# Internet Explorer search bar help **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 20, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-search-bar-help/189784 "2003-07-20T19:18:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![the\_terminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@the\_terminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_terminator)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-search-bar-help/189784/1 "2003-07-20T19:18:19Z")
Recently, the search bar that apperars when you click “search” on the toolbar has been replaced by “Cool Web Search”. It’s like those fake search engines that appear when you misspell a web adress that give you advertisements that look like search results but are comletely unrelated to what you reached for. Also, our home page was changed but i knew how to fix that. So, how can I get the normal IE web search bar back? I’m running IE 6.0 under Windows XP. ---
**Author:** ![Armilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e19b73/32.png) [@Armilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Armilla)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-search-bar-help/189784/2 "2003-07-20T19:36:32Z")
If you go to Tools/Internet Options from the menu and select the “Programs” tab from the dialogue box you should see a “Reset Web Settings” button that should do the trick. If it keeps getting set back then you’ve probably got some spyware or adware hiding out on your system and you’ll need to download something like AdAware to clean it off. ---
**Author:** ![the\_terminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@the\_terminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_terminator)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-search-bar-help/189784/3 "2003-07-20T19:45:25Z")
Thanks, that did the trick.