Internet Explorer 8: How to enable Google Search

Many people prefer Google over Bing. But Internet Explorer just comes with Bing by default. You used to be able to add Google easily by choosing

“Find more search providers …”

within the Add-on page in Internet Explorer. But due to a recent change from Microsoft, you will now be presented with a page that contains all sorts of providers, but not Google:

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To solve this issue, just add the following keys to your registry, and Google will be there, including search suggestions and everything:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes]
"DefaultScope"="{99CED252-31FC-43B4-8533-15A9116709F6}"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{99CED252-31FC-43B4-8533-15A9116709F6}]
"DisplayName"="Google"
"URL"="http://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}&rls=com.microsoft:{language}&ie={inputEncoding}&oe={outputEncoding}&startIndex={startIndex?}&startPage={startPage}"
"ShowSearchSuggestions"=dword:00000001
"SuggestionsURL_JSON"="http://suggestqueries.google.com/complete/search?output=firefox&client=IE8&qu={searchTerms}"
"SuggestionsURL"="http://clients5.google.com/complete/search?hl={language}&q={searchTerms}&client=ie8&inputencoding={inputEncoding}&outputencoding={outputEncoding}"
"OSDFileURL"="http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/3/C/A3C89D63-E2F0-460D-9F5F-23B51EA52B5E/Google.xml"
"FaviconURL"="http://www.google.com/favicon.ico"

You can insert the text above in a .reg file and double-click it, which will add the entries to the registry automatically.

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