I search the Exchange Team Blog frequently to provide content for customers I work with as this site is full of great information on Exchange. I found a way to make the searches even easier with Internet Explorer 7 and wanted to share it.

Using IE7 since early in the beta, first on Windows XP SP2, then on Windows Vista I discovered the Search Provider feature located in the upper-right-hand corner of IE7.

I then figured out how to build a search provider for IE7 by creating it in the Windows Registry. I also made this easier by using .REG files so I could double-click and install the search provider.

You can do this even easier by going to the Add Search Providers to Internet Explorer 7 site and following the instructions to Create Your Own. You just need to enter a search in the upper-right hand corner of this blog for TEST. Here's the URL for the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog:

http://msexchangeteam.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?q=TEST

Then you copy the resulting URL to the clipboard and use the Create Your Own tool at the Add Search Providers to Internet Explorer 7 site, paste the URL into Step 3, give it a name in Step 4 and click the Install button.

Now, with two simple mouse clicks you can select the down arrow in the search provider field in the upper-right hand corner of IE7:

Then, change to The Microsoft Exchange Team Blog search provider from the search provider list.

Enter your search words and press the Enter key or click the Search icon (you do not have to be on the blog site itself for this to work).

Then receive the results:

It's that easy! Now try it yourself!

- Dan Kelley