Search box in address bar
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Damifino last edited by
I sent a request to opera support to return the option to put a search box in the address bar. They replied they where going to look in to it. However, I searched further and found my request/question had been rejected. With no explanation.
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emily-coding last edited by@Damifino You need to add a custom pattern URL for your specific search engine: Google example: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s
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Moved from Opera for Windows by
leocg
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Damifino last edited by
@emily-coding Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately I am a amateur and have no idea how to do that. My issue is the option to put a search box in the address bar is no longer a option in the settings menu. I am going to see if I can install a previous version of Opera which has it.
Again..thank you. -
Damifino last edited by
@emily-coding Emily, I installed a previous version of Opera (Dec 2025) and all is well. However, I need some way to prevent Opera from automatically updating to the current version. Any ideas?
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emily-coding last edited by emily-coding
@Damifino the relevant flag (opera://flags/#search-box-in-address-bar) has also been removed. This means Opera developers have removed the old interface element as a result of modern UX decisions. Unfortunately, you have no choice but to revert to an older version or use the Address Bar as a "Pure Search Box".
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andrew84 last edited by
@Damifino Yes, the search box was removed starting from 126 version > https://forums.opera.com/post/398095
Regarding the disabling the autoupdate feature you can check this thread > https://forums.opera.com/post/188248
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Damifino last edited by
@emily-coding I installed a version from Dec 2025 and disabled the auto-update in the registry'
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turbo-tom64 last edited by
I absolutely do not understand why the search box in the address bar was removed. The address bar goes the entire length of the screen and the search box took only about 20% of the address bar, it wasn't in the way of anything. So I guess I'm left with only one option, Firefox. I never understood searching in the address bar, those are 2 entirely different things. Perhaps I do different things on my computer, but I know I use both the address bar and search box separately. If I wanted a browser with no search box, I'd use Edge or Chrome. Please please please put the search box back.....anywhere on the browser. it always seems that improving something means taking the stuff you want away.
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Damifino last edited by leocg
@turbo-tom64 Totally agree. As I mentioned above, I installed a previous version....Dec 2025 and its back. No difference in browser behavior.
You can get the download here
https://get.opera.com/ftp/pub/opera/desktop/
Disconnect from the internet. After installing go to the installation folder and delete anything about updates as well as in the registry.
