Firefox won't redirect Windows 10 "Hey Cortana" searches
I am running Firefox 42.0 on Windows 10. The OS correctly recognizes Firefox as my default browser and uses my default search engine for most Cortana searches, but any initiated with the "Hey Cortana" voice command are performed via Bing rather than my default search engine (no matter what it's set to). This does not affect searches typed into Cortana or voice searches performed after clicking the microphone icon within Cortana.
I've tried restarting Firefox in Safe Mode and refreshing the profile to no avail. I have double-checked that the "Use this search engine for searches from Windows" option is checked and that the "browser.search.redirectWindowsSearch" about:config option is set to True (as well as manually toggling the option from both locations).
The setting worked when first introduced in Firefox 40, but stopped some time ago.
Chosen solution
Could you... grab the exact URL of your "Hey Cortana" search results page?
Windows adds different parameters to different kinds of system-generated searches, and Firefox only changes the search site for the ones it is coded to handle, all others just pass through unchanged. Currently, Firefox looks for form= or FORM= these:
- WNSGPH
- WNSBOX
- WNSFC2
You might have discovered a new one that needs to be added.
It looks like someone started the process of getting this fixed but never gave that critical information:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1215948
Hopefully you have the secret.
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (4)
Chosen Solution
Could you... grab the exact URL of your "Hey Cortana" search results page?
Windows adds different parameters to different kinds of system-generated searches, and Firefox only changes the search site for the ones it is coded to handle, all others just pass through unchanged. Currently, Firefox looks for form= or FORM= these:
- WNSGPH
- WNSBOX
- WNSFC2
You might have discovered a new one that needs to be added.
It looks like someone started the process of getting this fixed but never gave that critical information:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1215948
Hopefully you have the secret.
If I do "Hey Cortana, Star Trek," this is the Bing URL I end up with: https://www.bing.com/search?q=Star%20Trek.&input=2&nclid=C1A156CE9DAEF4A1BFBAEE12388D98D7&form=WNSHCO&cc=US&setlang=en-US
Compare that to the Google URL I get when I type in "star trek" into Cortana's search: https://www.google.com/search?q=star+trek&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
So I'm seeing form=WNSHCO in the URL ("WiNdowS Hey COrtana"?). Maybe the Firefox code just needs to be updated to include this one with the three you mentioned. I'll happily enter it on the Bugzilla entry you linked to as well. Thanks!
Thanks for updating Bugzilla.