diff --git a/History.md b/History.md
index 9e5d35ce59..028317d933 100644
--- a/History.md
+++ b/History.md
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 
 This incorporates all changes after 4.17.1 up to 4.17.2.
 
+  * change:
+    - query parser setting defaults to `'simple'`
   * deps: body-parser@2.0.0-beta.1
     - `req.body` is no longer always initialized to `{}`
     - `urlencoded` parser now defaults `extended` to `false`
diff --git a/lib/application.js b/lib/application.js
index c4d69e9ed6..85967249c4 100644
--- a/lib/application.js
+++ b/lib/application.js
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ app.defaultConfiguration = function defaultConfiguration() {
   this.enable('x-powered-by');
   this.set('etag', 'weak');
   this.set('env', env);
-  this.set('query parser', 'extended');
+  this.set('query parser', 'simple')
   this.set('subdomain offset', 2);
   this.set('trust proxy', false);
 
diff --git a/test/req.query.js b/test/req.query.js
index 869fbc360b..067d452107 100644
--- a/test/req.query.js
+++ b/test/req.query.js
@@ -12,12 +12,12 @@ describe('req', function(){
       .expect(200, '{}', done);
     });
 
-    it('should default to parse complex keys', function (done) {
+    it('should default to parse simple keys', function (done) {
       var app = createApp();
 
       request(app)
       .get('/?user[name]=tj')
-      .expect(200, '{"user":{"name":"tj"}}', done);
+      .expect(200, '{"user[name]":"tj"}', done);
     });
 
     describe('when "query parser" is extended', function () {