IE7 – Adding Default Search Provider Through the Windows Registry

So, IE7 – cool right, new search bar and everything. And you can go here and add new search providers. You can also use what Microsoft gives you and do it this way. But alas, what if you want to add it without user intervention? Remotely over a network maybe? Or you just want to do it programatically the way any good geek would. You hit up the registry of course!

1. Create a GUID – use vs2003 or vs2005, or something
example = {AC854C16-CA1E-43f1-8513-0D2F36C726ED}

2. create a reg file

3. edit contents of reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerSearchScopes]
“DefaultScope”=”{AC854C16-CA1E-43f1-8513-0D2F36C726ED}”

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerSearchScopes{AC854C16-CA1E-43f1-8513-0D2F36C726ED}]
“DisplayName”=”What you Want as a Display Name”
“URL”=”http://yoursearchurl?params={searchTerms}”

4. run it 🙂