IE7 search providers and ConfigMgr RP

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I was doing some research/testing on IE7 search providers today and thought up a neat trick for quicker access to some common ConfigMgr reports.  See Microsoft Support Article ID 918238 for some of the technical details on IE7 search providers.  We strongly recommend the use of GUIDs in the registry for the search providers, but I don't know how to generate GUIDs and not using GUIDs appears to work, although I can't ensure not using a GUID doesn't break something.  So as with any registry hack: proceed at your own risk. :)

  1. Under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes create a new key, e.g., ConfigMgrReport85
  2. Set the (Default) value to a unique name, e.g., ConfigMgr Status Messages
  3. Create a new string value named DisplayName.  Set the data to how you want the search provider name to appear in IE, e.g., Last 1000 messages for a specific computer  (NOTE: I don't know if there is a character length.  In my tests I always used short DisplayName values.)
  4. Create a new string value named URL.  Set the data to the report URL, e.g., https://configmgrsvr/smsreporting_p01/Report.asp?ReportID=85&variable={searchTerms}
  5. Restart IE.
  6. Enter a computer name in the search box and drop-down to your new search provider.

A few other possibilities:

Information for a specific computer
https://configmgrsvr/smsreporting_p01/Report.asp?ReportID=1&variable={searchTerms}

Computer Details
https://configmgrsvr/smsreporting_p01/MachDetails.asp?Machine={searchTerms}

History - task sequence advertisement P0120000 run on a specific computer
https://configmgrsvr/smsreporting_p01/Report.asp?ReportID=143&AdvertID=P0120000&ComputerName={searchTerms}
(NOTE: this instance is a multiple parameter report, so one of them has to be fixed.)

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