NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, May 2009
Moving on to Vista – Part 14
by Neil Stahfest,
Librarian, Tacoma Area PC User Group, Washington

http://www.tapcug.org

This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).

One of the features that I liked about previous versions of Windows was the *Search” feature. Just click on the “Start” button”, Click on “Search” and enter the file name that you want to find. If you have multiple hard drives, you can specify which ones to search. Its easy and simple.

Vista is different. Vista has a totally new search feature that is in some ways easier to use, fast and very sophisticated. It doesn't just try to match file names. It looks inside files and reads and searches the contents of text files, your Windows Contacts and Calendar as well as any Microsoft Office files (documents, spreadsheets and PowerPoint files). To do this Vista automatically maintains an index file which contains all this information for the file linked to your personal user folder. To keep the index file from becoming too large and to speed up the search process, it does not maintain a list of files located in your Windows system folder, contents of application file folders or on a local computer network (information usually only useful to computer programmers). When you start searching for a file or word, it only has to check this index file to find what you want. The results are displayed almost as fast as you can type the search name.

To use the most basic features of Vista's search engine, click on the “Start” button. When the “Start Menu” appears, a “Start Search” box appears directly above the “Start Button”. As you start to type a folder or file name, a list of folders and files appears above the box. As you type more letters, the list of names becomes more specific. If you don't see what you are looking for, at the bottom of the list is an option to search for the file name on the Internet (assuming that you have an Internet connection of course). When you do this, the Internet search uses your default Internet search engine whether it be Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, etc.

The Search Results window does not show the name of every file match found. Using some form of artificial intelligence Vista limits itself to to the 20 most likely matches. It shows them under file group headings such as “Programs”, “Files” and “Communications”.

An interesting aspect of this feature is that you can point and click on a program listed in the Search Results window and actually run it. Document or spreadsheet files can also be accessed this way. Printing at the file name activates the default file program, such as Microsoft Word.

Using this feature of Vista's search function moves it beyond just a way to locate files and folders. It becomes a way to quickly locate files and then take action to use them. To prepare this column I simply went to my desktop, clicked on the Start Button, entered “vista.rtf” in the Search Box and then clicked on the file name to open it with my word processing program. How simple is that! No need to open a series of folders to burrow down to my Vista column files.

In most cases, doing the above steps will locate the information you are looking for. But suppose it doesn't. Windows will tell you that the information can't be located and suggest that you use some of the advanced search features. We'll address advanced search features next month.

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