Microsoft’s mission to push Chrome users to the Edge has made plenty of headlines. And it now seems that if it can’t convince users to switch browsers, switching search engines is the next best thing. Chrome is clearly less trouble if Bing is being used.
That’s the implication behind the latest warning hitting Windows users around the world, as a Microsoft app is accused of secretly decrypting Chrome tracking cookies, installing Bing search, and of course driving users to switch to Edge.
The free Bing Wallpaper app is a good wallpaper app—nice, high-quality images to freshen up the Windows 11 experience. But it’s what’s going on under the covers that’s making headlines, as exposed by a teardown published on X.
Windows developer Rafael Rivera responded to another X user who had corrected the misconception that the free wallpaper app was priced at $50, posting it’s “probably safer to pay $50 than install this on your machine. It will automatically install Bing Visual Search and has code to peruse and decrypt your Edge and Chrome cookies.”
The consensus is to avoid the app. As The Register explains, “in short, you might want to take a pass on installing this one – it’s another in a long line of questionable data gathering practices by Microsoft that show no sign of slowing down – after all, if the app is free, the company will surely seek some way to monetize it.”
Rivera’s thread includes screenshots of the app nagging users to set Bing as the default search engine on Chrome, Firefox and Edge. And his deep dive into what’s taking place behind the scenes led to various worrying headlines suggesting the app actually exhibits malware-like behaviors.
“Microsoft is up to some shady old tricks again with the new Bing Wallpaper app,” says Windows Central, “yet again we’re talking about underhanded tactics to force Bing/Edge on users, rather than selling the products on their merits.”
Neowin goes further, suggesting that “Microsoft’s free Bing Wallpaper app for Windows is borderline malware.” It’s obviously not malware, but it does revisit the questions as to where the red line is between operating an OS and pushing products to users of that OS in a way that disadvantages the competition. Microsoft has done the same under the guise of improving enterprise security.
We’ve seen this before with Chrome installs on new Windows machines interrupted with pushes to Edge as an alternative, and the automated transfer of bookmarks and other data from Chrome to Edge to help simplify conversion.
Microsoft told The Register that “the Bing Wallpaper app does not peruse and decrypt all user Edge and Chrome cookies.” The qualified response is notable, and The Register added that “Microsoft further noted that the app performs a Bing cookie check to avoid repeatedly offering users the Bing app if it’s already installed, but didn’t otherwise address the app’s handling of cookies.”
The wallpaper app isn’t new but it is new to the Windows Store. And while these practices play into an already sensitive audience, there is also something akin to buyer beware when installing an app with Bing in its name.
There is also an irony where it comes to the Chrome element of this criticism. Google has itself just come under fire for inserting its own search links into other people’s websites, and an unduly painful process required to turn it off.
Still, my advice would be to avoid the app and not to install it on your PC. Probably best to avoid any apps with this much activity taking place in the background when the focus is clearly to drive you in certain directions and to certain products.
I have contacted Microsoft for any further comments on this latest furor.
