Set the Search Screen to the Classic Look

When we all first saw the default search pane in Windows XP, our instinct was to return it to its classic look; that puppy had to go. Of course, We later discovered that a doggie door is built into the applet.Click "Change preferences" then "Without an animated screen character." If you'd rather give it a bare-bones "Windows 2000" look and feel, fire up your Registry editor and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ CabinetState.

You may need to create a new string value labeled "Use Search Asst" and set it to "no".