How do I replace the stupid Windows XP dog assistance search with the classic Windows 2000 search?

You can click 'Change Preferences' and select 'Without an animated screen character' to remove the dog. To get the more Win2K-like behaviour (ie jumping directly to the 'Search for files and folders' dialog), set the 'Change files and folders search behaviour' preference to 'Advanced'. This effectively saves you the trouble of having to click 'All files and folders'.

You can download Windows XP Powertoys and disable the search, but here's an easier way:

Copy this text into a text file: disable-search.reg (Only the extension matters)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState]
"Use Search Asst"="no"

Then double-click the .reg file and say "Yes" when Windows asks you if you want to enter that into the registry.

As an alternative that Michael Kohne pointed out, you can simply delete the "Use Search Asst" key entirely.

This will restore Windows 2000 classic search for the current user only.

I prefer using the command line:

Open cmd.exe (Start > Run > "cmd"), and enter:

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState /v "Use Search Asst" /t REG_SZ /d "no" /f

To get the dog back (and return registry to original state), enter:

reg delete HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState /v "Use Search Asst" /f