Windows 7 - can't select any other search engine as the default

I installed Windows Live Essentials a couple of weeks ago.
It set my default search to Windows Live search. I wanted to reset the default to my usual Google but this program had hijacked my browser and would not allow me select any other search engine as the default.
Does anyone know how to stop it doing this?

I ended up uninstalling it.

yep its fairly straight-forward. in the searchbar you should see the down arrow. Click on that and select manage search providers. In the box that comes up you then click on your provider of choice and click the set as default button.

Thanks Swarfega.

I had already tried that and I could only set the default for the current IE session.
When I next restarted IE8 the default had gone back to windows Live search.

The option in manage search providers, to permanently set the default to another provider, was greyed out. So I tried running IE as administrator but it made no difference.