Log in to your admin, point to Tools-->Layout Boxes Controller.

Locate the sideboxes/search.php and click on it to edit. Set both of the right/left column and center column statuses to "off". That will get rid of the advanced search.

To move the basic search to a side bar, in the Layout Boxes Controller panel, locate sideboxes/search_header.php & click to edit. Set the center search column to off, and the right/left search column to "on". Select whether you want it on the right or left. Use the sort order numbers to determine where it appears on the page.

If, after you do all that, the basic search box insists on showing up in the header (as it did with mine), navigate to the following folder:

/ includes / templates / YOUR_CUSTOM_TEMPLATE / common /

and edit the tpl_header.php file.

If you don't have this in YOUR_CUSTOM_TEMPLATE, be sure to make a copy from / includes / templates / template_default / common /
before you begin.

Once inside the tpl_header.php file, find the following text

<div id="navMainSearch"><?php require(DIR_WS_MODULES . 'sideboxes/search_header.php'); ?></div>
<br class="clearBoth" />
</div>
and comment it out, like this:

//*<div id="navMainSearch"><?php require(DIR_WS_MODULES . 'sideboxes/search_header.php'); ?></div>
<br class="clearBoth" />
</div>*/

Happy Zenning!