Search Google, Wikipedia, and Yahoo from the Start Menu

If you use Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, etc a lot then this guide is for you. In this guide, you’ll learn how to search these websites from your Start Menu.

Please Note: This guide involves the use of the Group Policy Editor, which is not included with Vista Home Premium/Basic or Windows XP Home. If this is the first time you are using the Group Policy Editor, read this guide.

Unfortunately I do not know how to do this tweak using only the registry. If you know how, please contact me.

Configuring Your Start Menu to Search Google

1. Start Group Policy Editor (Start > Run > “gpedit.msc”) 2. In the left panel, go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates >Windows Components > Instant Search 3. In the right panel, right click on Custom Instant Search Internet Search Provider policy settingand select Properties

4. Select Enabled 5. Now in the first String or dll resource… field, type Search Google 6. In the The URL to use when… field, type http://www.google.com/search?q=%w 7. Press OK and Reboot your computer(If you wish to apply the changed policy setting immediately,open a command prompt and run gpupdate/force) 8. Press the Start button, type your search for Google, click Search Google, and Google will load

Configuring Your Start Menu to Search Wikipedia

Follow the steps above and replace steps 5 & 6 with the following:

5. Now in the first String or dll resource… field, type Search Wikipedia

6. In the The URL to use when… field, type http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%w

Configuring Your Start Menu to Search Yahoo

5. Now in the first String or dll resource… field, type Search Yahoo

6. In the The URL to use when… field, type http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%w

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