How Do I Disable Windows Live Search?

Removing Windows Live Search from your computer may not be as simple as you think.

Windows Live Search was a search engine developed by Microsoft to take the place of MSN search. It has since been replaced by Microsoft's Bing search engine, but is still in use on many computers. Live Search was designed to use search tabs that include many facets of the World Wide Web such as news, images, music and even the Microsoft Encarta online encyclopedia. It also has the ability to search items on your computer. If you have made the decision to disable Windows Live Search, you will need to perform some registry edits.

Instructions

1. Go to your Windows Desktop and click on the "Start" button. Select "Run," and type "regedit" in the command line. (Don't use the quotation marks.) If you are using Windows Vista, simply type "regedit" into the search bar after clicking on the "Start" button.

2. Navigate to "hkey local machine>software>policies>microsoft."

3. Click on the "File" menu and select "export." Navigate to the "Internet Explorer" key and add it. Within the Internet Explorer key, also add key "infodelivery."

4. Add key "restrictions" within "infodelivery," and within "restrictions" add a "dword nosearchbox."

5. Change the dword from 0 to 1. Exit all the way out of the registry editor and restart your operating system to complete the job.

References

• Microsoft: Windows Search