I've been using macs for 10-15 years so my knowledge base on Windows is dated and could use some help. I've googled the heck out of this and nothing I do lasts after a restart/shutdown.

I have a Lenovo Ideapad running Windows 11 Home. It defaults my search engine to Yahoo after a restart. I can change it to Google or whatever but it reverts back to Yahoo every time I turn off and start back up. This is on the Chrome browser.

I change it by going to the three dots upper right > settings > Search Engine > manage search engine to change it.

I would be happy to get rid of Yahoo forever but mostly I just need the search engine I pick to stay and not default to Yahoo every time I restart.

Kinda sounds like some malware to me. At least, that's what I'd be looking at with that kind of behavior.

At the very least, I'd recommend trying out Brave Browser.

in chrome settings: where you select "google search", also check/select what to open on startup.

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:
in chrome settings: where you select "google search", also check/select what to open on startup.

I don't see the option open at startup.

I can also select delete Yahoo in the settings of chrome and it disappears but comes back on startup

Chromes tips on how to set it, and if it doesn't work, how to id and remove malware

https://support.google.com/chr...E.Platform%3DDesktop

What does Default browser say in chrome just below search engine on settings page?

I would uninstall Chrome if I were you and use a different browser instead. If you must use Chrome, download a fresh copy directly from Google and reinstall it after uninstalling the default installation.

You got McAffee on that thing? My laptop has it, I just never got around to taking it off because I'm lazy, but occasionally it'll trick me somehow, and McAffee will change my default to Yahoo.

quote:

Originally posted by airsoft guy:
You got McAffee on that thing? My laptop has it, I just never got around to taking it off because I'm lazy, but occasionally it'll trick me somehow, and McAffee will change my default to Yahoo.

I think this likely is the problem. Can I remove McAffee?

You should be able to right click the icon for McAffee in the start menu and click on uninstall to remove it. Do a search on "Remove McAffee completely from PC" to see if there are any issues you might need to be aware of.

To remove absolutely everything, McAfee has an exe file called MCPR.exe.

It's on their site.

I uninstalled McAfee months ago to try and fix this problem. I don't see it anywhere on my computer when I search but I could be missing something.

lbj I don't see that file either when I search.

When I go to settings in Chrome, then search engines, and then manage search engines I have a few but what is of interest is one with the yahoo simple the says "Secure Search (Default)
mcafee"

I can delete it and it's gone until I restart then it's back and it's the default search engine in Chrome. I can't find Yahoo or Mcaffe on my computer though.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Kinda sounds like some malware to me. At least, that's what I'd be looking at with that kind of behavior.

At the very least, I'd recommend trying out Brave Browser.

I've been using Brave, but found that there are a number of sites that do not work with it. I've had to revert to Firefox for some applications.

flashguy

My PC came with the McAfee suite pre-installed as well.

It seems that the McAfee product is actually multiple separate applications.
McAfee WebAdvisor is what handles the default search engine.
When I uninstalled McAfee, the uninstall for WebAdvisor was a separate task.

I found a couple of articles on the McAfee site that looks like they might be useful.

1. https://www.mcafee.com/support...l&shell=article-view
This article describes "McAfee WebAdvisor changed my search engine"

2. https://www.mcafee.com/support...l&shell=article-view
This article describes "How to disable or uninstall McAfee WebAdvisor"

Hope this helps.

That can happen with malware.
Not usually too serious but the fix is by using MalwareBytes, Reset your browser and clear dns cache (CMD: ipconfig /flushdns).

Patrick Thank you. Those articles did the trick.

For anyone else interested McAfee was pre-installed on my computer. With all their junk was a separate app called "WebAdvisor". So it never showed up when I looked and searched for McAfee or Yahoo which I had already uninstalled. It seems this app/program keep changing my setting every time I restarted my computer.

quote:

Originally posted by Patrick-SP2022:
My PC came with the McAfee suite pre-installed as well.

It seems that the McAfee product is actually multiple separate applications.
McAfee WebAdvisor is what handles the default search engine.
When I uninstalled McAfee, the uninstall for WebAdvisor was a separate task.

I found a couple of articles on the McAfee site that looks like they might be useful.

1. https://www.mcafee.com/support...l&shell=article-view
This article describes "McAfee WebAdvisor changed my search engine"

2. https://www.mcafee.com/support...l&shell=article-view
This article describes "How to disable or uninstall McAfee WebAdvisor"

Hope this helps.

Once you fix this problem, get rid of anything related to Mcafee or other third party antivirus software.
The Windows 10 standard stuff is fine.