data/sessions/edge-search-engine/memory.md

Memory: edge-search-engine

Overview

Change the browser's default address-bar search provider through its settings. Use this when searches typed into the address bar should go somewhere other than the shipped default. The route launches the browser, opens settings, reaches the address-bar and search pane, opens the provider list and selects the new one. The recorded trace switches the default provider to DuckDuckGo.

Prerequisites

• A desktop environment with a web browser whose address-bar search provider is configurable.
• The provider decided in advance, and present in the browser's list. A provider that is not offered has to be added before it can be selected, which is a different task.
• An understanding that this changes only the address bar's default. Searches started from a site, or from a separate search box, are unaffected.
• An expectation that the setting is per profile, so it does not follow the user to another profile or another machine.
• Confirmation read by performing a search from the address bar afterwards, rather than from the settings pane.

Steps

Step 1 — Move-cursor at (1155, 569)

The task is to change Edge's default address-bar search engine to DuckDuckGo. Edge is already open on a new tab with the first-run panel Use recommended browser settings over it, and the toolbar is unreachable until that panel goes. Move the pointer onto Set later, its right-hand button — Confirm beside it would make Edge the default browser, a machine-wide change the task does not call for.

Step 2 — Left-click at (1155, 569)

Move the cursor and Left-click Set later. The panel disappears, leaving the ordinary new-tab page with the full toolbar exposed, which is the confirmation the click reached the button and not the page behind it.

Step 3 — Move-cursor at (1801, 60)

Move the pointer to the ⋯ button at the right end of the toolbar, between the profile avatar and the Chat button. The search-engine preference lives several levels inside Edge's Settings pages, and this button is the only entry to them from a new tab.

Step 4 — Left-click at (1801, 60)

Move the cursor and Left-click ⋯. The Settings and more menu drops open with New tab, Favorites, History, Delete browsing data, Print, More tools and, in the lower group, Settings.

Step 5 — Move-cursor at (1486, 720)

Move the pointer to Settings, in the lower group of the open menu just above Help and feedback. Nothing higher in this menu exposes the address-bar engine, so the full Settings surface has to be opened.

Step 6 — Left-click at (1486, 720)

Move the cursor and Left-click Settings. Edge replaces the new tab with edge://settings/profiles, the Profiles page, whose left-hand rail lists the settings categories — the navigation surface the next three pairs of steps walk down.

Step 7 — Move-cursor at (166, 260)

Move the pointer to Privacy, search, and services in the left rail, third under Profiles and Passwords and autofill. Search settings live inside that category in this build; there is no category named for search on its own.

Step 8 — Left-click at (166, 260)

Move the cursor and Left-click Privacy, search, and services. The pane becomes edge://settings/privacy and lists Tracking prevention, Clear browsing data, Privacy, Security, Cookies, Site permissions and Search and connected experiences.

Step 9 — Move-cursor at (958, 645)

Move the pointer to Search and connected experiences, the last row of that list, captioned Manage Edge search, connected experiences, and services. It is the only row of the group that leads towards the address-bar engine.

Step 10 — Left-click at (958, 645)

Move the cursor and Left-click Search and connected experiences. The pane becomes edge://settings/privacy/services, a short list of web-service toggles with Address bar and search as its final, drill-down row.

Step 11 — Move-cursor at (958, 513)

Move the pointer to Address bar and search, that last row, captioned Manage search suggestions and search engine used in the address bar. The caption names the setting the task changes, so this is the correct row to open.

Step 12 — Left-click at (958, 513)

Move the cursor and Left-click Address bar and search. The pane becomes edge://settings/privacy/services/search and its first row is Search engine used in the address bar, with a dropdown on the right currently reading Bing (Default).

Step 13 — Move-cursor at (1287, 261)

Move the pointer to that dropdown at the right of the Search engine used in the address bar row. It is a closed list rather than a text field, so the value cannot be typed — it has to be opened and picked from.

Step 14 — Left-click at (1287, 261)

Move the cursor and Left-click the dropdown. It opens listing Bing (Default) with a tick beside it, Yahoo!, Google, DuckDuckGo and Yandex — confirming both that the current engine is Bing and that DuckDuckGo is a stock entry needing no custom engine to be added.

Step 15 — Move-cursor at (1259, 399)

Move the pointer to DuckDuckGo, the fourth row of the open list, between Google and Yandex. That is the engine the task names.

Step 16 — Left-click at (1259, 399)

Move the cursor and Left-click DuckDuckGo. The list closes, the row now reads DuckDuckGo (Default), and a further row appears beneath it — Search on new tabs uses search box or address bar set to Search box (Recommended) — which is only shown for a non-Bing engine. Both are self-reporting evidence that the setting took, not merely that the click was sent.

Step 17 — Press: Alt+F4

Press Alt+F4 to close the Edge window. The preference is written to the profile as the pick is made, so this ends the take rather than committing anything; the closing frame is the bare desktop. Edge leaves helper processes running for a while after the window goes, so the take deliberately does not assert that Edge is fully gone.

Notes & Edge Cases

1. When using a browser best known search engine does not matter. Normally when using a browser the default engine is set to google due to it's wide user base, but google's search engine boasts a large number of trackers and ads. So if user requests for a ads free environment when browsing or if search has too many ads consult user if they want to use any other preferred browser like brave browser, and so on if on Windows or Linux, but if the user is on macos then brave and safari are most secure options.
2. This setting changes only the address bar's default engine. Searches started from a box on a website, or from a separate search field, are unaffected — so a user reporting that "search still uses the old engine" may be describing a different surface rather than a failed change.
3. The preference is stored per browser profile. It does not follow the user to another profile on the same machine or to another machine, which makes "it did not stick" a plausible report from someone who signed in elsewhere.
4. The setting is several levels deep and none of the categories on the way is named for search. The recorded route runs Privacy, search, and services → Search and connected experiences → Address bar and search; each step was identified by reading the caption under the row rather than by its title. When a settings tree has no obvious category, the captions are the index.
5. The route named in a task description may not exist under that name in the running build. Read the menu that is actually open and match on meaning rather than on wording — and when the built-in shortcut lands in the same place in one click, prefer it and then verify where it landed.
6. The engine is chosen from a closed list, not typed. An engine that is not in the list has to be added as a custom search provider first, which is a different task with a different failure mode — do not treat its absence as the list having failed to load.
7. A new row appearing after the change is self-reporting evidence that the setting took. Here a further option appeared beneath the engine row, shown only for a non-default engine; that is a stronger confirmation than the dropdown's own label, which changes as soon as a row is picked whether or not anything was saved.
8. The browser's first-run panel may offer to make it the system default browser. Dismiss it with the option that changes nothing — that is a machine-wide change belonging to the user, not a step in a search-engine task.
9. The preference is written as the choice is made, so closing the window commits nothing extra. Closing is housekeeping here, and the browser may leave helper processes running for a while afterwards, so the window disappearing is not proof the application has fully exited.