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Recreating the Search Side Bar

With the introduction of Internet Explorer 7.0 the search side bar has been removed. This has been missed by many.

However it is possible to recreate the Search sidebar quickly and easily. This example uses the Google search replacement.

First, some registry entries have to be added to the machine.

Copy the following code in to a notepad document and save it as google.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{e3061d40-32e2-4cbb-9d7b-5e5df890252e}] @="Google Search" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{e3061d40-32e2-4cbb-9d7b-5e5df890252e}\Implemented Categories] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{e3061d40-32e2-4cbb-9d7b-5e5df890252e}\Implemented Categories\{00021493-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{e3061d40-32e2-4cbb-9d7b-5e5df890252e}\InProcServer32] @=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\ 00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,\ 64,00,6f,00,63,00,76,00,77,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00 "ThreadingModel"="Apartment" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{e3061d40-32e2-4cbb-9d7b-5e5df890252e}\Instance] "CLSID"="{4D5C8C2A-D075-11d0-B416-00C04FB90376}." [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{e3061d40-32e2-4cbb-9d7b-5e5df890252e}\Instance\InitPropertyBag] "Url"="http://www.google.com/ie" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Explorer Bars\{e3061d40-32e2-4cbb-9d7b-5e5df890252e}] "BarSize"=hex:DC,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

There are two entries that you can customise in this entry.

The first one if the name. This is what appears in Internet Explorer under Explorer Bars. The code above uses "Google Search".

The second entry is the URL to the search page. For example Google have another URL that you can use that will open the results of the search in the main window (http://www.google.com/ie_rsearch.html). Other providers created their own pages suitable for use in the column as well. Simply find the URL and change it in the registry entry. Here are two other examples:

Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com/ext/search/search.html

Live Search: http://search.msn.com/spbasic.htm

Registry Disclaimer: We cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your machine by using registry files or following any of the advice given on this site. Modification of your registry is done at your own risk. You should always have a back up of your registry before making any changes. Click here for more information on backing up your registry.