Earlier we saw how to clear the search MRU entries in Windows 7. Are you one of those who find the Search Box suggestion pop-ups annoying, and don’t require this feature? Here is a registry edit which disables the search box suggestions in Windows Explorer.

1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press ENTER

2. Navigate to the following branch:

Note: The above key may not exist by default, and you may need to create the above branch manually.

3. Create a DWORD value named DisableSearchBoxSuggestions

4. Double-click DisableSearchBoxSuggestions and set its data as 1

5. Exit the Registry Editor.

This setting disables suggesting recent queries for the Search Box and prevents entries into the Search Box from being stored in the registry for future references.

Registry Fix

To automate the above download w7-disable-search-suggest.zip, unzip and run the enclosed REG file. To reverse the changes run the file undo.reg

Using the Group Policy Editor

This is only for Windows 7 editions that include the Group Policy Editor.

1. Launch the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)

2. Navigate to the following branch:

3. Set Turn off display of recent search entries in the Windows Explorer search box to Enabled

4. Exit the Group Policy Editor.

Note: If you enable this policy, Windows Explorer will not show suggestion pop-ups as users type into the Search Box, and it will not store Search Box entries into the registry for future references. If the user types a property, values that match this property will be shown but no data will be saved in the registry or re-shown on subsequent uses of the search box.

Aero Peek is a new feature introduced in Windows 7, which allows you temporarily view the desktop, without having to minimize all the open windows. You can temporarily preview the desktop by moving the mouse pointer over the Show desktop button at the end of the taskbar. The default hover delay is 1 second. If this time is too short for you, you can delay it further more to avoid accidental preview of the desktop, using the registry hack discussed in this article.

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Earlier we saw how to disable the confirmation window when emptying the Recycle Bin in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Here is a Registry hack to accomplish the same in Windows 7, using the excellent NirCmd tool. This registry hack replaces the Empty Recycle Bin command with NirCmd command-line so that the Recycle Bin can be emptied silently without any prompts. This also works from the Recycle Bin Tasks pane. (more…)

When working with Windows 7 RC this week, I stumbled upon another nice and useful feature which I thought I should write about. Windows 7 allows you to add icons to your custom right-click (static) menu entries. Usually, to display a right-click command with an icon, one needs to write a context menu handler Shell Extension (DLL). Now, you can assign icons for static menu items as well, without having to program anything. (more…)