Google Search provider missing from Microsoft UK IE Add-ons page? Here is the solution!

After a long time I finally decided to upgrade my four year old Toshiba laptop to Windows 7. Being a student, I obtained a licensed version of Windows 7 Professional through the MSDNAA program. The OS installed fine, and after a few hours I managed to update all the drivers. Unfortunately Toshiba does not provide updated Windows 7 drivers for my Tecra M7, so I had to source them using various methods.

I use Google Chrome as my default search engine, but unfortunately cannot dismiss Internet Explorer completely, as I still need it to access my devices that use directX, and sometimes when certain pages do not display correctly in Chrome. So I downloaded the latest version, Internet Explorer 9 from the Microsoft website and installed it. At first glance, it looks good, and they added the ability to search directly from the address bar. However, there is a problem with that. Microsoft's own Bing search engine is enabled by default and I like to search using Google. I have done many comparisons between the two, and for me, Google's search engine offered better search results every single time. So I tried to change it from Bing to Google. In order to do that, you have to start typing a search term in the address bar, and if you have 'suggested sites' enabled, you will see the Bing icon displayed at the bottom. By clicking the Add button, you will be able to add other search providers. Clicking Add will open a new IE page, taking you to the Internet Explorer gallery website, which displays a list of search providers. Most of them are useless for general search, but you can find good ones such as Yahoo, Ask and of course Bing. However, it seems Microsoft have removed Google from their UK add-ons website. Searching for Google only yields their Accelerator, but nothing under Search Providers. Is this a convenient omission from Microsoft? Your guess is as good as mine. Performing a search on the web, I found many people have had the same problem, but here is the solution, if you want to use Internet Explorer 9 with Google as the default search engine: go to the US version of IE addons website and you can find Google under search providers category. Install it and it will now appear in the search providers list in your Internet Explorer 9. Here is the link: http://www.iegallery.com/us/addons/default.aspx#/search .

Then you can delete Bing, like I have done, or leave it there as a secondary option.