Windows Made Easy

There is a cool trick that lets you do a search on various websites, such as Wikipedia or IMDB, right from your Vista Start Menu.

It works for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

1. Go to Start -> Run -> type gpedit.msc and hit enter.

2. From Local Group Policy Editor select User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Instant Search.

3. Double click “Custom Instant Search Internet search provider”, enable it, and in the first text box type Wikipedia Search. In the second text box type http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%w

4. Click OK, close the editor, and in Start -> Run -> type gpupdate /force so you don’t need to restart your computer to apply the policy.

5. All done! You can now go to your Start Menu and type something in the “Start Search” box. Let’s say… Paris. And then select Search Wikipedia from the list. It should fly to Paris in a second

Other services that I found useful:

Live Search: http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=%

IMDB: http://search.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=%