@myswtest An excellent and very elegant solution! Thank you for sharing that.

I too use the /hosts file on my Windows machines so that I can access my own local webserver so this isn't a problem.

Thank you too, for constructive guidance and not the biassed responses that some seem to think is acceptable.

@hucker Totally agree. If I want to go to Bing - then I go Bing, nowhere else.

It seems the developers of Opera don't want persons to be able to edits the search engine list - now perhaps we know why.

It does beg the question, how trustworthy are other aspects of the browser? Unconscionable and outrageous conduct.

@burnout426 Are you really sure that Opera would place multiple references to "bing_attributed_ysrcunow" in it's file?

This means Bing is redirected to the untrustworthy ysrcunow.com and the browser hangs because my anti-virus [Avast] flags it up. There are a lot of complaints about this on the internet at present.

How does one actually contact the developers?

@burnout426 There is a desperate need to be able to edit this file.

The latest download contains malware. Any search using Bing is redirected to a scum site "ysrcunow.com"

default_partner_content.json contains malware redirect

I have discovered two instances that so far contain the redirect:

1: C:\Users{YOUR_NAME}\AppData\Local\Programs\Opera\104.0.4944.33\resources\default_partner_content.json

2: C:\Users{YOUR_NAME}\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable\default_partner_content.json

I tried searching and replacing the many references within the files to "bing_attributed_ysrcunow", with "bing", but as you say, Opera falls over and demands reinstallation.

This is very poor and should be addressed immediately. Personally, I would prefer to be able edit the file.