Disable desktop search, and search companion

I was looking for it so many times, so finally I decided to put down the solution of a very common problem into my own blog. Following works in Windows XP

To stop Windows Desktop Search from popping up instead of search find one of these keys in the registry, depending on whether you're a domain user or a local user correspondingly:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Desktop Search\DS

or

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows Desktop Search\DS

and set

ShowStartSearchBand = 0

To disable search assistant once and for all find one of these keyse in the registry, depending on whethere you're a domain user or a local user correspondingly:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\

Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState

or

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState

Then create a "string value" property there named:

Use Search Asst

, and set its value to

no

Finally in the registry the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet\Control\ContentIndex

key must be modified

It's

FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions

value must be set to 1, this will enable searching inside bodies of all files, not only those registered for indexing