Default search engine in IE6 - changing it?

[Spectrix]

Oh sweet you should see what I just made..

Australian IE multisearch fix

This gives you a choice of search engines under the search > customize options, same as the americans. :thumb:

[Wiggo]

Nice work. :thumb:

About time to seein' Google has had an Aussie site for a while now. :D
<center>:cheers:</center>

[Mr. C]

Well done:thumb:
I just knew it had to be somewhere - doggone if I could find it though.

[asklepios]

kewl job spectrix...bravo buddy...:cheers:

[Spectrix]

:) Thanks guys.

Um.. on my computer, that last fix only shows the autosearch window in the customize section - ammit its the important one, but the other choices which used to be there are gone.

Also, in the 'When Searching' pane, I only see two choices instead of 4 or 5. Any ideas?

The fix make changes to this: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search]
"CustomizeSearch" = "http://ie.search.msn.com/en-us/srchasst/autosrch.htm"

so the target may be slightly wrong.. is http://ie.search.msn.com/en-us/srchasst/autosrch.htm what american systems have in that string already?

[PersianImmortal]

Yes, well done Spectrix! Now you can see exactly how a tweak is found...lots of research and testing. That's why writing the guides gets a bit tedious...but it's worth it once it's done :)

What you've done is find the registry entry which detects which region you use and directs you to that region's MSN search page. By forcing it to the US version (en-us) we get more choices. As I said, it seems the Australian MSN site is more limited in choices than the American one.

Anyway what your registry entry should actually be referring to is the page which shows the customization screen, not just the autosearch screen. So the autosrch.htm at the end of this string:

http://ie.search.msn.com/en-us/srchasst/autosrch.htm

Should be changed to srchcust.htm, which makes it:

http://ie.search.msn.com/en-us/srchasst/srchcust.htm

Put that entry in the registry and you'll get to pick from a range of providers. Strangely enough Google is not listed in that list until you click Autosearch settings...the mystery continues!

BTW all I did to find the right ending was put "http://ie.search.msn.com/en-us/" into Google and find more endings for it :)

Oh and on another note, there are two good reasons I don't write up registry files for people to use:

1. By just clicking on a registry entry, people don't see where the changes are made and if anything goes wrong, they have no idea how to go back and fix it;

and most importantly

2. People around the world have different settings and key numbers in their registry. A one-size-fits all script is sometimes difficult to make and will not work.

That's why I go through in detail in my guides how to change the registry, what the changes do, etc. It's much safer to educate people and get them to actively make the changes themselves than give them a script. That's just from a tweak guide writing point of view though, it doesn't stop you from doing it :)

[Spectrix]

Yeah.. actually I was a bit worried about posting those reg files, hence my asking if they'd work on different versions of IE.
On my travels the last couple of days I've discovered the same questions being asked alot, but no being answered so I was kinda keen to share the fix.
Thanks for the tips, I look forward to your next XP tweak guide.

Actually whats the word from MS on a windows update.. XP strike 2? :laugh:
You might have to start over again..



Edit - Updated Reg fix for those who wish to use it.. at their own risk!
Australian IE multisearch fix