How can I stop Bing Bar from showing up in Windows Update

Question

How can I stop the Bing Bar from continuing to show up in Windows Update. I have selected "Hide update" on it many times, but it eventually comes back. I do not have the Bing Bar installed on my computer.

Solution

This question crops up frequently.

Some Windows updates keep returning no matter how many times you select to hide them. There are two ways that this can happen:

• You select to hide the entry, and it remains hidden, but a new, completely different entry is shown that is either related to the first one, or a newer version of it. This can be seen in the image below where Bing Desktop 1.2 has been hidden, then Bing Desktop 1.3 was shown as a different update and had to be hidden separately.

• You select to hide the entry, but later when it is updated, it is reset and is shown again because it is new. This is the case for Bing Bar in the image below. Ostensibly, if you didn’t want it the first time, then you probably don’t want it later, but the rationale is that you may want the newer, updated version.

Unfortunately there is no way to permanently hide something; Microsoft can (and does) re-display things it feels you might want/should install. You’ll just have to play “Whack-a-Mole” and manually hide them whenever they pop up; fortunately that’s not too often.

Comments

[Admin]

Unfortunately it keeps popping up because the version number (KB2673774) changes. I haven't figured out a way to stop it permanently though.

[Admin]

Yeah, it keeps popping up for me too. Very annoying.

[Synetech]

(I suppose some sort of automated script or something could be cobbled together, but they come up infrequently enough that it’s not worth the effort or risk.)

[Scott Chamberlain]

You also cold do it via setup of WSUS server and not have it show updates to Bing for connected computers, but that is kinda killing a fly with a cannon.

[cmorse]

Yeah, I don't really want to kill a fly with a cannon! But, it seems like the Bing Bar updates show up pretty frequently. But I haven't exactly been keeping track of when they show up, so who knows.

[Synetech]

I don’t think they show up that frequently, it’s probably just a psychological illusion: seeing something annoying sticks out in the mind, so it feels like you see it more often. For example, it feels like a bill from Rogers arrives every week or two even though it’s really only once per month (though from Rogers, I can’t rule anything out); it just feels more frequently because they are so thoroughly detestable that every time a bill comes, it gets encoded into memory much more strongly than something banal and forgettable. (Their ads on the other hand really are seen every 10-20 seconds.)

[cmorse]

@Synetech: That's a great point. It sure does feel like it happens all the time. Probably makes it worse because I have multiple computers and it shows up on each of them every time.

[Synetech]

@NReilingh, good theory, but wrong. Other than as the default search-engine for IE, there are no Bing-related registry entries, and certainly no Bing Bar or Desktop entries. Besides, that article mentions nothing about Windows Update.

[NReilingh]

Indeed, but that article is referenced everywhere as the definitive way to get rid of the Silverlight update.

[Synetech]

Maybe, but unfortunately it has no bearing on the Bing entries reappearing.

[Synetech]

@null, hehe, I see there’s some voting activity on this today because there is a new update that brung it back. I suspect this question will get some activity every time it comes back (though again, technically it is a different entry).

[Zarepheth]

For Windows 7 (and Windows Server 2008), clearing the following registry setting will stop it from appearing. 32-bit: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSN\Toolbar] version=""; 64-bit: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSN\Toolb‌​ar] version=""

[Synetech]

@Zarepheth, can you confirm that it never returns, or just until the next update? Of course, if it does, it does so by simply corrupting the version number so that it cannot compare to check if there is an update, so note that they can easily make it so that it always offers Bing if the existing version number is invalid.

[Synetech]

I don’t have those keys in the registry at all (no MSN key), yet I keep getting the Bing “updates”. Obviously it is unable to read the version number at all, so I don’t think that providing a corrupt one is going to work either.