How do I change the Internet Explorer settings so that the command bar
search default is NOT MSN. That is, typing an invalid or incorrect URL
sends you to MSN - I would prefer Google.

Dear Academentia,

Sadly, its not possible to specify an alternative search to MSN, which
should not be surprising given Microsoft's predatory history with
browsers. However, you can disable the MSN search and receive a plain
old page cannot be displayed error instead, or simply bypass the
search results page and jump to the first MSN result (not ideal, but
you wouldn't have to see the MSN search results spelled out and you
might get the right page).
These settings can be toyed with to suit your preference (as far as
Microsoft allows you to anyway) by clicking on the "Tools" dropdown of
your browser.
Then select "Internet Options". 
Under the "Advanced" tab there is a heading for "Searching from the
address bar", there are 4 options for when searching, one of which is
to disable the search function (Do not search from the Address bar).
You may wish to use the other 3 options, picking the most likely page
may prove to work out well for you.

Sorry that there isn't a way to search Google directly, but at least
you can not search MSN.

Good Luck,
mechante

Fast response, thanks

Added to what Merchante already told you, maybe the following can be
of interest, as it seems to offer a way to replace the registry entry
with a search engine of your choice:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=umOoVla5BHA.2196%40tkmsftngp07

Search term used (in Google Groups):
    internet explorer msn search google

Since I also prefer Google when doing my research, I downloaded the
Google toolbar.
 
"When the Google Toolbar is installed, it automatically appears along
with the Internet Explorer toolbar. This means you can quickly and
easily use Google to search from any website location, without
returning to the Google home page to begin another search"

http://toolbar.google.com

Hello academentia,

Google actually provides a registry edit that will replace the MSN
search function in Internet Explorer with a slimmed-down version of
Google (to fit in the search window).  Just save this registry file,
then double-click it to modify your registry:
://www.google.com/google.reg

Hope this helps,
carwfloc-ga

Forgot to mention that you can actually click on "Customize" when you
have the search window open and select which specific search service
you want when for each type of search.

This Microsoft 'Q' article says you *can* change the 'Default
AutoSearch Search Page':

How to Change the Default AutoSearch Search Page (Q198279)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q198279


"Using Registry Editor, change the default value of the following
registry key



HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl

to one of the following values: 

To specify Metacrawler as the default search page, change the default
value to "http://www.metacrawler.com/

crawler?general=%s" (without quotation marks).



To specify AltaVista as the default search page, change the default
value to "http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?q=%s"

(without quotation marks)."



Therefore, to use Google as your default search engine, you might try
a value of "://www.google.com/search?q=%s"

I don't think the answer given is correct, at least not for all
versions of MSIE.  I have version 5.5, and this works for me:

Click the "search" button on the tool bar.
Click the "customize" button in the left pane.
Click the "autosearch settings" button in the popup window (bottom
left).
Choose a search provider for address bar searches.  ("Google Sites" is
one of the available options.)

I learned how to do this from this article, which you may find
interesting too.:  http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/02/04-ie.html