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Many of us are taking the google search engine for granted and it is no true that it has crawled in almost every spore of our digital lives but if we wanted a little more privacy? Do we have options or we are destined to use google and send our information to this company. What if we really wanted that our searches are well safe, secure, and private? We could try other search engines like BING but since BING belongs to Microsoft we would exchange only one company for another without making any progress in the privacy battle. Enter DuckDuckGo.
DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine that’s been online since 2008. Find websites, maps, videos, news, and more without tracking your searches and serving you targetted ads. It took DUckDuckGo as you can tell sometimes to gain ground and to be recognized but finally, it got the attention it deserves. Its big breakthrough happened in September of 2014 when Apple offered it as a default search engine in Safari and since it has gained more and more ground. It seems people care about their privacy after all.
Since then DuckDuckGo has been gaining ground and all the major browsers have integrated it as an option for a default search engine.
In this article, we will show you how to switch to DuckDuckGo and set it as your preferred search engine in all major browsers.
Launch Chrome and click on the three dots in the upper right.
Choose settings.
Choose Search engine in the list on the left of the screen.
Click on the drop-down box next to Search engine used in the address bar and choose DuckDuckGo.
Launch Firefox, click on the three lines hamburger menu icon in the top-right corner of the window.
Click on Preferences.
Click on Search in the menu to the left of the screen.
Under Default Search Engine, click the drop-down box and choose DuckDuckGo.
Click on the three dots menu button in the top-right corner of the window
Then select Settings.
Click on Privacy, Search and Services in the menu that appears on the left
Scroll down to the Services menu and choose Address bar and search.
Click the dropdown menu next to Search engine used in the address bar and choose DuckDuckGo.
Click Safari in the menu bar at the top of the screen
Then click Preferences.
You can also use the Command+, shortcut to quickly bring up Safari’s Preferences.
Click on the Search tab, then choose DuckDuckGo under the Search engine drop-down box.
Click on the Settings cog button in the sidebar on the left of the screen.
Under Basic settings scroll down until you see Search engine and a drop-down box.
Select DuckDuckGo from the list.
“There were some problems installing updates, but we’ll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information this may help: (0x8024002e)”.Common symptoms include:
“Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.” This means you do not have any missing or damaged system files.OR you may receive a message saying:
“Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.”To resolve this problem, run the System File Checker in safe mode and make sure that the PendingDeletes and PendingRenames folders exist under %WinDir%WinSxSTemp.
OR you may also receive a message saying, “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log%WinDir%LogsCBSCBS.log.” OR you may receive a message saying, “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log%WinDir%LogsCBSCBS.log.”
PrivacyAssistant is a browser extension developed by SearchAssistant.net. These extensions allegedly offer users a safer way to browse the internet and some other tools to customize the home page with background wallpapers and one-click links that can be added. While all this may sound appealing, PrivacyAssistant also monitors your browser activity, search quarries, clicks, visits, and possibly personal information.
This extension changes your default home page to SearchAssistant.com and rerouting all searches through its search portal, displaying sponsored links instead of your typical search results. While active you may see unwanted ads and even pop-up ads appearing while browsing the internet.
Several anti-virus programs have classified this extension as a Browser Hijacker, and are, therefore, for security reasons, not recommended to keep on your computer.
PuzzleGamesDaily is a Browser extension developed by Mindspark. This extension monitors user activity such as website visits, clicked links and other web-related tasks that It later uses to display targeted ads.
When installed it changed the default home page, search engine and new tab page to MyWay.com, and while browsing the internet with this extension active you will see additional pop-up ads, injected (unwanted) ads, and sponsored links during your browsing sessions.
From the Terms of Use: You hereby acknowledge and agree that by using an MS Product you may be exposed to Content that may be offensive, indecent or objectionable in your community […] MS Products are exposed to various security issues, and should be regarded as insecure. By accepting this Agreement, you acknowledge and accept that the MS Products and any information you download or offer to share by means of an MS Product, may be exposed to unauthorized access, interception, corruption, damage, or misuse, and should be regarded as insecure. You accept all responsibility for such security risks and any damage resulting therefrom.
This extension has been marked as a Browser Hijacker by several anti-virus scanners and has been flagged for optional removal. It is not considered malicious but many users wish to remove it due to the above reasons.
MyWebFace is a browser extension developed by Mindspark. This extension claims to allow users to easily access websites that allow them to make a cartoon portrait of themselves. While this may seem interesting in the beginning, all this extension does is to add links to already popular websites that are easy to find.
When installed MyWebFace changes your default search engine and your home page to MyWay.com.
While the extension is running it gathers user browsing information, allowing it to mine data and better server unwanted ads throughout your browsing sessions. MyWebFace has been marked as a Browser Hijacker by many anti-virus programs, and while not considered malware, it is not recommended to keep it on your computer.