diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 17f681c..4d910ea 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,6 +1,2 @@
-# host (replit)
 *replit*
-.cache
-
-# sts data to not git
 data/index
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/PHP.ini b/PHP.ini
deleted file mode 100644
index ea90e32..0000000
--- a/PHP.ini
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-display_errors = "stderr"
-display_startup_errors = true
-html_errors = true
-error_reporting = 'E_ALL'
-zlib.output_compression = 1
-zlib.output_compression_level = 9
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/data/xml/default.flags.xml b/data/xml/default.flags.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 4dd259e..0000000
--- a/data/xml/default.flags.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
-<flags>
-  <any>
-    <sbox>
-      <input_type valid="text;search;" default="text">text</input_type>
-    </sbox>
-  </any>
-</flags>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index c9b25db..0e8fd43 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -1,14 +1,13 @@
 <?php
-  libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
   // load config
   $cfg=parse_ini_file("serve.ini", true);
 
   // load locale
   #$lang=locale_accept_from_http($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']);
+
   $lang="en_US";
   $strings=parse_ini_file("data/locale/".$lang."/strings/main.ini");
 
-
   // cookies
   if(!isset($_COOKIE['sts_theme'])){
     setcookie('sts_theme','default');
@@ -18,22 +17,6 @@
     setcookie('sts_scripting','none');
     $_COOKIE['sts_scripting'] = 'none';
   }
-  if(!isset($_COOKIE['sts_flags'])){
-    setcookie('sts_flags',file_get_contents('data/xml/default.flags.xml'));
-    $_COOKIE['sts_flags'] = simplexml_load_file('data/xml/default.flags.xml') or die('failed loading an xml file!');
-  }else{
-    $_COOKIE['sts_flags'] = simplexml_load_string($_COOKIE['sts_flags']);
-  }
-
-  if ($_COOKIE['sts_flags'] === false) {
-    http_response_code(500);
-    header('Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8');
-    echo "An error occured within superTinySearch!\n\nWhat happened:\tfailed to parse cookie 'sts_flags'!\n\nAdditional info:\n";
-    foreach(libxml_get_errors() as $error) {
-      echo "\n\t", $error->message;
-    }
-    die(sprintf("\n\ncontact %s @ %s",$cfg['MAINTAINERS_0']['name'],$cfg['MAINTAINERS_0']['email']));  
-  }
 ?>
 <html>
   <head>
@@ -50,14 +33,11 @@
     ?>
     <?php
       echo "<div class=\"searchbox\"><form id=\"searchbox\">\n";
-      echo "<input class=\"sbox\" type=\"".$_COOKIE['sts_flags']['index']['sbox_type']."\" placeholder=\"".$strings['interactions_searcharea_hint']."\" name=\"query\">";
+      echo "<input class=\"sbox\" type=\"text\" placeholder=\"".$strings['interactions_searcharea_hint']."\" name=\"query\">";
       echo "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"".$strings['interactions_basic_search']."\">\n";
       echo "</form></div>"
     ?>
 
     <iframe style="position:absolute;bottom:30px;right:10px;" src="dynamicGen.php?content=aboutserver" width="376" height="276"></iframe>
-    <div class="footer">
-      <div class="footeri right">
-        <a 
   </body>
 </html>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/search.php b/search.php
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29..0000000
diff --git a/src/validateSTSXML.php b/src/validateSTSXML.php
deleted file mode 100644
index 084861a..0000000
--- a/src/validateSTSXML.php
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-<?php
-  libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
-  function validateXML($xmlstr,$type): bool{
-    if($type=="flags"){
-      $_xml=simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);
-      if($_xml===false){
-        return false;
-      }
-      return true;
-    }
-  }
-?>
\ No newline at end of file
