Automatically Deployed Add-on for Google Chrome to Set Bing as Default Search Engine for Office 365 ProPlus Users

On January 23, 2020, Microsoft announced it would automatically deploy a Google Chrome add-on that changes the default search engine to Bing for Office 365 ProPlus users in seven countries: the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and India.

The rollout occurs in stages based on an organization’s Release Channel selection. The Monthly Channel (Targeted) began receiving the update in mid-February 2020 with Version 2002, followed by the Monthly Channel in early March, Semi-Annual (Targeted) on March 10, and Semi-Annual on July 14, 2020.

This change affects all new and existing Office 365 ProPlus installations unless specific preventative measures are taken. Organizations can block the deployment through multiple methods.

Prevention Methods

Group Policy. Organizations should download and deploy Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) from Microsoft’s website, then enable the setting “Don’t install extension for Microsoft Search in Bing that makes Bing the default search engine” under Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2016 (Machine)\Updates.

Configuration Manager. Navigate to the Features section and toggle “Set default search engine to Microsoft Search in Bing” to Off.

Intune. At the time of writing, the toggle was not yet available but would appear in the Configure App Suite pane.

Windows Registry. Update [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officeupdate] with "preventbinginstall"=dword:00000001. Microsoft provides a PowerShell script through AdminDroid for automating this deployment.

Intent

Microsoft seeks to integrate Microsoft Search functionality with Bing, enabling users to see both internal corporate documents and public search results in a single interface when searching through the browser.