Disable Search Options from windows

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Andyiz

Journeyman
Dear friends,
i wanted to disable search options from my Win Xp Pro,
just want to know which option in "SERVICES.MSC" to be disabled, and also i dont want to risk Disabling the Incorrect option.

tnz in advance.
 

Vishal Gupta

Microsoft MVP
Can't understand exact problem!

Pls be more clear about ur problem. Do u want to disable the Search option in Start menu? Or want to disable the Windows Search tool?
 

siriusb

Cyborg Agent
AFAIK, search is not a disableable service. What you might be after would be the Indexing service. Go to services.msc and disable the service of the same name.
 

champ_rock

champ_rock
i think if u want to remove search completely.......... then make a unattended customised windows xp cd using nlite....... from there u can remove the windows search component...........
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5409&highlight=nlite
 
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Andyiz

Journeyman
reply

my requirement is that users should not be able to search documents stored in my pc.
Search facility should alltogether be removed from my system
there should be nothing called as "Search"in my Pc
Actually i am using Goggle destop, so disabling the windows search option make sense , doesnt it?????

hope everbody got wat i want ??????
 

alib_i

Cyborg Agent
I really doubt if search facility can be completely removed from windows ...

But you can definitely remove shortcuts ... so that search is not accessible at all
Go to this page:: *www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Find the text "search" in the big list ... you will come across a lot of registry tweaks for removing Search shortcuts from various places.

Also ... do remember to Disable the "Indexing Service" from services.msc. It's quite useless for most of us.

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alibi
 

puja399

In the zone
alib_i said:
I really doubt if search facility can be completely removed from windows ...


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alibi

Perhaps u hve to program and install a system hook (or rather a rootkit) to hook FindFirstFile and FindNextFile API, although such action may be too drastic on ur system...
(And pls dont ask me how to program that, I am not that good..:( )
 

dIgItaL_BrAt

Cyborg Agent
or just uninstall Google Desktop,and install Windows Desktop Search (the standalone version,not the one bundled with the MSN toolbar) which automatically replaces the Windows Search tool.
 

eddie

El mooooo
You cannot REMOVE search facility. Doing that requires drastic measures as already explained. If you just want to disable access to Windows' inbuilt search facility then it can be done by using "Group Policy Editor" or directly editing registry entries.

Open gpedit.msc and go to "User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Start Menu and Taskbar". Set "Remove Search item from Start Menu" to "Enable". Restart

If you like to edit registry by hand then the same can be done by going to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer". Create a new DWORD with name "NoFind" (without quotes). Set the value of this DWORD to "1". Restart.

It will do the following things:
  • 1. The Search item is removed from the Start menu and from the context menu that appears when you right-click the Start menu.
    2. The system does not respond when users press F3 or the Application key+F (the Application key has the Windows logo).
    3. In Windows Explorer, the Search item still appears on the Standard Buttons toolbar, but the system does not respond when the user presses CTRL+F.
    4. In Windows Explorer, the Search item does not appear in the context menu when you right-click an icon representing a drive or a folder.
It effectively means that the code lies dormant on your system without ever coming in use. Not a clean solution but then what is clean in Windows environment anyways?
 

alib_i

Cyborg Agent
I think it should.
Because it's a part of 'dir' command... which is a part of command prompt.
'dir' command is not a part of xp's desktop search engine .. it's a command (not even an exe file in system32)
Moreover .. we've removed the access to desktop search .. it still exists there. It must work

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alibi
 
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