Add Wikipedia, Google to Vista start menu instant search

Posted on May 24, 2008 at 5:29 am

Looking to customize Vista Instant Search? If you’re using Window Vista, you may be finally using the built-in search option that you see in the Start Menu. For one thing, it actually FINDS what you are looking for and it doesn’t take a century. Also, it’s conveniently located in the Start Menu itself, so you can access it quickly with one click of the mouse or via the Windows keyboard shortcut.

Obviously, by default, the Vista Instant Search feature only searches for files and folders on your local computer. You can also click on Search the Internet, but this option will use the default search engine provider that you have set in Internet Explorer.

However, there is a nifty way to customize the Instant Search feature so that you could, for example, type in a search term in the start menu search box and click on Search Google or Search Wikipedia, or any other site that you use to search like Yahoo, etc.

So how can you add our own custom search providers to the default list of search computer and search Internet? With a simple group policy change! Here’s how.

First, click on the Start button and type in the search box GPEDIT.MSC and press Enter. This will open the Local Group Policy Editor. Now you need to navigate to the following policy setting:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Instant Search > Custom Instant Search Internet Search Provider

Double click on the policy setting in the right side pane and set it to Enabled. Now you need to simple type the settings in the two boxes provided. For “The string or DLL resource from which to load…” option, type in “Search Wikipedia” and for “The URL to use..” type in the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%w

So it should look something like this for your group policy setting:

Pretty easy eh!? Now you would just click OK and restart your computer and you should see the option to search Wikipedia in your Instant Search box.

You can also add other search providers to the Instant Search menu, such as Google or Yahoo. For Google, use the following URL:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%w

For Yahoo search, use the following URL instead:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%w

The only issue you might have is if you’re running Windows Vista Home Basic or Home Premium as they do not have the option to edit the group policy settings in Vista. I believe you have to be using Vista Business or higher. Source: WinVistaClub

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12 Responses to “Add Wikipedia, Google to Vista start menu instant search”

**Juanito** said on : May 25th, 2008 at 1:17 am

Nice tip, thank a lot

Nick said on : May 29th, 2008 at 9:46 am

Vista Basic and Home Premium don’t have gpedit.msc.

Schroedinger said on : May 29th, 2008 at 9:48 am

Group Policy Editor is not available on Home Editions of Vista

William said on : May 29th, 2008 at 10:09 am

Is it at all possible to add more than one custom search?

If it is, instructions for doing so would be appreciated.

akishore said on : May 29th, 2008 at 10:16 am

Juanito - Thanks! Glad you liked the tip.

Nick, Schroedinger - Yes unfortunately, group policy editor is not available on the basic versions of Windows. I mentioned that at the end of the article.

William - At this time, I have not found a hack to add multiple custom searches to the instant search box, but will let you know if I figure something out. There’s got to be a way!

Jared said on : May 29th, 2008 at 11:14 am

No need to restart. Just go to a command prompt and type “gpupdate”. That will apply GPO updates.

y0himba said on : May 29th, 2008 at 11:41 am

Jared, thanks for that command line…I have needed that quite a bit!

As for adding multiple custom searches, possible somewhere in the registry?

William Hook said on : May 29th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

Awesome tip - hope you don’t mind but I’ve added it to the Wiki on my site: http://thevistaforums.com/inde.....article=95

If you want me to use my own images or text, feel free to email me back and I can change them if you like.

Wait...What? said on : May 29th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

Yaargh… It should be noted that not all Vista’s are created equal. There is no GPEDIT.MSC on Vista Home Premium.