I’m not sure when it became a must have killer app, but it seems that the press thinks it is – so do software companies, seeing as everyone is working on a searching product lately. As such, there is a beta of the new MSN Toolbar available and while a lot of people seem to like it, there is one universal complaint: why do I need this [insert descriptive vulgar term here] butterfly button on my Desktop bar?

You don’t – keep reading for a registry hack – found on Channel 9 – to remove all the buttons from your Desktop bar.

It’s a pretty simple one… go to the key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSN Apps\DB

in your registry. Add a new DWORD called

Buttons

and set it equal to 1. Close the MSN Deskbar and re-open it, by right clicking on the task bar. No more buttons!

For me, pre-SP2, I was using a little toolbar thingy that did little more than pass a term on to an IE window which then searched for the term. That worked find for me, but once SP2 locked down client-side scripts on local pages, it stopped working. A simple toolbar is all I need, especially since I run with my taskbar docked to the left side. I know it sounds odd, but I get a hell of a lot more application windows there and I can read just as much of the title as it being docked on the bottom. I also get to see the Start button on any sized Terminal Session…. sadly some toolbars freak when being on a verticle edge, like IBM’s Battery Meter, but such is life.

What I’d really like to see are a few utilities, like a WiFi meter, Battery meter, or temperature widget, that are Deskbars themselves, since I have the room for them… I just don’t feel like coding them. I must be getting old.

Anyway, this registry tweak works for the MSN Desktop bar and this has earned it another go around of testing from me: it didn’t last very long on my machine for the last go around, since it didn’t look happy being turned on its side.

And I still don’t know why people are frothing at the mouth for searching tools – it seems easier to remember where you put stuff on your hard drive… bad users!