Quickly Search for MS KB Articles

You can modify the registry to add the capability to quickly search the KB articles (formerly referred to as Q articles) in Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. Here’s the procedure:

  1. Run regedit.exe.
  2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
     Explorer\SearchUrl.
  3. From the Edit menu, select New, Key and name it KB.
  4. Select the new KB folder that you just created under the
     SearchUrl folder, and in the right-hand pane
     double-click Default.
  5. For Value data, enter http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=%s.
  6. Click OK and close the registry editor.

To test this procedure, open Internet Explorer and type KB followed by the name of the KB article number (for example, to search for article number 832980, type “kb 823980″). It should take you directly to the article in your browser.

Make sure that you don’t add KB as a key in the SearchUrl folder. KB should be a subfolder of SearchUrl folder and it should contain the above entry in the right-hand pane.

This procedure has been tested successfully on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems, and on Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox browsers.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Support - KB