6th November 2001
When I first saw the default search pane in Windows XP, my instinct was to return it to its classic look; that puppy had to go. Of course, I later discovered that a doggie door is built into the applet. Click "Change preferences" then "Without an animated screen character." If you'd rather give it a bare-bones "Windows 2000" look and feel, fire up your Registry editor and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ CabinetState. You may need to create a new string value labeled "Use Search Asst" and set it to "no" (sans quotes in each case). Before you go that far, let me make you aware of two things. First, you can accomplish the same task via the new TweakUI (available for download at WINDOWSXP.COM). Second, there's a nice benefit to the new Search Companion in Internet Explorer 6.0 (at least, with Microsoft Office's spell checker installed). Launch your browser and tap the F3 key. Now, enter your query, intentionally misspelling a keyword. Look at that! A red squiggly! Right-click on the word and select an appropriate replacement (if necessary). How's that for hlepful?