Cursor not in Google Search Box

Confirmed.

In stead of google.com you could try about:tabs on the Home button. This will open a new tab page in the existing tab

Thanks, but I don't think Edge lets you open a new tab with a specific website (like Google).  

It doesn't, and that is not what I proposed. The problem is with the Home button in combination with Google.

So there is two workarounds:

one is to replace Google on the Home button with a new tab page (about:tabs) (that will then search using Google),

the other is to open Google from the Favorites bar rather than the Home button. That will open Google with the cursor in the search box every time and -like the Home button- in the current tab.

Microsoft rarely fixes things, so you can either keep complaining about it or adjust your habits to what works.

Oh, I get it -- sorry I misunderstood your suggestion.   Using my "favorite" is also a good idea.  Thanks.

I figured that it was a bug that had been introduced by some update and might go away with the next update.  Foolishly hopeful.  And I really thought there would be other people complaining (as there were in 2011).  Oh well.

Thanks again!

I figured that it was a bug that had been introduced by some update 

That's quite likely. I also noticed that it may happen as well if you open another instance of Edge (with Google as homepage) so it is not just the Home button that causes this curious behaviour.

I also tried the Google Apps Search version (long) url under Home (that doesn't sport the Try Google ad) but it still exhibited the same behaviour as the default Google.com 

Aha-- My laptop is still running 38.x, which is odd, because I have installed all the updates.  Or so it tells me.  So now I'll have to think about that...

Thanks again!

The Windows version that v40 comes with is a Windows upgrade and upgrades are rolled out slowly to avoid that the Microsoft servers do get congested. So likely there is some algorithm at play that decides when it is your turn.

You can override that by using the 'Windows 10 Upgrade Assistant'. You should find that in your Start menu, but failing that Google should direct you to where you can download the latest Windows using this upgrade assistant.

I think that you will find that your Home Page URL is set to  https://

Change it to http:// and the problem should be gone