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Microsoft CRM 4.0 Quick Find is a great feature.  It allows you to quickly search for records without the need to go through Advanced Find.  Where Quick Find lacks is in the ability to modify the filter.  For example, Quick Find will only search for active records.  For some entities this may be OK but often when searching for Accounts or Contacts you may want to include inactive records.

Unfortunately Microsoft CRM 4.0 does not have a supported method for including the inactive records.  The customization window does not allow for modifying the filter criteria of the view.

There is; however, an easy unsupported way of including inactive records. 

1. Click on Settings, Customization, Export Customizations.

2. Select Account (or whichever entity you want to modify) and click on Export Selected Customizations.

3. Click OK to the warning window.

4. Click Save on the File Download window.  Save the file somewhere on your desktop.

5. Extract the Customizations.zip file and then open the Customizations.xml file in NotePad.

6. Search for “Quick Find Active.”

7. Remove the filter condition as shown in the screen shot below.

8. Save the XML file.  Back in CRM, click on Settings, Customization, Import Customizations.  Browse to the modified XML file and click on Upload.  This will read the XML file to determine what customizations are contained in it.  Make sure Account is selected and choose Import Selected Customizations.

9. Lastly, publish the changes.  Click on Settings, Customization, Customize Entities.  Select Account and click on Publish.

Note: This is an unsupported method; however, it will work on any of the entities including custom entities.