Solved Search problem in Edge

jw05 · Oct 12, 2025

Home Edition W11.25H2, latest builds 2600.6725 KB5065789 - 2610.6725 KB5065426

Bought an HP SSD W11 desktop some months ago, not used a great deal such is my dislike of W11 continued using W10 desktop. Basically just kept it current with Windows and NIS updates. 14 October now just around the corner.

Come to use W11 today, get the Edge news page, but enter a search either in address bar or search box and I see W11 attachment. Do the “I’m not a robot” thing and

can do a search. Close the window and open a new window and back to Captcha. Is this to do with the AI garbage installed in the 2 named updates?

Any help to remove this irritation would be much appreciated. Is there any way of disabling or preferably removing the AI garbage?

Thanks for any help.

BruceR · Oct 12, 2025

jw05 said:
Is this to do with the AI garbage installed in the 2 named updates?

No. It's a Google thing, not Edge or Windows.

One way to avoid it would be to stop using Google.

Edwin · Oct 12, 2025

Or..., stop using Edge!!!

BruceR · Oct 12, 2025

Edwin said:
Or..., stop using Edge!!!

It's not Edge-specific. A Google search in any browser can trigger that Google message.

Secret Squirrel · Oct 13, 2025

jw05 said:
Any help to remove this irritation would be much appreciated.

Google clearly doesn't like your current public IP address because it's been used for activities that are making Google very suspicious. The fix is to get yourself a different public IP address.

Are you using a VPN connection? If you are then select a different server. If you're not using a VPN, and your ISP uses dynamic IP address allocation, then turn your modem/router off for a couple of hours (or ideally overnight) to guarantee an address change.

You can check your before-and-after IP addresses here. Restart Edge after making any changes then try Google again.

TairikuOkami · Oct 13, 2025

Logging into Google account might help. Also not cleaning history, which is used to determine, if it is a bot.

jw05 · Oct 13, 2025

Many thanks for your replies. Norton VPN was turned off. First checked What Is My IP Address? IP Address Tools and More and found IPV4 the same for both W10 and W11 desktops. Next checked browser setting W10 vs W11. W10 default is Edge. W11 shows default as Edge, but showed I.E. compatibility allowed, now Turned Off. New search (Favourites no problem) still shows the www.google.com Captcha, so I’ll try turning router off O/N and report back.

jw05 · Oct 14, 2025

Switched off for 3 hours, then overnight with change of IP address each time, but still got Captcha when searching. Copy&paste url into address bar works. Does switching PC off, then back on after 3hrs and overnight count as restarting Edge or should I have done: edge://restart in new tab?

History is removed when Edge is closed, use WDC after online session.

Thanks again.

Secret Squirrel · Oct 14, 2025

jw05 said:
History is removed when Edge is closed, use WDC after online session.

I don't know what WDC is but if it's set to delete cookies after every session then that could also be the cause of your problem.

spapakons · Oct 14, 2025

I have seen this behavior only when opening Google in Opera Browser for which I have built-in VPN enabled. All my other browsers, including my default MS Edge, don't show that. It might be due to a lot of redirecting when using a VPN. You said you disabled the VPN and fixed. Maybe you can just exclude Google from the VPN, not disable that entirely.

PS: I also have excluded Google from Opera's build-in VPN, so I don't get this warning anymore.

jw05 · Oct 14, 2025

WDC, Wise Disk Cleaner. As far as I can tell got the same set up W10 and W11 for browser and using WDC removing all cookies, W10 works no problem!

In my case it may be “a little knowledge is dangerous”. Could I have turned something on/ off in Privacy and Settings causing the problem? Looking in there, Device Encryption is ON*, but shows “Sign in with MS A/C” to finish encrypting this device? W11 set up for me, as requested, as a Local Account, so should I turn this* off?

jw05 · Oct 14, 2025

Discovered something purely by chance when looking in Edge Privacy & Security. Search engine is Google by default and found Search on Search Box or Address Bar is set to Address Bar. Changed to Search Box (Recommended) and at least I can now do a search, but it is on Bing, not Google which is supposedly the Default! Why?

KevTech · Oct 14, 2025

Resolve Google Search’s "Unusual traffic from your computer network" message - Google Search Help

If a network you use, including VPN networks, seems to be sending automated traffic to Google Search, you might get the message “Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network.”

support.google.com

jw05 · Oct 15, 2025

dacrone said:
1) turn your vpn on... does it allow search without captcha?
2) does this happen with another browser... Chrome, Brave, etc?
3) Edge > Settings > Privacy, search and services > Search and connected experiences > Address bar search > Search Engines > DELETE Google > Add new:
Engine = Google
Shortcut = google.com
URL = Google Search

try again

1) VPN is on - No
2) Only use one browser, trying to keep life simple
3) Think I have done what you suggested, but cannot proceed

dacrone said:
1) turn your vpn on... does it allow search without captcha?
2) does this happen with another browser... Chrome, Brave, etc?
3) Edge > Settings > Privacy, search and services > Search and connected experiences > Address bar search > Search Engines > DELETE Google > Add new:
Engine = Google
Shortcut = google.com
URL = Google Search

try again

spapakons · Oct 15, 2025

Google Search is www . google . com
(without the spaces).

jw05 · Oct 15, 2025

Thanks spapakons, but I'm afraid I have messed up. Only succeeded in losing the Google option, Bing is set as the default, it works so I'll go with that.

jw05 · Oct 16, 2025

Thanks spapakons, for the prompt. Had another go today and got Google search engine back after deleting. Did a search and got the page with Google.com url. However, close the window and new search, I get the Captcha thing. I have tried all combinations of VPN On and Off combined with selecting address bar or search box. The only thing that seems to work is using Bing!

spapakons · Oct 16, 2025

jw05 said:
Thanks spapakons, for the prompt. Had another go today and got Google search engine back after deleting. Did a search and got the page with Google.com url. However, close the window and new search, I get the Captcha thing. I have tried all combinations of VPN On and Off combined with selecting address bar or search box. The only thing that seems to work is using Bing!

Use Bing to search for Google. Click on Google and then search with Google. just kidding of course...

jw05 · Oct 21, 2025

spapakons, it turns out I didn't follow you instructions correctly. When I do what you actually said, it works. The 'Add' did light up, but press that and the 'box' disappears and cannot get a screenshot. Repeated searches are now on Google.
Many thanks

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