Microsoft has gone too far promoting Bing search as Windows 11 users once again have to suffer a confusing and strange ‘feature’ in the Bing Wallpaper app
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- An annoying feature has been reintroduced to the Bing Wallpaper app
- This means that those who click on a blank space on the Windows 11 desktop will launch a Bing search in their default browser.
- Unlike the last time Microsoft tried this trick, this time there is no way to disable the capability.
Microsoft is up to its old tricks again, except this time it’s even worse: with a scheme whereby Windows 11 users with the Bing Wallpaper app installed are sent to its search engine with a simple stray click on the desktop.
Windows Latest reports that an old and potentially nasty shortcut has been reintroduced to the Bing Wallpaper app, whereby clicking anywhere on the Windows 11 desktop triggers a (separate) Bing engine search (in your default web browser).
If you remember, this happened a year ago, but Microsoft changed course, although it now appears to be trying to reintroduce this feature. The difference is that this time, Windows Latest points out that there is no option to disable the functionality (which was present last year, in the application settings).
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However, there are a few points to note here: Firstly, you should choose to install the Bing Wallpaper app (which rotates Bing images daily for your desktop background). It’s not a default Windows 11 app, so it’s not something Microsoft is pushing directly to Windows users.
Second, Bing search doesn’t trigger every time you click on a blank part of the desktop (a space without a file, folder, or icon). You do it once and then the Bing search won’t activate for 24 hours. In other words, you will only experience this once a day.
Analysis: Microsoft must do better
Just because this app isn’t part of Windows 11 by default doesn’t give Microsoft the excuse to push features like this. It will just annoy or even confuse people if they accidentally click on the desktop and end up loading a Bing search.
The search relates to the wallpaper image, in case you’re curious, and fair enough: maybe some people might be curious and really want to know more about the image by clicking on it.
However, this should be an optional ability and one that can be activated, not something that is enabled by default. What’s even worse is that in this new incarnation of the Bing-clicking charade, you can’t even turn it off if you want to.
Why does Microsoft engage in this kind of nonsense to promote its own services? I can’t really begin to guess given that 2026 is the year that Windows 11 will be fixed and all OS-related ills will be cured, and while this app may not be part of the OS, it is still an official piece of Microsoft software, and there should be no place for this cynical Bing traffic capture or any other remotely anti-consumer practice.
Whether it’s part of Windows by default or not, or whether you have to be “dumb” to install the Bing Wallpaper app, as some online commentators argue, is beside the point. Microsoft is supposedly better than this now, but another episode with a recent Harry Potter ad in this Bing app – one that sparked considerable rebellion – suggests it needs to try harder.
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