Searching in Windows Vista, Part 2

I’m guessing that the first thing you do when you sit down at the computer is open a program. Your favorite programs might be pinned to the top of the Start menu, but others are probably scattered willy-nilly throughout folders in the Start menu, making finding them about as much fun as bathing the dog. Type the name of the program in the new Search box at the bottom of the Start menu, though, and you’ll see it appear right away.

Type a program’s name in the Search box to locate it quickly

Try this: click the Start button , and then type calc in the Search box. Don’t press ENTER. Instead, watch what happens to the Start menu as you type. With the first "c," you might see all sorts of results in a number of different categories (which I'll talk about in just a moment). Typing "ca" narrows the field, showing fewer entries. By the time you get to "cal," you will probably only see a couple of items. On my computer, when I add the second "c," the only search result is Calculator. (Your results might vary, such as if you have a document on your computer with the word "calculator" in it.)

Search results narrow as you type each letter of your search term

To open Calculator, then, all you need to do is click the Start button , type calc, and either press ENTER or click Calculator. That’s a lot faster than trying to remember where Calculator usually lives in the Start menu (it’s in the Accessories folder in All Programs, in case you’re keeping score at home.)

If you’ve been using Windows for a long time, you might have just realized something really cool: the Search box in the Start menu now works similarly to the old Run command. To start a program like Regedit in Windows XP, for example, you had to click the Start button , click Accessories, click Run, type Regedit, and finally press ENTER. Whew. Now, you can just click the Start button , type Regedit in the Search box, and press ENTER. Of course, if you have a nostalgic fondness for the old Run command, it’s still available. For more information, see What happened to the Run command?

Perhaps you’ve noticed that when you type in the Start menu’s Search box, you get more than just programs. Indeed, you get all sorts of results, divided into categories. Windows Vista displays the top search results by category for whatever you type.

Search results in the Start menu showing all four result categories. Some searches might not include results in all categories.

That’s pretty useful, because you can frequently find any kind of file, program, e–mail, or favorite website just by typing a few characters, without opening additional folders. Once you see the results in the Start menu, you can open a particular item by clicking it or using the arrow keys to highlight the file, and then pressing ENTER. By default, the first result is always highlighted.

Tip

• If you type a search term and then press ENTER, you’ll open whatever item was at the very top of the search results, which, odds are, isn’t what you’re looking for. Get in the habit of not pressing ENTER when using search in Windows Vista.

What if you don’t see what you’re looking for? The Start menu has a limited amount of space, so it might not show you the specific file you were trying to find. That’s okay; you still have two additional ways to search—by clicking one of the following options at the bottom of the Start menu.

So what, you might be wondering, is the index? Windows Vista stores information about all of your files in something called the index. When you do a search, Windows doesn't need to slowly search your entire hard disk, because it already has a summary of all your stuff in its index. Your results pop up right away. Windows Vista automatically indexes all the files in your personal folder—that’s stuff in Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Favorites, and the other folders you see if you click the Start button and then click your user name at the top of the Start menu.

Once you have a folder full of results, you can fine-tune your search. If you know that you are looking for a particular kind of file—like an e–mail or picture, for example—then click the appropriate button to filter your search.

Fine-tune your search by clicking one of the search filter buttons

Unlike the Start menu, you might not spend a lot of time in Control Panel. But when you do visit, it’s kind of like going to the dentist—you’d like to get done and go home as quickly as possible. But Control Panel has so many individual settings, how do you find what you’re actually looking for?

Well, if you’ve read this far, you can probably guess the solution. The Search box at the top of Control Panel is a handy way to quickly cut through the noise and locate exactly what you need.

That’s great, you say, but odds are that you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. What if you want to change the screen resolution of your monitor, for example? What is that setting called? What would you type in the Search box?

Thankfully, Windows Vista knows several different ways to refer to most of the settings in Control Panel. To change the screen resolution, for example, you could type any of these things to get to the same place:

• display

• monitor

• resolution

• screen

Find the same Control Panel setting with similar search terms

Likewise, if you wanted to change the sound scheme for your computer, you could type sound, audio, or volume to find the Sound settings. That means it’s easier than ever to find the correct setting quickly and painlessly.

Sure, there will always be times when finding the right file, folder, or program will take longer than it should. In the real world, I lose my car keys a lot, too. I just wish there was a floating Search box around to help me find them.

About the author

Dave Johnson is a writer on the Windows team at Microsoft. In addition to writing about Windows, he's a scuba instructor, a drummer, an award-winning photographer, and the author of over three dozen books.

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