Vista ~ Introduction |
Windows Search! The computing landscape has changed considerably since the release of Windows XP. Google has become a force to contend with and search technology is hot. Search engines have extended their probing tentacles from the Web onto our desktops, providing tools which plug significant holes in Windows’ capabilities. Given that, there was no way Microsoft could release yet another operating system which was seriously search-challenged, as XP was. So Vista was developed with the ability to search as one of its central technologies. In Vista, search is not just a tool; it’s a way of working. Search functions are threaded throughout the operating system, from the Start Menu to all Explorer windows. Search works so well in Vista, you’ll find it frequently becomes your default mode of navigation. Instead of clicking Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> WordPad, for example, you’ll click Start, type W and press Enter. Instead of having to seek out last year’s budget spreadsheets by digging down through a maze of folders, you’ll type a few letters in the Start Menu’s instant search box and have those documents come to you. In Vista, you can search for:
The variety of items you can search for is matched by the number of locations from which you can initiate a search. In addition to the instant search box in the Start Menu, there are similar search boxes in all Explorer folders, including Documents, Pictures, Music, Computer, Control Panel and so on. There’s also an Advanced Search panel in Explorer and a separate Search folder accessible both via the Start Menu and by pressing WinKey+F at any time. The Indexing ServiceAny efficient search system relies on an index, much like the index in a book helps you track down specific content. Vista’s Indexing Service runs in the background and automatically indexes common locations such as Documents, Pictures and Music, offline files, e-mail, contacts and Calendar events. It excludes programs and system files and doesn’t index additional hard drives unless you instruct it to do so. Indexing occurs while your computer is idle. If you transfer your old data across to your new Vista system, it may take Vista several hours to build the index, depending on how much data it has to munch on. Initially, your searches will prove more fruitful if you load Vista up with data and then leave it alone for a few hours to build the index. After that, the index will update automatically as you add or modify files, although you may still find the latest changes take a little while to be reflected in the search results. With the index built, searches are fast. Really fast.
Not limited to indexing dialogs: In Vista, you can resize any dialog box so that hidden text is no longer obscured. To modify the Indexing Service’s behavior, click Start -> Control Panel -> System And Maintenance -> Indexing Options (or tap WinKey, type ind and press Enter). Vista’s user interface team must have had an off week when designing the indexing dialog boxes. They’re confusing and there are too many of them. The Indexing Options dialog displays the current indexing status and a summary of the locations included in the index. Clicking the Modify button in that dialog displays the Indexed Locations dialog. It displays a useless and deceptive summary until you click its Show All Locations button and respond to a User Account Control prompt to proceed. Clicking the Advanced button in the Indexing Options dialog routes you through another UAC prompt to the Advanced Options dialog, from which you can rebuild the index, move the index location from one drive or folder to another, add or modify the types of files indexed and adjust other indexing options. If you have a system with additional hard drives or partitions where you store your data, you’ll need to tell the Indexing Service to include these in the index:
You may be tempted to whack everything into the index. Resist that urge. Even on a fast system, you’ll find your searches slow down appreciably if you overload the index with rarely-searched items such as program files and dynamic link libraries. Basic searchingFinding a file can be as simple as typing a few letters in an instant search box. If you use the search box on the Start Menu, Vista will search all indexed locations; if you search in, say, Pictures, Vista will restrict its search to that folder and its sub-folders.
Find and launch programs quickly using the Start Menu’s instant search box. If you can’t track down a file within a folder, broaden the search:
Note that the Advanced Search button is displayed at the bottom of your search results. That’s fine when there are just a few results, but if there are screens full of them, you’ll have to scroll or press End to jump to the bottom of the list to access that button. Alternatively, you can select Search Pane from the Search Tools menu. That displays a narrow bar housing options to change search locations or open the Advanced Search.
In the Indexed Locations dialog box, click any of the items listed in the Summary Of Selected Locations to display the actual location of that folder above. The Search Pane is another of Microsoft’s screw-ups. Until late in beta testing, you could switch the Search Pane on by default; in the release version, it hides itself until you type something in the search box. Let’s hope this one gets fixed in Service Pack 1. Vista looks for all words in a search phrase, so if you type family snaps it will locate files which match both those terms. Vista also understands Boolean search operators including AND, OR and NOT. A search for: warragamba AND dam locates files containing both those terms; a search for: warragamba OR dam finds files containing Warragamba and files containing dam; a search for: warragamba NOT dam uncovers all files referring to dams except those that also mention Warragamba.
What a difference a word makes: use the Boolean AND to narrow searches; OR to expand them. (Click the image to see a full-sized screenshot.) Use quotes to search for an exact phrase, such as “warragamba dam”. Make sure to type your Boolean operators in uppercase, unless you’ve turned natural language search on (see sidebar). All these techniques will turn up files containing the search terms as well as those with the search terms in their names.
MetadataOne of the most powerful features of Vista’s search is support for metadata. Not only can you search filenames and file contents, you can also search on file properties. Each type of file has different properties. Basic properties common to most files include the filename, size, date created and date modified. To search on a property, follow the property name with a colon. For example this search: *.gif size: > 5kb AND < 10kb will find all GIF images whose size is between 5 and 10 kilobytes. (And yes, search recognises wildcards such as *, which matches all strings.)
Metadata enriches your searching. Some gets added automatically to files, it’s up to you to supply the rest. (Click to see full-size image.) You’ll find more advanced properties associated with certain filetypes. For instance, Microsoft Word document properties include author, word count and revision number, making possible a search such as this: word count: < 300 author: smith widgets This search will find all documents with fewer than 300 words authored by Smith containing the word widgets. Note that by turning natural language search on you can simplify the syntax required for searching metadata.
You can discover which properties a file supports by right-clicking the file, choosing Properties from the pop-up menu and clicking the Details tab. Things get really interesting when you work with filetypes designed to incorporate tags, such as JPG and TIFF image files and MP3 and WMA audio files. Such files have dozens of properties some of them quite esoteric. So, for example, you can search for all your JPG photos taken using lenses from a particular lens maker or search for songs whose initial key is G minor. Of course, none of these searches will turn up anything much if you don’t take advantage of the existing metadata fields. Train yourself to add metadata to files you work with in your word processor, media player, photo manager and other software, and you’ll find Vista turns this data into a really powerful organisational and search tool. You’ll get the biggest payoff if you make use of the Tag property. With tags, you can categorise files in ways that make sense to you, and then search on those tags across document types and locations. If you work with Office 2007, you’ll find you can add tags directly when using the Save As dialog box. Saving searchesVista lets you save searches. That’s handy for complex searches you perform frequently. It also provides a different way of viewing the content of your computer. Take a look in any Vista folder and you’ll see one of the Favorite Links in the Navigation Pane is Searches. Click that link to display a group of Search Folders, containing pre-fab searches created by Microsoft. The content of a Search Folder is dynamic: the files you see within aren’t physically located in that “folder” at all; instead, when you open a search folder you see an up-to-date list of all matching files for that search, no matter where the files reside on your system.
You can add your own custom searches at any time by performing a search and then clicking the Save Search icon on the Search Pane. Give your search a name and you’ll then be able to run it at any time via Favorite Links -> Searches. To make a search even more accessible, drag it from the Searches folder straight onto the Favorite Links. More than filesVista search keeps track of more than just your files and programs. It also monitors each email you receive or send, your appointments, tasks and contact details.
That is, it tracks this info if you use Outlook, Windows Mail (the replacement for Outlook Express), Windows Live Mail, Windows Calendar or Windows Contacts. If you use any of these programs, you can adapt your file searching techniques to track down email and other items. For instance, tap WinKey and type mail with attachment received last week.
|
