I have setup Google as my default search engine in Edge.
If I open a new tab, and see "Where to next?" I have a problem that if I enter a search that has a "." it will fail.
i.e. Search for
"how to boot from NVMe m.2 SSD"
I get an error saying:
Hmm, we can't reach this page.
Try this
•Make sure you’ve got the right web address:
•Refresh the page
•Search for what you want
If I take out "." it works.
"how to boot from NVMe m2 SSD"
Has anybody seen this?
Hi, it depends- if you mean an exact search using " " to exactly specify the search string as here:
Then you get no results. (That's DuckDuckGo in Firefox). Don't know why you get such an obscure message with Edge.
Whereas see this:
no quotes. just text in quotes
Just that text in Edge works ok for me.. using Bing. (I don't use Edge normally). Ok with Google in FF, and ok in Edge if I first go to google, then search.
I have had this in the past, but cannot replicate it now
For me it was a setting in IE, even though you are using Edge
See what you have this set to
I have the box checked.
It is definitely something I have set incorrectly. I tried it on my laptop that I don't use as much and it works fine.
Not sure how much more I am going to fiddle with it, as I am getting a new computer in a week (why I was searching for M.2 SSD) and will just be reinstalling, so hopefully the setting won't get carried thru.
Mine is the same so I don't think it's a settings problem, but rather a design problem in Edge....It is definitely something I have set incorrectly. I tried it on my laptop that I don't use as much and it works fine.
As you mentioned, it treats anything you search for in the Edge address bar with a ./period/full stop as a web address instead of a search term (I.E Windows 8.1 Lifecycle). It does the same with slashes too (I.E Canon 600mm f/4 lens). If you search for something with a colon such as a '16:9 monitor', it tells you that you need an app...
As a interim fix, you can use a ? in front of the search term until Microsoft fix it (I.E ?Windows 8.1 Lifecycle, ?Canon 600mm f/4 lens, ?16:9 monitor). This way it's treated as a search term instead of a website URL, so Google search will work correctly.
When you say it's OK on your laptop, is Edge on the the laptop set to 'Search in the address bar' with Google too (because the problem doesn't occur when it's set to Bing)? Alternatively, is the laptop maybe running an insider build of Windows 10 where Microsoft may have resolved the issue?
On the laptop, I have never changed any of the settings in Edge, so it is pretty much the default settings (i.e. using Bing as search). That is why I think it is probably something to do with a change I made on Edge on my main computer. I think it started after I changed the default search to Google. But I changed it back to Bing and the problem persists.
The reason for this is that the browser is considering the . to be a domain name, like blah.com etc.. so it's trying to look up the site as if it were a domain name.
The solution to this is to start search queries that might be confused as domain names with a ? (question mark)
so to search google for foo.com you type ? foo.com, then the browser will submit the text verbatim to the search engine rather than try to look it up. You can also type Ctrl-E and it will automatically add the ? at the beginning of the search query.
I've noticed Microsoft Edge now allows you to use . / and : in address bar searches since the Anniversary Update.
So we can now search for "NVMe M.2 SSD", "Windows 8.1 Lifecycle", "Canon 600mm f/4 lens" and "16:9 monitor" without needing to use the ? prefix anymore.
