to work with anything that follows open standards, and ensures people have real choice. It even allows a bunch of smaller browsers beyond those that appeal to a niche to exist, because pages won’t cater to them, but if the pages are used to catering to standards and not arbitrarily refusing to work with certain browsers, the little guys have a shot.
Some services like Directv Now are being designed to only work with Google Chrome. That’s a bad sign. We’re headed into browser monopoly territory. The owners of smaller browsers like Vivaldi and Pale Moon have pretty openly said Google is intentionally pulling some shannigans and leveraging their monopolies in web services and advertising to hurt upstart competitors in the browser field to the advantage of Chrome.
I’m not a Microsoft fanboy or anything and rarely use Edge, but it’d be good to see Edge establish an identity for itself and gain marketshare. Ditto Firefox. Ditto whatever browser. The first step might be to say that any employees working on company computers at the office, or working from home, need to use the browser their company makes exclusively while on the clock- those people using it wouldn’t by itself make a dent in the marketshare, even Microsoft doesn’t have *that* many employees, but it would give the browser developers an incentive to make a better browser and get this stuff right before its released- because they would have to use it and everyone they work with would have to use it, and they’d experience personal frustration and hear it from their co-workers when they messed up.
As long as people are working on “someone else’s” browser and don’t have to actually use it or deal with people who have to use it, human nature is that it may not be as good as it otherwise could be.
Granted, some employees at a company like Microsoft would need to use other browsers to make sure their websites and services render smoothly in them and such, but those specific people who need to use other browsers for reasons like that could perhaps be given waviers that are only granted on a “need to use” basis, and have to be reapplied for periodically.
Of course, we’re only talking during work hours and on company hardware and such here. If employees choose to use another company’s browser on their own computer they bought off the clock at home, that’s their right.
But one gets the feeling half the people at these other companies that make are using Chrome as their main browser at work, which is not the way to compete with Chrome and build a better browser.
More competition in the search market would be good too, but forcing users to use the operating system or browser’s preferred search engine isn’t the right way to achieve that. User’s should get their own choice at every level of the stack- hardware, OS, browser/software, search engines, and services (If desired). Not saying Microsoft is doing this on purpose, though. Just saying that doing it on purpose would be bad- wouldn’t be the right way to do things.
I don’t seem to have any issues on Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.
@ Weilan
This bug affects Edge. The Edge browser does not run natively on Win 7.
Absolutely amazing, judging from the number of comments here, that so many people appear to be actually using Edge! Perhaps, for the occasion, all Edge users in the entire world gathered on this single page?
@Weilan: I’m happy to confirm that on Windows 8.1 x64 Pro, there are no issues either.
I got this exact problem. Started 15 September after an auto update from MS. I opened a chat box to ask MS support how to remove the annoying Bing search bar. The operator claimed that I needed to have paid-for support to get a solution, but she did email me a suggestion. But all that did was explain the simple procedure to change the default search engine in Edge. Completely useless! I will now try Darrin’s fix……
…… it worked. Thanks Darrin!
I have yet to experience this bug while using Edge (thankfully), but it definitely is embarrassing on Microsoft’s part. Bit of a shame too since I like what little I have used Edge and hope that continuing updates will only make it better. It hasn’t replaced Firefox for me, because of the bugs and occasional issues I have using the browser with certain website, but the more good browsers consumers have to compete with Chrome, the better off all web users will have it.
Driving me nuts. Tried the bing solution and it is still there. Any other ideas?
Turning off Top Sites and Feed and only showing a blank page worked for me