why are some bing search results suddenly redirecting me to other pages?

thanks. i appreciate it. i am trying to find out more answers regarding safe mode with networking. i don't think it is a wifi stack, since that seems to be if there is all-around wifi problems. Hopefully it isn't that the adapter is not compatible somehow with safe mode, as there can be various reasons to work out of safe mode, and it might not always be an option to get an ethernet cable and sit by a router (though usually it has been due to some sort of OS corruption of a virus/malware).

The chance you'll need to Safe Mode with networking are about 5%. I've never needed it. If you did you could use Safe Mode without networking and shuttle files over from another PC. It really is not worth obsessing about it for over a week.

Yep, been happening to me and several others posting about it here on MS Answers.

Using Win 11, MS Edge, Bing search results show one thing, but click on the link, and a new tab opens with an ad, not the result site.

Go back to the original tab with search results. Click the same link a second time and get the correct site.

Only happens about 50% of the time, not all the time.

Easy to reproduce, if you have patience.

Just search for something in Bing. Do not click on the ads at the top of the search results. Scroll down to a real search result with a web site link in the title. Make note of the web site. Click on the link, and half the time, a new tab will open with an ad site.

Then go back to search results and click on the same search result title. Second time, a new tab will open with the correct site open.

All of the links always start with "Bing.com..."

Obviously, some type of a redirect in the backend Bing site.

Well, I can check that, but I think it is possible that some plugins are malware since a link suggested that. It was unique to edge though. I want to fix the adapter setting, in case of any other issue. I believe a plug-in might have prompted it or an edge update. I think troubleshooting issues solves problems in my opinion (with technical things).

I ran sfc /scannow and it fixed some registry issues and other things. i don't know what it fixed. i cannot understand it. might it have fixed anything pertaining?

The redirect started again, so the plugin that I uninstalled might not be due to the plugin. it definitely is only in Edge at this time. On my search results, the links don't appear to start with bing something, The search engine is Bing, but the links can say anything. They can be anything that I searched for, and they might take me to something else. The new link will be mynewsearch at the beginning (or something like that). The edge browser will not find anything related to that topic, but Chrome will.