How to add domains to Internet Explorer Autoscan

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If you remove the domain (.com, .net, etc.) from a URL, Internet Explorer tries to complete the entry by automatically scanning with common domains. For example, if you type "Microsoft" into the address bar, Internet Explorer will look for Microsoft.com or Microsoft.org or Microsoft.edu, etc.

You can add other domains (such as .biz or .us) to the list of domains Internet Explorer tries out. Here's how:

1. Click Start, Run and type regedit to open the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\UrlTemplate.

3. Create a registry entry of the REG_SZ type. Its name should be a number indicating the order in which Internet Explorer should search. For example, by default there are already entries named 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the .com, .org, .net and .edu domains, so your first new entry would be named 5.

4. Double click the new entry and type in a data value as follows: www.%s.[top level domain]. For example, if you want Internet Explorer to search for .uk domains, type: www.%s.uk.

5. Close the Registry Editor.

This was first published in February 2004

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