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2008-01-18
Change Windows Desktop Search to Search Companion
I’m a bit of a fan of office 2007. I like the ribon tool bar and the countless other improvments that Microsoft have made to the Office suite. I also use Outlook 2007. Outlook 2007 I’ve been quite dissapointed with. They don’t seem to have fixed any of the issues that plauged 2003 but a review of Office 2007 and it’s contents is for another day.
Anyone who has installed Outlook 2007 knows that you need to install Microsoft Desktop Search 3 with it in order to quickly search your email.
Before you all jump up and down screaming about Google Desktop don’t worry. I use it religiously to search my stupid amount of Backup Hard Drives for all my precious content. But I don’t like using it in Outlook. Too many seperate windows. In My Option Desktop Search 3 is better then Google Desktop in Outlook 07.
But how the F*&^ did they stuff up the indexing of files!? How is it that Google does such a brillient job of indexing my PC and Microsoft’s software designed to run on Microsofts OS can’t even find it’self!?
Not only can’t it find anything but it also replaces the decent working Search Companion…
It’s time to remove that and bring back the Good ol’ dog (I’ve actualy removed that dog as it was very anoying. Tweak XP has a nice setting to use the classic search in Explorer – still the best search tool Microsoft has made… how sad)
Here is how you bring back the Dog or the Clasic search in Explorer:
Open RegEdit (Start > Run > regedit).
Find the following : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Desktop Search\DS
Double-click on ‘ShowStartSearchBand’ and set the value to ‘0′. Close that and you’re done, the next time you click ‘Search’ in explorer, the old, reliable search companion will appear.
This applies to operating systems before Windows Vista
Happy searching.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Microsoft, Tutorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
There are 25 Responses to “ Change Windows Desktop Search to Search Companion ”
Jamie Le Souef Says
Thanks for that Peter. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the copy of windows that i changed the above settings on wasn’t fresh, but it defiantly was located at HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
I’ll have a look on at both locations and see if they both can do the same thing.
Alan Says
Our administrators have prevented access to regedit. Is their a way to bring up Windows Explorer (like from the command line) with Search Companion enabled?
Jamie Le Souef Says
Unfortunately i don’ know of a way to do it, or if it can be done at all. The Desktop search enables itself in the registry. Maybe speak with your admin and see if they can change the setting for you.
George Barr Says
Regarding disabling regedit, they have changed something in the registers that they do not what you to change back. Regedit is simple what it says, an editor for the registers.
regards
George
Jamie Le Souef Says
@George Barr -
I’m not entirly sure what you mean here. What version of windows are you talking about. I know this works in XP, but no idea about Vista.
Jamie Le Souef Says
I would but I’m only running XP on my PC and my main workstation is a Mac… anyone who tries it, please comment and let us know how it works!
Jason Ji Says
Great post.I will try it on my computer since I am still using XP.
Jason Jis last blog post..How to redirect special folders in Windows xp
bz Says
For those without access to regedit, open notepad and enter the following and save as ‘fixsearch.reg’, then launch fixsearch.reg
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Desktop Search\DS]
“ShowStartSearchBand”=dword:00000000
DaveShaw Says
Perfect mate. Worked first time.
I have some indexed files with WDS, Documents, Mail, etc. but I never Index my source code, and I prefer to search for file names when I need to, and grep if I want to look inside them.
Thanks
Dave
sk8er6 Says
I had to manually create a dword value named ” ShowStartSearchBand ” and set it to zero in order for it to work. it wasnt entered on its own.
Kayelle Says
Hey, I’m newly on Windows 7. I found it just fine up till the “Microsoft” folder. This is where is differs on my PC , apparently. Instead of Windows Desktop search, it’s just “Windows Search”, which has a subfolder ProcessedSearchRoots, with in it’s turn 4 subfolders: 0000, 0001, 0002 and you guessed it 0003. Any advice?
Satish Dave Says
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Desktop Search\DS
on Windows Xp
Thank you so much for the method you described works like charm
Thanks again
Satish Dave
scotty Says
anyone else trying to go this? i miss the dog… it was an easy way to search & so very fast to get what i need.
Persian Prince Says
I had to manually create a dword value named ” ShowStartSearchBand ” and set it to zero in order for it to work. it wasnt entered on its own.
+1
Ifron Says
If you are working with Outlook and you don´t like to search your mails with GDS, (what I can totally understand) then have a look at Lookeen,too! http://www.lookeen.net
I work with it for quite a while now and it is definitely worth a try! Only one window, very clear presentation of search results also with a preview! I also search my desktop with it, so I don´t need a extra desktop search, very conventient!
Sopan Says
hey is it possible to get back search companion in windows 7………
i found the search feature of windows seven is third class………
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Peter Raymond Says
It’s actually HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, not HKEY_CURRENT_USER. At least, that’s how it is on my test box, a default Windows XP installation.