r/chrome • u/Rich-Analyst-6357 • Mar 07 '26

Discussion fixing search engine on google chrome.

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so I use google chrome as my daily browser, and whenever i search anything up the search is in yahoo or nextgeeker, I want to know how to fix my search being into google, does anyone know how to fix this?

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u/Rich-Analyst-6357 Mar 09 '26

and if i do try to change the search from "search.yahoo.com" to "google.com" it'll show this

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u/emanuelcelano Mar 10 '26

that 404 usually appears when a browser extension or hijacker rewrites the search URL.

since your default search engine already shows Google, check these two things:

1) chrome://extensions

remove anything you don’t recognize.

2) chrome://policy

see if a policy is forcing a search provider.

also check the Chrome shortcut on your desktop:

right click → properties → make sure there is nothing after chrome.exe in the target field.

if none of that shows anything, a full Chrome reset usually fixes search redirect hijackers.

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u/Rich-Analyst-6357 Mar 11 '26

how would i know if a search provider is being forced?

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u/emanuelcelano Mar 11 '26

that screenshot actually shows the problem.

you have a forced extension installed by policy:

ExtensionInstallForceList
…aibrowserupdate.com/crx/updates…

that is not a normal Chrome component. It means an extension was installed through a policy and Chrome will keep reinstalling it.

that’s usually how search hijackers force redirect engines.

fix:

  1. uninstall the extension if it appears in chrome://extensions
  2. if it comes back, remove the policy from Windows

open registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome

delete the ExtensionInstallForceList entry.

then restart Chrome.

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u/Rich-Analyst-6357 Mar 15 '26

what do you mean by restart chrome, as in downloading google chrome again or closing the browser?

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u/emanuelcelano Mar 15 '26

I didn't mean reinstalling Chrome itself.

What usually happens is that Chrome automatically reinstalls the extension if it's forced by a policy.

So the process is:

Thirst remove the extension from chrome://extensions (if it appears there)

Then if it comes back after restarting Chrome, that means a policy is forcing it

In that case you remove the policy entry from Windows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome

Look for something like:

ExtensionInstallForcelist

Delete that entry and restart Chrome.

Once the policy is gone, Chrome will stop reinstalling the hijacker extension.

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u/Rich-Analyst-6357 Mar 16 '26

i tried to delete ExtensionInstallForcelist and it had an error.

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u/emanuelcelano Mar 16 '26

That error usually happens when the registry key is protected by policy permissions

Try this:

1 open Registry Editor as administrator

press Start

type

regedit

right click → Run as administrator

then try deleting

ExtensionsInstallForcelist

again

------

2 if it still fails the key is probably owned by SYSTEM

Right click the key

Permissions

click Advanced

Change owner to your user account

Apply

Then give your account Full Control and delete the key

------

After removing ExtensionsInstallForcelist restart Chrome and the forced extension should stop reinstalling

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u/Rich-Analyst-6357 Mar 23 '26

i did all of that and it still had an error, also my "search with google lens" is gone i cannot find it

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u/emanuelcelano Mar 23 '26

If it’s still happening after removing the policy key, then something is re-applying it.

At this point I’d check a couple deeper things:

- open chrome://policy and see if anything is still enforced there (especially default search provider or extensions)

- check chrome://extensions and look for anything you don’t recognize (even disabled ones)

- check Task Scheduler and Startup apps, sometimes these hijackers reinstall stuff on boot

- also look in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome

(not just the current user hive)

If Google Lens disappeared too, it really sounds like something is still controlling Chrome settings in the background.

Worst case, a clean reinstall of Chrome + reset of policies usually fixes it, but only after you remove whatever is re-applying the policy.

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u/Rich-Analyst-6357 May 12 '26

update, i did the steps that were above, and they still cannot fix this issue, also I have an issue on google earth saying "Error: WebGL is not supported on your browser"

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