It’s Complicated

Joe’s blog about technology, life, and more.

I find this highly annoying as a user who frequently has to search for files.  It seems Microsoft removed the search button from the start menu in Vista SP1.  In my case, I couldn’t even use the (windows key + F) to launch the search dialog.  I had to search around and found this registry hack which restores search to the context menu when you right-click on a folder, adding “search” as an option.  This is the only way I can currently access windows search.  Use the following information to restore the search contact menu item…

Open Regedit and navigate to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\find

Rename the REG_SZ: ‘LegacyDisable’ value to something else like, say, ‘LegacyDisablex’

Exit registry editor and try right-clicking on a folder. You will see that “Search” appears again. You can now use this to access the windows search application. I still can’t get search back in my start menu just yet, but a little more google searching and I’m sure I’ll find a solution.