Hide or Remove IE8 Search Box

A strange question, but is there a way to hide, remove or delete the Internet Explorer 8 search box? I just type by search queries in to the address bar, so there is no need for the extra search box.

No biggie if it can't be done, but someone might know!

I've had a look, but can't see a way to do this for you. Did you manage to find a solution in the end?

Start -> run -> gpedit.msc

Thanks so much Thrax, you are a genius!

How can you do this with Windows XP?

You can do it the same as described above in xp. It worked for me in xp pro.

Thanks for a great tip.

Now if i can just get the GO button to show up. I have not researched this yet.

Nice hack though with Firefox it`s much simpler!

Firefox users just need to right click the navigation toolbar, click "customize", drag the search box to the dialog box and click done! It`s the same with Opera and Safari 4. IE8 isn`t a bad browser but lacks some features which are much more important than accelerators and all the other bloating. That`s why Internet Explorer (and the other non-Mozilla web browsers) will never be the right browser for me.

No offense to Microsoft but I just go straight to the point.

I've also removed the redundant search box using a free piece of software called IE7PRO as it also allows you to tweak a number of things in IE7 (& IE8) plus it works for XP, Vista & Win7

I used this a long time ago in XP, and then in Windows 7. Just tried it in IE8 and it seems to work.
Just unzip and run the reg.

You must log off and on again after applying the patch.

1. Run Registry Editor (RegEdit.exe).
2. Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\InfoDelivery\Restrictions

Note: The registry branches starting from Internet Explorer may not be readily available. In this case, manually create the new Key with appropriate names. And if you want user-only restriction, use the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry branch.
# In the right pane, create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named as NoSearchBox data, and set its value data as 1.

3. In the right pane, create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named as NoSearchBox data, and set its value data as 1.

4. Exit Registry Editor.
5. Close and re-open IE browser.

6. To add back and turn on the search box in IE 8 again, just delete the NoSearchBox registry key, or set its value data to 0.