Microsoft has made it easy to change the default search provider in IE7 — but only if you use IE as your default browser.

Pick Tools->Internet options from the toolbar, then clic the “Settings” button next to “Change search defaults”.

The dialog that pops up has a list of search providers; the only option in the list is Microsoft’s Live Search.

This should be OK; at the bottom of the dialog is a link saying “Find more providers …”

The problem is, it really is a link: it goes to a web page that uses JavaScript to update the list of providers. This is nice for Microsoft, since they can change the list that’s available for everyone by changing one central location. But it isn’t nice if you use FireFox as your default browser: the link opens in FireFox, so the JavaScript can’t make changes in your IE configuration.

A workaround is to open the link in FireFox, then paste the URL into IE7. Ugly.

People developing browser-based software and features really need to be aware that users have different configurations ….