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How to remove Windows (Desktop) Search … revisited

Fri 22nd August, 2008 | Category: Microsoft, remixuk08

In October last year, I posted an article on how to remove Windows Desktop Search from an XP machine after it had been unhelpfully installed as a mandatory upgrade. The world has moved on since then and version 3 of Windows Desktop Search has been replaced by version 4, which is now called Windows Search. This means the name of the uninstall folder has changed and the information in that post is becoming ever more out of date. As it still accounts for 80% of the traffic to my site, I figured it was time for an update.

If you have version 3 of Windows Desktop Search and want to remove it, please refer to the old post. If you have version 4, read on. If you are unsure which one you have, press the windows key and F together to start up the application and look at the image that appears toward the top right of the window. If it says “Windows Desktop Search”, then you have version 3. If it says “Windows Search”, then you have version 4.

Windows Desktop Search (version 3)

Windows Desktop Search (version 3)

Windows Search (version 4)

Windows Search (version 4)

To remove Windows Search version 4 from XP, try the following steps:

  1. Start by running up Add & Remove Programs from the control panel and look for Windows Desktop Search in the list. Unlike with version 3, Windows Search v4 should be there.
  2. If not, open a cmd window (click on Start, then “Run..” and type cmd in the Run dialogue that then appears). Then copy and paste the following line into the cmd window: 
    %systemroot%\$NtUninstallKB940157$\spuninst\spuninst.exe
  3. If that also fails and you get a “The system cannot find the path specified.” error, then I have zipped up a copy that you can download from here. To work out where to extract it to, type: 
    echo %systemroot%

    into your cmd window and note the location it points to (it is likely to be C:\Windows, but may not be if you upgraded to XP for Windows 2000 for example). Open the zip file, and extract the $NtUninstallKB940157$ to this location. Now repeat step 2.

Update: Thanks to “Derek” for pointing out to me that I’d missed the “bleedin’ obvious”, ie that v4 can be removed via “Add Remove Programs”. I’ve added this as step 1 as a consequence. Steps 2 and 3 are likely redundant, but I’ve left them in for completeness.


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58 Comments so far

  1. Derek August 22nd, 2008 21:07

    Or, you could just run appwiz.cpl and remove it that way?

  2. David Arno August 23rd, 2008 07:50

    Good point Derek. I misread the release notes for KB940157 as saying that it could not be removed via Add/ Remove Progams. I have updated the post as a result.

  3. Jim Deakin August 27th, 2008 02:02

    Thanks for this. My copy of XP doesn’t show it in the add/remove programs options either as the program, or as the update (and yes I am ’showing updates’). The uninstaller wasn’t in my WINDOWS directory either. I had to download your copy to get rid of the fl$%^& thing!

  4. arthur August 27th, 2008 20:01

    did help with the dditional download of $NtUninstallKB940157$\spuninst
    Thank you very much appreciated
    was on the verge of full reinstall

  5. Steven August 29th, 2008 01:28

    Like Jim Deakin, Windows Search wasn’t in Add/Remove Programs. Running spuninst.exe worked a treat! Many thanks for this.

  6. Henrique Pessini August 31st, 2008 04:30

    The procedure with the ZIP file work very well.
    Thanks!!!

  7. Stellan Klebom August 31st, 2008 19:06

    Thank you for the zip-file.

    I have a habit to delete these uninstall information since I hardly ever unistall anything.

    However, this time I badly needed it… Thank you!

    I tried reinstalling Windows Desktop Search to get an uninstall dir created, but for some reason the reinstall directory were never created… So your download or creating one in a virtual machine or reinstall of XP was my options…

  8. Mike September 2nd, 2008 18:43

    Thank you! I’ve been trying to remove Windows Desktop Search 4.0 for weeks. Your instructions and zip file worked perfectly.

  9. Gabriel Dibble September 3rd, 2008 21:03

    Thank you so much! =)

  10. John September 4th, 2008 22:59

    WDS 4.0 was in my Add/Remove Programs but it indicated it couldn’t find it. I used your zip file and it is now gone.

    Thank you!

  11. John Doughtry September 5th, 2008 15:12

    Windows Search v4 never created an entry in the Add/Remove even with Show Updates checkmarked. I accidentally deleted the uninstall directory during maintenance, and as another user stated, attempts to reinstall Search v4 did not recreate the uninstall directory. Your ZIP file and instructions finally provided the means to get rid of that piece of crap. Thanks so much!

  12. Anonymous September 7th, 2008 21:25

    THANK YOU

  13. jelani September 8th, 2008 03:06

    thank you

  14. Amidar September 11th, 2008 18:50

    Nice job…

  15. Rich September 14th, 2008 22:30

    Thanks so much.

    R

  16. Henry September 15th, 2008 21:20

    I recently built a new desktop with XP home. its been running for about a month now. I removed desktop search and the program gave me a list of programs that were installed after desktop search was installed. it said that these programs might not work if they need desktop search. ever since then i have been having dificulties with my machine freezing. sometimes on boot up. has anyone else seen any issues like this. I had to install a new copy of xp on a diffrent partition just to get into the computer. I did put the computer together from a bare bones kit and it may have issues that have nothing to do with the desktop search. i just find it funny that i only started to get the issues after i removed it.

  17. Yoni September 19th, 2008 13:14

    My XP did NOT have it in the add/remove list but your Run command saved my day!

    Thanks!

  18. Philby E McGee September 21st, 2008 23:18

    Thankyou for restoring my faith in humanity, the fact that the search ‘update’ does not allow a simple right click copy/paste function alone renders it absurd to say the least.., not to mention that it doesn’t even seem to facilitate any of my fundamentally imperative requirements!!? My bad for deleting the uninstall folder but thanks to your help all is restored.. It really highlights how superb the integrated XP search actually is, why they’ve conceived such a bloated alternative is beyond me.. It’s much like a bloated (starving) Ethiopian kid, though just as empty, with about as much to offer, ie the software equivalent of the AIDS virus!!

  19. simon September 22nd, 2008 09:29

    Thanks a lot!

  20. ibach September 23rd, 2008 13:30

    as zipped file is copied from another computer uninstaller might not contain all the registry data used in installation for other machines. however, it does contain standard reg entries, and will remove windows search, but one should do some registry cleaning afterwords to prevent malfunction of affected software.

    btw thanks for this beautiful download!

  21. Koen September 25th, 2008 09:47

    Thank you thank you thank you

  22. Erik September 25th, 2008 16:15

    Thanks for the ZIP-file!!!

  23. Matthew Poertner September 26th, 2008 20:16

    Thank You!!!! Option 3 worked for me. Thanks so much for providing those files!

  24. Edgar October 1st, 2008 16:18

    David,

    thanks a lot for making the zip file. Live Search was not in my Add/Remove programs window and I was also missing the $NtUninstallKB940157$ folder.

    I downloaded your zip file, and ran the command. It worked beautifully.

    Thanks a lot.

  25. Michael October 2nd, 2008 18:43

    I’ve searched everywhere for an uninstall of this…disease of a program. After an hour, I run across your site, and kablam. That simple. Thank you so much.

  26. Lao October 5th, 2008 06:09

    You is the boy!!

  27. Claud. October 5th, 2008 21:30

    Brilliant, thanks very much. The uninstall didn’t appear in my Add/Remove progs, but your instructions were nice and easy to follow. Finally rid of that pesky new search which only slows down my machine!

    Cheers
    Claud.

  28. Amit October 7th, 2008 21:32

    Thanks a ton for including the zip file. It was a life saver.

  29. Ferrerchen October 8th, 2008 14:49

    Thank you very much, now I uninstall it and the speed of PC is faster.

  30. Mosh October 9th, 2008 13:42

    I’ll add to the “thanks”. I’d already looked for uninstall folders and on the add/remove. Nowhere to be found. Well done, Microsoft, for yet another bodged “update”.

    Glad to say that the ZIP file worked a treat and I’m about to run a registry cleanup as someone else mentioned above. No harm in giving it the once-over.

  31. Mosher’sUnimaginativelyEntitledBlog » Blog Archive » How to remove Windows Search 4.0 October 9th, 2008 13:52

    [...] page is this one, courtesy of ARNO#. It does involve downloading a ZIP file, but I can verify that it works. I would [...]

  32. Filip October 10th, 2008 09:27

    Thanks for zip file. WDS gone ;-).

  33. John October 16th, 2008 03:19

    Nice post, the zip file and cmd line instructions were essential. Thanks!

  34. hmsr21 October 17th, 2008 16:01

    Nice and simple post, the zip file and cmd line instructions were essential. Thanks!

  35. pb October 19th, 2008 13:11

    Another thank you…I removed the uninstaller when doing some cleaning up, and as has been said, reinstalling WDS didn’t reinstall the uninstaller.

    Many thanks for the zip file.

  36. Greg October 20th, 2008 08:20

    I would never have been able to do this! There were so many complicated ways of trying to do this and you simplified it for the rest of us. Windows Search 4 was not in my add/remove programs and I have a couple other programs specifically to remove software and it wasn’t listed there either. I used your ZIP file just as you said and boom, it’s done!

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

  37. Vincenzo October 20th, 2008 19:28

    VERY straight and useful.
    Thanks

  38. RK October 21st, 2008 14:50

    Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you a million.

  39. Jerkko October 21st, 2008 15:06

    Thank you for the zip and thank thou Mightysoft for making all this happen once again.

  40. Tim October 22nd, 2008 20:45

    Thanks for the ZIP - it was missing for some reason. I’m switching to the Google Outlook add-in

  41. go October 28th, 2008 01:09

    thanks for the tip to look under “Add/Remove Programs” — i assumed it’d be harder than that! >_<

  42. Baris October 28th, 2008 14:39

    Thankyou, I installed XP slipstreamed with SP3, then did all the updates and ended up with WDS4. It was not listed under add/remove programs so I had to call the uninstaller as you have listed above from command line.

    It worked, thanks :)

  43. AO October 30th, 2008 22:21

    amazing this worked out just fine even before reboot, Thank you M$ for making us install something with out our permission

  44. Marco November 1st, 2008 16:46

    Perfect!!! Thanks for this tutorial and the unninstall file, worked fine!!!Thanks man!

  45. Rvdo. Alegria November 7th, 2008 20:53

    Thank!!!

    u don´t know how many days I lost searching the way to uninstall this “great” development of microsoft.

    Again, thanks, thanks a lot!!!

  46. JW November 16th, 2008 15:50

    THANK YOU! This really saved me, the WDS was hogging gigs of drive space and slowing everything to a crawl. Nothing in add/remove and the KB files were missing. THanks for this information and files, it really made a big difference.
    Thanks again! :)

  47. pete goddard November 16th, 2008 17:04

    Thanks for these instructions:
    (http://www.davidarno.org/
    2008/08/22/how-to-remove-windows
    -desktop-search-…-revisited/) on how to remove ”Windows Search” from WinXP.
    They worked quite well!
    A BIG THANKS again!
    pete goddard, Columbia, SC

  48. Juliano November 17th, 2008 13:22

    Thanks! The only guide to remove this pest from my pc.
    Grat job!

  49. Chad Nelson November 17th, 2008 20:47

    I was able to uninstall windows search, but “Advanced Find” in Outlook 2007 is still trying to use the DS index which is no longer being updated and does not exist. Do you know if any registry entries are left still pointing to the old index?

  50. J Eden November 18th, 2008 00:34

    Many thanks for the help. I was unable to install Solidworks but this fixed the problem.

  51. John November 18th, 2008 03:07

    Thanks so much for your simple fix - something that seems to go way beyond Microsoft’s dull intellect!

  52. somedude November 19th, 2008 04:58

    Useful We need to digg this site!!
    to improve it’s SEO.
    It is extraordinary useful

  53. Rubén November 20th, 2008 14:57

    Gracias!!!
    Easy, simple precedure.
    Adios WD4

  54. Perfetto November 20th, 2008 16:33

    Many thanks, this save my resources ;-)

  55. David Arno November 20th, 2008 23:34

    @Rubén, de nada mi amigo.

    @Chad Nelson, I’m not aware of any such registry keys, but if I find any, I’ll post them here and email you to let you know.

  56. Nigel November 21st, 2008 21:03

    Thank you! Well thought through.

  57. torch November 23rd, 2008 12:36

    Thankyou!

  58. 1halfelf December 1st, 2008 15:39

    I’ll chime in also — thank you very very much! I can confirm the following. The latest version of the installer for Microsoft Desktop Search v4.0 does NOT add an entry in Add/Remove Programs. It also does NOT add the $NtUninstallKB940157$ directory to the system root directory. I confirmed this by downloading the installer from Microsoft, installing it, and then looking for the entries. Nothing… Your zip file works great though!

    :)

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