Tips & Tricks

How to Default to Search Companion instead of Windows Search?

Helpful if you need Windows Desktop Search to search messages and attachments for Outlook 2007 but do not want to use it to search files on your computer.

1.      Log in to Windows as a Power User or Administrator - you'll need elevated privileges to access Registry Editor.

2.      Open My Computer or Windows Explorer. Expand your C: drive. Right-click the Program Files folder and select "Search".

3.      Windows Desktop Search (WDS) will open. At the bottom left of the screen you'll see "This folder is not indexed". Click the "...please use Search Companion" link to open Search Companion. This step ensures that the needed Registry value is created.

4.      Close the Search Companion and WDS windows.

5.      Click the Windows Start button, then "Run" (or press the WINDOWS + R keys on your keyboard.) In the Open dialog, type REGEDIT then click OK. This will open Registry Editor.

6.      Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows Desktop Search\DS.
To change the setting for the current User account only, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Desktop Search\DS.

7.      In the right window pane, double-click the "ShowStartSearchBand" item. In the Value Data field, change the "1" to "0".

8.      Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Desktop Search\DS.

9.      In the right window pane, double-click the "ShowStartSearchBand" item. In the Value Data field, change the "1" to "0". Click OK, then close Registry Editor.

10.     Now, when you right-click a folder in Explorer and select "Search", the Search Companion window will open instead of Windows Desktop Search.

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How to force Device Manager to display devices that are not connected to the Windows XP-based computer?

Helpful if you need to delete devices not connected to your XP computer. Device Manager displays only non-Plug and Play devices, drivers, and printers when you click Show hidden devices on the View menu. Devices that you install that are not connected to the computer (such as a Universal Serial Bus [USB] device or "ghosted" devices) are not displayed in Device Manager, even when you click Show hidden devices.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315539

1.      Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.

2.      At a command prompt, type the following command , and then press ENTER:set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

3.      Type the following command a command prompt, and then press ENTER:start devmgmt.msc

4.      Troubleshoot the devices and drivers in Device Manager. NOTE: Click Show hidden devices on the View menu in Device Managers before you can see devices that are not connected to the computer.

5.      When you finish troubleshooting, close Device Manager.

6.      Type exit at the command prompt. HOTE: When you close the command prompt window, Window clears the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 variable that you set in step 2 and prevents ghosted devices from being displayed when you click Show hidden devices.

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