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Demo: Instant Search in Windows Vista

I wanted to give you all a heads up on something new we're bringing to the blog. 

A lot of times when the Product Team is showing off Windows Vista, the crowd is pretty impressed by all of the useful features we built into the OS. Most of these are things that will make day-to-day work quicker or easier - especially for those of us office drones. But many of our users just don't know they exist. So we figured, why not show you some of our favorite features? 

Over the next week or so, our own Esther Choi from Windows Vista Product Management will be hosting a series of short videos that don't just cover what these features are, but also how and when to use them. We hope to make videos from the Windows Vista Product Management Team a regular thing, so let us know what you think by leaving a comment...and what you want to hear more about! 

Today we're kicking off with Instant Search, which is really cool in Windows Vista. Finding stuff can be a big pain, but the search capabilities built directly into the OS help me locate the documents, music files, photos, emails and whatever else you're looking for quickly. 


Video: Windows Vista Demo: Instant Search

By the way, while we're on the topic of features, I wanted to let you know that the Windows Vista Product Guide - a great resource on all things Windows Vista - is now available for FREE in paperback.  All you have to do is pay for shipping.  Order your copy here.  I should note that the paperback guide doesn't include the new stuff in SP1, but you can download all of that information here.


Comments

  1. Posted on: July 30, 2008 at 6:18PM  

    Nice :D

    PLS continue post video.

  2. Posted on: July 31, 2008 at 4:04AM  

    The Start menu search is nice, the indexed search also works well, what I don't like very much is the real-time/non-indexed search which is slower than what used to be in XP, and the UI for non-indexed advanced search is very clumsy. Simple features (like specifying where to search etc.) are too deep inside the UI), you cannot specify a date range from the UI, searching by file type/extension isn't exposed in the UI. I'm aware of the advanced search syntax for Windows Search but I (and I think some other users) are not comfortable remembering the syntax or even requiring to type it. I just want a simple UI which exposes all the basic search features (which isn't in Vista's search UI) and this is what keeps me from using Advanced search and instead use third-party utilities (though the Start menu search and integrated search in Explorer is useful and awesome).

  3. Posted on: July 31, 2008 at 5:01AM  

    I have two laptops that run on Vista and one on XP (that am using now).  I must say that even on XP, this Instant Search thing is marvelous!  It looks into practically every nook and cranny of my PC and indexing is really fast.  Awesome, thank you!

  4. Posted on: July 31, 2008 at 12:46PM  

    How come when I type "regedi" I see nothing, but when I complete it with a "t" I finally see "regedit.exe" in the results? Whats up with that?

    Otherwise, works great on all other programs.

  5. Posted on: July 31, 2008 at 8:56PM  

    to caywen...  because regedit is system/admin type program and exists in \Windows folder and by default, Search does not search in there.  You can easily change Search to include c:\windows (and sub folders) if you *really* want to.

  6. Posted on: August 01, 2008 at 1:18AM  

    Last week I installed some Canon software for my digital camera. Then I tried typing 'Canon' and 'stitch' but neither could be found. I had to go trawling through my program listing to find the Canon photostitch software.

    It's like when I rip a CD with WMP11 to my hard drive. The album folder can't be found. Most times it doesn't even get added to 'Recently Added' list. Makes no difference whether it's my home Vista desktop or my work XP tablet pc.

    On my Vista machine I have my root music folder included in the index, but the performance is so lacklustre that it's faster to navigate manually.

    As a sidebar I suspect that the huge number of folders required by media player means that Vista loses track of folder customizations very quickly. So my Windows Contact folder always reverts to something either than Contacts type despite being set thus every time I edit my Contacts.

  7. Posted on: August 03, 2008 at 1:09AM  

    What the??? Did someone hit the rewind button or something?

  8. Posted on: August 05, 2008 at 12:10AM  

    Hi

    Esther went throught the Advanced Search Feature too quickly. I couldn't see how she brought up the advance search options-what do you click? Is it available in Gallery, Media Player, Explorer, etc?

    thank you.

  9. Posted on: October 16, 2008 at 1:55AM  

    I use 2 systems with Vista Ultimate (both updated to SP1). On one system search does not work - for example, I will search *.pst to find my outlook files and select 'C:' as location (my main hard drive) / or select 'Everywhere' / or select the directory where these files are: 'AppData/Local/Microsoft/Outlook' as the location.

    In all cases, Vista searches for a while (no error message) and then display message "No items match your search". I can see these files ... weird

    If I launch the search from my second machine, it will find the files on my first machine (on the network) - so I can always do this.

    does anyone know how I can fix the problem on my first machine?

    Thanks heaps in advance - I'm pulling my hair with this.

Trackbacks

  1. Posted by: The blog of Rob Margel on July 31, 2008 at 4:38AM

    Search is something I use all the time in Vista, but when I show it to friends and colleagues some of

  2. Posted by: The Windows Experience Blog on August 01, 2008 at 3:11PM

    In the last video , Esther told you all about how Instant Search makes her day-to-day life easier. Today,

  3. Posted by: Chaks' Corner on August 15, 2008 at 4:25AM

    1) Vista Preview pane 2) Vista Start menu 3) Network icon status 4) Network Diagnostics - Diagnose and Repair 5) Security Center 6) Volume Mixer 7) Demo : Instant Search in Windows Vista 8) Demo : Live Icons Display in Windows Search in Windows Vista