BytesWired

This post is a follow-up from my previous tutorial (How to Create Search Engine Plugins (Firefox)). This time around, I will show you how you can create search engine plugin for Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7). I will show you how to :

• Install Search Engine via Registry
• Change Default Search Engine Plugin

Install Search Engine via Registry

** If you have no experience in modifying registry keys, please do not try this. Messing up registry keys may cause your PC to stop functioning. Use at your own risk. **

• open up your registry editor
• go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes
• create a new key, name it whatever you want.
• create a string value. Name it as DisplayName.
• double-click on DisplayName value and enter the text to display on the search text box.
• create another string value. Name it as URL.
• double-click on URL value and enter the URL to perform the search.
  • for instance, to perform search in BytesWired, the full URL is

http://www.byteswired.com?q={searchTerms}

• {searchTerms} is the word capture on the search text box. If you read my previous post on FireFox, this same keyword applied to FireFox too.

Change Default Search Engine Plugin

• if you want to change the default search engine, you can do that from IE7 browser itself or can tweak on the registry value.
• to change the default search engine plugin, go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes
• look at the string name called DefaultScope. The value reflects the ID of the installed plugins.
• to find installed plugins, look at all the keys located under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes key
• replace DefaultScope value with any of the available plugins ID
• restart IE7 to see the changes you just made.

What’s Next

I will write a guide to tweak more registry settings which can make searching a breeze and enhance surfing experience with IE7.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Internet, Internet Explorer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.