I got the new "Instant Search" Popup and I am not happy with it. Whoever suggested this feature seriously needs attention. I thought at first it was malware infecting my computer before I did a Google search and see that Opera is responsible. I have looked in settings but cannot see a disable for this . Can someone help please ?

Thanks for your responses, I have now calmed down. I have removed it from the sidebar but when I first had the "instant search" bar appear I don't think I clicked on anything to get it to appear, which makes it mysterious. I hope the "instant search" bar can only be used by user intervention and not when Opera thinks it should be shown. As a side note when Opera does these "upgrades" why don't they show a page automatically after the update so the user is aware of what features have been added or removed.

As a longtime user of Opera and noticed it fails to perform basic functions sometimes correctly I am wondering if it is worth bothering with. Vivaldi always works as expected but Opera ? !!!
Today I caught two Opera auto update processes running in task manager at the sametime. Both pointed to the correct Opera file, why two processes and while I'm speaking about therm why won't Opera let us turn off auto updates ? Also had Opera crash reporter appear at a different time today also in task manager. However I have Opera set to NOT send crash reports so why is it running ? Business organisations usually get the basics right before adding new features but Opera doesn't seem capable of this. I will continue to use Opera probably as a secondary installation so I can remove it easily if it continues to display "odd" behaviour.

Pleased to read yantas comments. I have many machines (Windows 7) and sometimes do standalone installations. They can be installed into one folder (with sub folders)on the hard drive so easy to delete if something suspicious happens. In the end today, I completely removed everything with the word Opera reinstalled and set up my settings all in about 10 minutes.

I have been a long term user of Opera but find it doesn't have a status bar at the bottom of the page. Vivaldi have recently got their status bar to provide more info regarding page loading process etc. Anyone know of an extension suitable for Opera ? I've had a quick look myself and can't find anything.

OK today had a small problem. Wanted to download offline package to update browser, I have done this many times in the past. The url is
https://www.opera.com/computer however going there no offline installer shown on the whole page apart from a portable usb installer. At the bottom of the page is a green box saying "Download Now" which downloads the stub which is not what I do ! Vivaldi came to the rescue and typing in exactly the same url showed the link to the offline installer of Opera towards the top of the pageon the right.. So i got what I wanted in the end. Why this hassle ?

Thank you burnout426 for your reply the comments have been noted

Thanks for the explanation.

Been playing with the new version of Opera and find its all great so far apart from the number of ads blocked no longer appears on the "x" shield in address bar (Operas ad blocker).Clicking on the shield does then give info on the number of ads blocked but it would still be good to see at a glance the number of ads blocked . Is this going to be the new default behaviour ?

Hope someone can help me. Since updating to version 60 I have noticed that under privacy & security/content settings/cookies . If I click on add to block some cookies, the add button doesn't work. Is anyone else experiencing this ? Also I have only two wallpapers to choose from after updating, this seems strange too.

I usually update Opera via help/about opera and it shows a download progress bar for the update, and then asks to be relaunched. However today similar happened but I was presented with a box just before relaunch as per picture, ignoring the box would not update Opera, so I clicked on yes. Is this box legit ?

I think the Ebay incident was a problem there end and I do not think my account has been compromised. I use different user names AND passwords for all my accounts. It's sometimes difficult to think up new ones. I do have a written list of all my accounts and passwords which is kept somewhere secure. The machinee I use to write and print the list has never been connected to the internet, so I think I am safe there.

It seems strange to me that it only appeared when I downloaded through the programme. My previous system backup was a few days ago, so I used that and got the complete offline package as Burnout426 suggested. I will also disable Opera automatic update via CCleaner. Has anyone got full knowledge of what "browser_assistant.exe" does ? Its funny that with all the stuff Opera writes in its blogs to my recollection there has been no knowledge of why this file is inflicted on us or what it does !

Do I just uninstal Opera through uninstal program feature of Windows (7) or do I need to backup my existing profile as well before installing the complete offline package ? Is the problem likely to occur with the next update ?

I havn't checked opera://flags/#chromium-ua-compatibility as I am not using Opera on this particular machine. Also I have made no changes from the default flags. As for the social media icons, aren't they also (allegedly) some kind of "beacon" to snoop on users ?

I thought I would look and see what tasks are running at start up which i have done every week for about 15 years.
Today I see a program called browser assistant in c/program files /opera/assistant/browser_assistant.exe. What the **** is this ? I have never seen it before. I update Opera either via the inbuilt tool or the complete installation package. If there is no sensible or valid reason for this file I will have to consider my future use of Opera.

Going to
https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2019/12/opera-65-0-3467-78-stable-update/

I am presented with the details shown on the attached pic. Do the social media icons pay to appear on Opera ? Why am I asked to download Opera for Windows when I'm on it !

I only have one extension Opera adblocker with it set to default values also I have not enabled the do not track feature.

Disabling the new tracker protection of Opera made the websites ok. or it could just be a coinidence.

I have noticed since latest update Opera is failing to open some websites properly, here I give the Internet Movie Database as an example IMDB.Com Also get similar page when logging into my ISP Account Page ! No third party addons etc just Opera adblocker.

When I visit https://blogs.opera.com/news/ I get social media icons to the left of the page and a message on the right side of page to get Opera , but I'm already using it.