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Renegade 56

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2020
25
1
OK my old 21.5 was on the last version of OS X before Big Sur and there was a little house in the search bar that allowed you to get back to the homepage search engine...My question is, is there anything like that for Big Sur? I must say I am not all that impressed with Big Sur but I just bought this 27 iMac and I am not going backwards.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,582
52,324
In a van down by the river
Are you talking about the house icon in Finder preferences which can be added to the side Finder menu?
 

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Renegade 56

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2020
25
1
Nope..I appreciate the attempt but I guess I should have been a little clearer...Trying to change the default browser to something else instead of Safari.
 

nethead

macrumors newbie
Oct 5, 2008
29
39
To get the little house icon back, open Safari, right click in an empty space of the Safari toolbar and choose "Customise Toolbar":

Screenshot 2021-01-01 at 21.23.48.png


Then you can drag the house icon to the toolbar.

To change your default search engine to DuckDuckGo, open Safari, click "Preferences" in the main menu, go to the Search tab, then pick "DuckDuckGo" in the search engine drop-down:

Screenshot 2021-01-01 at 21.25.31.png


Finally, to change your home page to DuckDuckGo, open Safari, click "Preferences" in the main menu, enter this URL into the "Homepage" field: https://duckduckgo.com

Screenshot 2021-01-01 at 21.23.19.png


Hope this helps.
 

Renegade 56

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2020
25
1
Thanks man..I am good now..Thanks for the help been 7 years on a 21.5 since I had to do all this and could not remember how...Again thanks.
 

Renegade 56

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2020
25
1
Well I spoke to soon did not work..Still only has Safari as the default browser in Settings..I do not know what to do at this point.
 

Runs For Fun

macrumors 65816
Nov 6, 2017
1,138
2,601
Well I spoke to soon did not work..Still only has Safari as the default browser in Settings..I do not know what to do at this point.
DuckDuckGo is not a browser. You cannot set it as a browser in settings. The setting you're looking for is the default homepage and default search engine in Safari.
 
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DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,750
4,574
Delaware
You would need to download a different browser then, such as Firefox, or Google Chrome, or Microsoft Edge, or Opera, or iCab, or OmniWeb, or... (a dozen or more other web browsers)
Notice that none of those are solely search engines. All are web browsers.
DuckDuckGo is not a web browser. It is a search engine. You can easily set DuckDuckGo as your search engine, and you can also set DuckDuckGo as the default home page for whichever web browser you choose to download and install.
Most web browsers will also let you set DuckDuckGo as the default search engine, if that is what you want to use.
 
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Renegade 56

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2020
25
1
None of that works...It is set as the default...I have done all you guys mentioned and nothing has changed...Guess I have no choice but to live with it or go to something else.
 

Renegade 56

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2020
25
1
DuckDuckGo is not a browser. You cannot set it as a browser in settings. The setting you're looking for is the default homepage and default search engine in Safari.
Did it....Did not change a thing. Thanks anyway.
 

DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,750
4,574
Delaware
Can you tell us what you have tried?
You can't change from Safari to another web browser, unless you actually have downloaded and installed another web browser (again, DuckDuckGo is a search engine, not a web browser
Did you try downloading a different web browser? Which did you try?
Were you able to get the "little house" icon in your Safari menubar, after choosing to customize that menubar in Safari?
That simply gives you a shortcut to go to your default (home) page. What is set as your home page, in Safari's preferences/General tab?
While in the preferences, click on Search... What is showing selected as your search engine? DuckDuckGo should be a choice there.
 

IowaLynn

macrumors 68020
Feb 22, 2015
2,145
589
You can't change from Safari to another web browser, unless you actually have downloaded and installed another web browser (again, DuckDuckGo is a search engine, not a web browser

While in the preferences, click on Search... What is showing selected as your search engine? DuckDuckGo should be a choice there.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,582
52,324
In a van down by the river
The browser is available on iOS but, not Mac.
 
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iStorm

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2012
2,025
2,426
Only giving me one option Safari trying to get DuckDuckgo as the default browser.

Are you trying to set DuckDuckGo as the default start page when launching Safari? If so, then change the "New windows open with" setting to be "Homepage". That setting is located on the same screen as nethead's last screenshot above. You could also change the "New tabs open with" setting while you're at it.

If not, do you remember which browser you were using on your old Mac? Was it Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc?
 
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Renegade 56

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2020
25
1
Are you trying to set DuckDuckGo as the default start page when launching Safari? If so, then change the "New windows open with" setting to be "Homepage". That setting is located on the same screen as nethead's last screenshot above. You could also change the "New tabs open with" setting while you're at it.

If not, do you remember which browser you were using on your old Mac? Was it Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc?

Bingo! It's doing what I expected! That worked..Thanks man!
 
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