“Search with Bing” is Now Default Action in Edge Mini Menu on Text Selection
If you use Microsoft Edge web browser and you like its built-in Mini Menu feature which appears in form of a tiny or compact menu when you select some text on a webpage, here is some important news for you.
Microsoft has made some changes to the Mini Menu in Edge web browser. Now when you select some text on a website, the “Search” option appears by default in the Mini Menu instead of the “Copy” option.
Following screenshot shows the Search option showing as default and at the top in Edge Mini Menu on text selection:
Advertisement
In previous versions of Edge browser, the “Copy” option used to appear on the top so that users could easily copy the selected text. But in newer versions of Edge (v109 and later), the “Copy” option has been replaced by “Search” option as default.
Now when you select some text in Edge and the Mini Menu appears automatically, you get the “Search” option as the default action to select. If you click on the 3-dots menu (Expand Menu), then you get other options including the “Copy” option.
If you click on the “Search” option of Mini Menu while selecting some text present on a webpage, Edge opens Bing search page for the selected text in its sidebar or side panel as shown in following screenshot:
Our reader “Bob” notified us about this change:
Advertisement
I was loving the MINI MENU when I highlighted text, until today. Now the first menu item is “Search with Bing” instead of copy and an additional click is required to copy. Can this menu be edited?
Unfortunately, the new “Search” option can’t be removed from the Mini Menu. Also there is no way to restore “Copy” option as default and put at the top in Edge Mini Menu.
PS: You can use the Ctrl+C keyboard shortcut to quickly copy the selected text.
In the mean time, if you find the Mini Menu unnecessary and annoying in Edge browser, you can disable it using following steps:
1. Click on the main 3-dots menu button present at the right-side of the toolbar in Edge and select Settings option from the main menu. Now click on Appearance tab in left sidebar and in right-side pane, scroll down to bottom and look for Mini menu on text selection section.
OR
You can also directly open Appearance Settings page using edge://settings/appearance URL in address bar.
2. To disable the Mini Menu feature, set the “Show mini menu when selecting text” toggle option to OFF.
That’s it. It’ll immediately disable and remove the Mini Menu feature and no menu will automatically appear when you try to select some text on a webpage. You can still select some text and right-click on it to get all options such as copy, etc.
Also Check:
Disable Text Prediction and Microsoft Editor in Microsoft Edge
[Tip] Enable or Disable New Sidebar in Microsoft Edge
[Tip] Disable Visual Search Icon on Image Hover in Microsoft Edge
I swear, UI designers just need to break things in order to justify their jobs. It makes no sense otherwise.
It was perfect before, it had a few options i’d use often. I often need to copy a text to paste it in other places, not just searching the internet.
Now the mini menu is 2 extra click for no reason if i need the options at the end. All to promote their garbage search.
Now i’ll disable this menu and never know if they ever fix it because i won’t be bothered to check it myself.
Good job, UI designer at microsoft, you ruined a good feature, congrats.
Why on earth make such silly, unwanted changes to a working system? And…to do so without any notification or new instruction guides to users! That’s extremely thoughtless! Before we finally find that Microsoft has made big changes most of us spend hours trying to restore our settings, etc. Terrible service!!!
Thanks for mentioning me. I have disabled the MINI MENU due to it’s now uselessness. Welcome back Ctrl-C!
I use that right click copy function for work ALL DAY and now I have this Bing search option! I disabled the mini menu. Way to make more work for people who use the computer in their daily work life.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
@Alex, I think it’s a business decision rather than the UI designer’s decision.
Thank you, I was going crazy with this behavior.
That was an incredibly quick and useful tool to be a to quickly copy test to the clipboard. So out of touch.