If you’re looking to spruce up your computer with some great wallpapers, you might one day decide to download and install the Bing Wallpaper app by Microsoft. It was first made available in 2020, then brought to the Microsoft Store in 2024. But you might want to think twice about it, especially if you hate malwarish behavior.
On paper, the Bing Wallpaper app is fine. It offers a wide range of photos from sources like Getty Images and National Geographic, along with AI-generated images, that you can use as wallpapers for your Windows 11 desktop background. (Yes, some of us still use wallpaper apps!)
But according to Windows Latest, a recent update to the app has introduced a mindblowingly dumb “feature” that surely no one actually asked for: clicking anywhere on the desktop opens a new browser tab with a Bing search for whatever is in the wallpaper. Furthermore, upon installation, the app asks to set Bing as your default homepage and your default search engine for Edge, Chrome, and Firefox.
Fortunately, you can disable the desktop-click-search behavior in Bing Wallpaper’s settings—look for the one labeled “Desktop click opens Bing.” You can also disable Microsoft’s recommendations and the news feed, which are also enabled by default.
Funny enough, this isn’t the first time the Bing Wallpaper app has been slammed for disgusting behavior. Back in November 2024, when it first came to the Microsoft Store, Neowin called it “predatory” and “borderline malware” for doing things like tapping into browser cookies, installing the Bing Visual Search extension, changing browser settings, and setting Edge as default browser. Yuck.
