quick search.. not performing

i once was able to search from the address bar in IE by simply typing in what i wanted and pressing enter. it would always end up in google and just display the results. i could also search from different engines by using prefixes (i.e. "y aquafina water" would search yahoo for "aquafina water ", and "hb seltzer" would search hotbot for "seltzer ". i can no longer do this. if i type any word into the address bar and press enter, IE tries to parse it as a URL, not even adding .com onto it. (so the first example now returns http:///?%20y%20aquafina%20water and a "cannot find server" error page.) i remember seeing a configuration window for the prefixes built into windows xp somewhere, but now i cant remember where nor can i find it. I tried downloading the quick search program from the microsoft website, but it is for Windows 98, ME, etc, not XP. so running that program and pressing save did nothing. also tried to restore defaults in IE. nothing. any ideas? this is very frustrating for me, i have to type www.google.com everytime i want to search. haha sounds spoiled but i did get used to the quick way!

 

Go to Google, right click and create a desktop shortcut, then drag it to your toolbar. I did the same thing with AnyWho- just a timesaver.

Johanna

 

Thanks for your replies.

PeteC, I tried the suggestions in the KB article 303210, but nothing worked. If I try to search by clicking the search button on the toolbar I can do so no problem. The suggestions in that article did not effect my ability to search from the address bar, although I think they should. I also searched through all the other articles, nothing applies specifically to searching directly from the address bar.

And Johanna, thank you for your quick fix. That should do for now just so I don’t have to type www.google.com (or click the search button) every single time I want to search.

edit* I found a thread on another website about a similar problem (not being able to search from the address bar at all, in that case it was because of spyware removal, xupiter to be exact)http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win2000/t1036173043. One of the posts there said to look in the registry at HKCU - Software - Microsoft - Internet Explorer - URL SearchHooks. Two values should be there, the (Default) one, and also {CFBFAE00-17A6-11D0-99CB-00C04FD64497}. When I looked into my registry at that location, the second key had an underscore before it. I removed the underscore, rebooted, and tried searching again. I seem to have fixed half of my problem... I can search from the address bar using quick search prefixes (goo, y, etc), but not by just typing in what i want to find. (By default IE should use MSN search when I do this.)

I once saw a thread on this board that led to instructions on how to change from the default msn search to a google search from the address bar. I will try that fix and report back right away with the results.

 

SKEL924: Regarding your last paragraph on your most recent post to set a default search engine for your address bar, click on the "Search" button on the toolbar; click on "Customize" on the split window, click on the "Autoseach Setting" in the Customize.....window, then from the dropdown box select "Google Sites" and from the lower dropdown box select "just display results in the main window ".

That should set up Google as the default search from the address bar. You then should be able to type in any search criteria and Google will look for it directly from the addy bar.

 

Have you tried clicking on ies toolbar>search button and from there> choosing to "customize search" and from there> hitting the "advanced" button. There's quite a bit of options including making google a default if that's what you want to do.

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On same track >
1. repair IE
2. from IE options>programs tab>hit the "reset web settings" button.

also in case this was overlooked, IEoptions>advanced tab>does have an option to disable addressbar searches. Has this been set? Knowing that windows can seem to get amnesia from time to time, perhaps a disable/re-inable will help.

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Barring all of the above and still desiring to tweek out your search options, see kelly's site and scroll down the s list to "google search" or something similar. Lot's of nfo here to ponder over:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_s.htm

 

JohnB: looked and messed with every setting in the customize search window, nothing works. setting defaults does not work.

goddez: reset web settings did not work. the option you suggested was not selected, and i did the renable thing also and no dice.

i set up google again as my default by editing the registry, and it seems to be working again. but when i just search with no prefix the status bar first looks for a website with that name(http://download remote desktop microsoft), then it displays some msn autosearch URL, and then finally ends up at google. the addresses before google are never displayed in the browser window, but it takes a couple extra seconds to get to hte google search results because its doing that. how can i stop that?

 

If you aren't tired of fiddling already, I got another bunch of "could-dos ". This includes regpatches that restore IE defaults. You may be missing an hkey setting that needs to be tended to. The keys that effect this are in several places (and I gathered through my quick read, may be in the hosts file).
NOTE*Read carefully and always opt to rename or move rather than delete. It's much easier to restore current config that way.

http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/answers4.htm#search_engine

As long as your current reg is backed up, you could give these a go and if they still don't do it for you, you can rollback to your current settings.

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Can't offer a work around for your current problem, I'd have to be able to reproduce what you did in order to see what it takes to stop it, if possible. Perhaps someone else will come up with the fix.