While Windows Vista, 7 and 8 already have Windows Search, a powerful indexing and searching software, but Windows XP has quite lame search capabilities by default. The somewhat functional search is still there, but well hidden behind a cute yellow puppy (called Search Companion) looking for milk... err, files. Still the default search in Windows XP is not good enough - you should download and install Windows Search 4.0.
In Windows XP, you can use the Windows Search Deskbar (press Windows Key+Shift+F to activate it), Search button in Windows Explorer or open a Search Folder using keyboard shortcut Windows Key+F.
If the Deskbar is hidden in Windows XP, right-click an empty area of Taskbar, open Toolbars and click Windows Search Deskbar.
In Windows Vista and 7, you can search using Start menu's Search box, Search box in Windows Explorer or Search Folder, accessible via keyboard shortcut Windows Key+F. There is not much difference between the latter two, Search Folder is just a clean search window and Start menu search displays fewer results with no previews and helpful tips due to space restrictions of Start menu itself.
In Windows Vista, Start menu search does not allow usage of kinds, such as "kind:picture".
In Windows 8, search boxes in Windows Explorer work just like in Windows 7, but keyboard shortcut Windows Key+F opens a new Modern UI/Metro-style Search pane. It offers three last searches that you can click for quick reuse; or you can type in a new search and press Enter.
Keyboard shortcut Windows Key+Q opens apps search and Windows Key+W opens settings search in Windows 8. Many Modern UI/Metro apps are also able to display search results - just click any listed app to see its matches. To remove or pin (put on top of the apps list) any search-capable app, right-click (or tap and hold) it and select Hide or Pin.
Basic searches with Windows Search
Search results are based on both full and partial names. You could find Minesweeper by typing in minesweeper or mine. Typing in picture displays both My Pictures folder, picture files, programs containing word "picture" in their name, etc.
The very important exception is that if you type in just letters, they will be matched against beginnings of words - so typing in sol finds Solitaire, but typing in taire finds nothing. To find by any letters in a word, use asterisk mark (*). Typing in *taire will find Solitaire and Spider Solitaire.
Windows 8 displays folders in search results only if there are files in it - empty folders are discarded.
After you type something into Start menu/Start screen Search box in Windows Vista, 7 and 8, most of Start menu/screen contents will be replaced by search results. You can search for programs on Start menu or in Control Panel here, too - to find a place to change screen saver, type in screensaver and you will see a list of items related to screen saver. To launch Solitaire, type in solitaire and click on the relevant search result. Actually, you do not have to type in the whole name, just sol will do just as good. All results will be grouped by type in Windows Vista and 7 - for example, Programs, Control Panel, Pictures, Files, etc. This makes it easier to distinguish between results. Windows 8 uses different icons for different types.
Windows 8 displays previews for most files, and you can see more details if you stop mouse pointer on a result.
If there are too many search results, click the link in the lower part of search results.
In Windows XP, it's called more...; in Windows Vista, it's Search Everywhere; and in Windows 7, it's named See more results link above Search box. This will open a Search Folder window with all search results.
Windows 8 displays a scroll bar and hides Search pane to display more results - press Windows Key+F again to restore the Search pane. To exit search results, press Esc key repeatedly or press Windows Key once to open Start menu.
To clear search results and see Start menu contents again in Windows Vista or 7, click the X mark in the right corner of Search box.
Finding items with Search box or button in any folder window or Search Folder
Search button (in Windows XP) or box (in Windows Vista, 7 and 8) in Windows Explorer and Search Folder are more convenient ways of searching for items.
The most important difference between those is that search results are limited to the active folder while using the Search button or Search box - if you are in My Pictures folder, the results will be only from that folder, not from anywhere else. Search Folder looks for items in all indexed locations.
If you did not find the needed item in a current folder, Windows Search can still look for the file or folder in all locations without opening a separate Search Folder:
- in Windows XP, click the current folder name and select All Locations;
- in Windows Vista, click Advanced Search in Did you find what you were searching for section. Then select Computer from the Location combo box (to search for absolutely all files, enable the Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files option);
- in Windows 7, click Computer under Search again in: section.
- In Windows 8, open Search tab in Ribbon and click Computer.
Using advanced search filters in Windows Search
In Windows XP, you can select the type of file to search for by clicking Other in results window and selecting an appropriate item.
In Windows 7 and 8, Search box in folder windows is helpful with syntax and criteria - it will display calendar for selecting date criteria, suggestions for sizes, kinds, etc.
You can also use natural language filters, such as earlier this week, large, last year, etc.
As you can use multiple criteria for searches, Search box offers additional criteria after specifying the first filter. Click on a filter to add.
In Windows XP, 7 and 8, Preview Pane is active for larger previews of pictures or videos, or file details. Windows Vista, 7 and 8 are also able to display contents of text documents in Preview Pane. Use keyboard shortcut Alt+P to show or hide Preview Pane in Windows 7 and 8.
In Windows Vista, the Preview Pane is hidden by default, but you can open it clicking Organize on Toolbar and selecting Preview Pane from Layout menu.
In Windows Vista and 7, when you feel that search is taking too long or you started a search in wrong folder, you can always stop it by clicking the red X mark to the right of Address Bar.
Let's dig deeper - Windows Search syntax has myriad of possibilities. You can always combine multiple search criteria by separating with spaces, for example type:jpg datetaken:lastweek cameramake:canon.
Using date and size ranges
First, you can always use relative dates such as today, tomorrow, yesterday as well as combinations of this, last, past, coming plus week, month, year - thisweek, nextmonth, pastmonth, comingyear.
To specify ranges, use operators "<" (less than), "<=" (less than or equal to), ">" (greater than), "=>" (equal to or greater than) and "..".
For example, to find a file with size over 100 kilobytes (KB) and containing a word "horse", use: horse size:>100KB.
To find a file created between 31/01/2009 and 26/02/2009, use: created:>31/01/09 <26/02/09. Please note that this excludes files that were created on 31/01/2009 or 26/02/2009. To find those files, use: created:=>31/01/09 <=26/02/09 or created:31/01/09..26/02/09.
Rules for search criteria
Just like searching with and without quotes produces different results, there are rules for combining search criteria. Suppose you want to use the same keyword - horse.
- horse author:bill - finds everything that contains "horse" and has "bill" for author.
- horse author:linus torvalds - finds everything that contains "horse" and "torvalds" plus has "linus" for author. This is a common mistake made by people - search criterias must be kept together with quotation marks or parenthesis (no space!), everything after space will be treated as a keyword again.
- horse author:"linus torvalds" - finds everything that contains "horse" and has exactly "linus torvalds" for author.
- horse author:(linus torvalds) - finds everything that contains "horse" plus has "linus" and "torvalds" somewhere in author field (could be "linus benedict torvalds" or "linus torvalds" or "benedict torvalds, linus")
- horse author:(linus OR bill) - finds everything that contains "horse" and has "linus" or "bill" as an author. Note that OR is a boolean operator and it must be in capital letters, otherwise it will be treated as a keyword.
- horse author:(linus NOT bill) - finds everything that contains "horse" and has "linus" for author, but not "bill".
You can always combine several keywords and criteria: horse author:"linus benedict" size:>10MB NOT kind:(video OR picture).
Searching by kind
Suppose you want to find all photos with name containing "horse", but you have some documents and e-mails containing "horse", too. Simply typing in horse is not very useful then. Use kind: to narrow down your search results - "horse kind:pictures" finds only pictures that include "horse" somewhere. "horse kind:photo" does exactly the same.
Here is a list of possible kinds:
- communications (e-mails and appointments)
- contacts (also person)
- docs (also documents)
- folders
- im (for Instant Messenger conversations, for example Windows Live Messenger)
- journal
- link
- meetings
- music (also song)
- notes
- pictures (also pics or photo)
- programs
- tasks
- tv (for Windows 7 Media Center Recorded TV shows)
- videos
So kind:music finds all your mp3-s, wma-s, wav-s etc. Please note that "email", "journal", "meetings", "notes" and "tasks" work only if you have Microsoft Outlook or Windows Live Mail installed and configured with at least one e-mail account.
You can also type in just pictures to see a list of photos or just video to see a list of videos.
Searching by type
If you have a large music collection and you want to find only mp3-s, not wma-s, use type: instead. For example, mozart type:mp3. If you have many photos and you want to find only files with .jpg extension, use type:jpg. You get it, right? 
Searching by file properties
All files that Windows Search indexes have several properties that you can use in your searches: Suppose you want to find a tune named "Canon in D" by "Johann Pachelbel" and you know you had it both in mp3 and wma formats with wma sounding better. But the file has some pretty cryptic file name, something like "00jpcid.wma". Use artist:pachelbel title:canon type:wma to find that file.
You can find Word documents created by you by searching for type:doc author:<your name>or all e-mails sent to [email protected] by searching type:eml to:[email protected].
Here's a selection of properties that you might find useful:
- album
- artist
- author
- bitrate
- cameramake
- cameramodel
- cc
- created
- date
- datetaken
- genre
- firstname
- lastname
- modified
- size
- subject
- title
- to
- track
- year
This is not so easy at first sight, but it enables finding exactly the right file. You'll learn it very quickly really.
Saving and managing searches in Windows Vista, 7 and 8
If you repeatedly use one or more searches often, it is best to save the search with its filters for easy loading. First create a search filter in Search box and after the results meets your need, click Save search button in toolbar (Windows Vista and 7) or on Search tab of Ribbon.
You can also right-click an empty area of search results and select Save search from the menu.
Sadly, Windows Search in Windows XP does not offer such functionality.
In Save As dialog box specify file name if you want to and click Save button. As you can see, the file will be saved in Searches folder of your profile.
In Windows 7 and 8, the saved search also appears under Favorites in Navigation Pane.
To load a saved search, just click on its name in Navigation Pane, or open Searches folder and double-click the necessary item.
To rename a saved search, click on its name, press F2 key on your keyboard, type a new name and press Enter key to confirm.
To remove a saved search from Favorites in Windows 7, click on its name and press Del (Delete) key on your keyboard. Please note that this action will not be confirmed and that deleting a saved search from Favorites will not delete the saved search file!
You can manage saved searches in your Searches subfolder of your profile folder. To do that in Windows Vista and 7, open Start menu by pressing Windows Key and click on your personal folder (your user name).
In Windows 8, use keyboard shortcut Windows Key+Q to open Apps search and type "searches" into Search box.
In Windows Vista and 7, open Searches folder. In Windows 8, the folder is already open.
Delete the files you no longer need. Please remember that if you delete a saved search that still exists under Favorites, you will still have to delete that saved search from Favorites, too.
Windows displays a somewhat misleading prompt then. Because saved searches are treated as folders, you may safely click Yes here - you are not deleting the whole Searches folder!
If you accidentally removed a wrong search, use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Z to undo the last action.
Managing folders in Windows Search index (Indexing Options)
By default, Windows Search indexes all files in users' personal folders and libraries (Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc) and items in default e-mail programs. If you happen to have some important folder outside your personal folders, you can manually add it to Windows Search for indexing. If you do not use any e-mail programs, you can exclude them from index, too.
In Windows XP, right-click on Windows Search Deskbar and select Windows Search Options... from the menu.
In Windows Vista and 7, open Indexing Options from Control Panel. To do that, open Start menu by pressing Ctrl+Esc on your keyboard and type indexing into Start menu Search box. Click Indexing Options.
In Windows 8, use keyboard shortcut Windows Key+W to open settings search and type "indexing". Then click Indexing Options in the results.
Indexing Options window opens. Click Modify.
In Windows XP, select or deselect the items you want. Never deselect Documents and Settings or Users folder on Local Disk (C:). Never select whole hard drives (Local Disks), select just the folders you need instead.
Click OK to close Indexed Locations. Windows Search will start updating its index right away.
In Windows Vista, 7 and 8, click Show all locations to see all folders. Windows Vista users might have to click Continue in User Account Control window.
In Indexed Locations window select or deselect the items you want. Never deselect Users folder on Local Disk (C:). Never select whole hard drives (Local Disks), select just the folders you need instead.
Click OK to close Indexed Locations. Windows Search will start updating its index right away.
Those who are using EFS for encrypting files and folders in Pro/Business or Ultimate/Enterprise editions of Windows might not see all results - encrypted files are not indexed for security reasons. If you really-really want to see encrypted files in search results, click Advanced button in Indexing Options window and enable the Index encrypted files option in File Settings section.
Click Close in the Indexing Options window.
Windows 8 has some more options available in the PC settings app - read on to find out about these.
Clearing Windows Search history
Windows Search remembers previously used searches and automatically offers these later. To delete a few items, stop your mouse pointer on a previous search and then press the Delete (Del) key on keyboard to remove the item from the list.
If you want to clear the whole search history in Windows XP, activate Windows Search Deskbar box by pressing WINDOWS KEY+SHIFT+F on your keyboard (or click on the Deskbar). Click the down arrow button of Windows logo and select Clear Search History from the menu.
In Windows Vista and 7, emptying the whole history is not that easy. The safest way is to install a free program called CCleaner and make sure the Other Explorer MRUs item is selected in the Windows Explorer section before clicking the Run Cleaner button.
In Windows 8, open Settings Search using keyboard shortcut Windows Key+W and type "search". Then click Delete search history. Actually, most of the results will take you to the same PC settings Metro app.
PC settings opens in Search tab. Click the Delete history button to remove all performed searches. There is no confirmation for this action, just "Done!" is displayed after the action is complete.
As you can see, you can adjust some additional options in this tab:
- Show the apps I search most often at the top - if set to "On", puts the apps you use most often for additional searches at the top of list, instead of sorting search-capable apps by name.
- Let Windows save my searches as future search suggestions - this option enables or disables Search history.
- Use these apps to search - here you can turn search capability in listed apps on and off. For example, if you never use the Finance app for searches, turn it off and it will not be displayed in Search pane.
Pausing Windows Search indexing in Windows XP
If you add many files (videos, for example) to Windows Search at once in Windows XP, Windows Search indexing might slow down older computers temporarily while it indexes the new files. Windows Vista and 7 are not affected by such behaviour, probably Windows Search is integrated deep into kernel.
You can pause indexing by right-clicking on Windows Search icon (magnifier) in Taskbar Notification area. Then click Indexing Status.
You can also select Snooze Indexing from Windows Search icon right-click menu. This disables indexing until next computer restart or until you click the command again.
Select time to snooze indexing for, click the Snooze button and then click Close.
