Windows 7 : Searching Your Computer (part 1)

1. Searching Your Computer: The Essentials

The Search box, shown in Figure 1, is provided in all views of Windows Explorer. This means you can search Control Panel, Network, Computer, Desktop, Public, and Recycle Bin locations.

Figure 1. The Search box, for searching for files and folders

The way the Windows Search service performs a search depends on where you are searching. A general search works like this: the Windows Search service matches the search text to words that appear in the title of any file or file folder, the properties of any indexed file or folder, and the contents of indexed documents. The automatic indexing of selected files and folders is a key feature of Windows 7 that improves the search results and helps to speed up the search process.

With Windows Explorer, you must click in the Search box prior to typing your search text. This means a basic search requires two steps:

1. In Windows Explorer, access the start location for your search.

2. Click in the Search box and then enter the search text.

NOTE

By default, you must click in the search box. If you enable “Automatically type into the Search Box,” any text you type into a list view is entered automatically in the Search box.

The Windows Search service is the operating system feature that performs the search. Once the Windows Search service completes a search in the selected location, it automatically begins another search if you enter additional search text or if you change the search text. You can stop a search in progress at any time by clicking the Stop button—the red X on the right side of the Address bar. You can repeat a search by clicking the Refresh button.

With the Computer view of Windows Explorer, you can use the Search box to search your entire computer, including all disk drives and all devices with removable storage. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start and then click Computer.

2. Click in the Search box and then enter the search text.

With other views of Windows Explorer, the Windows Search service does not perform a whole computer search. Instead, it searches only the selected location and its subnodes. This means if you were to search the C:\Documents folder, the Windows Search service would search C:\Documents and all its subfolders. It would not search other folders or other locations.

As Figure 2 shows, results are returned to the Results pane in Windows Explorer and the Address bar is updated to reflect that you are viewing search results. The search results themselves are displayed in Content view by default. In this view, search results are listed by name, date modified, size, authors, and tags. If you click the Location Indicator icon on the left side of the address path, you’ll see the actual search text passed
to the Windows Search service.

Figure 2. The Windows Search service, which returns results matching the search text

As you’ve seen, the basics of searching for files and folders are fairly straightforward. To improve your search results, however, you need to use the advanced search options and features built into Windows 7. These additional advanced features include:

• Search options, for fine-tuning the search results

• The Search pane, for filtering search results

• Indexing options, for managing which files and folders are indexed

• Save Search, for saving advanced search criteria for future searches

I discuss these advanced search features in the following sections.

2. Searching Your Computer: Search Options

Search options control the way the Windows Search service searches your computer. By default, Windows Search searches indexed locations and nonindexed locations in different ways:

• In indexed locations, the Windows Search service searches filenames and contents. This means that it will look for matches to your search text in filenames and folder names, file properties and folder properties, and the actual textual contents of files.

• In nonindexed locations, the Windows Search service searches filenames only. This means it will look for matches to your search text only in filenames and folder names. It will not look for matches to your search text in file and folder properties, or in the actual textual contents of files.

By default, Windows Search searches subfolders of a selected location and allows partial matches. Thanks to partial matching, the Windows Search service matches your search text to part of a word or phrase rather than to whole words only. This allows you to search for picture and get matching results for pictures, pictured, my picture, my pictures, and so on.

You can customize the search options for your computer by completing the following steps:

1. In Windows Explorer, click Organize on the menu bar and then click “Folder and search options.” Finally, select the Search tab in the Folder Options dialog box.

2. As shown in Figure 3, you can then use the Search tab options in the Folder Options dialog box to configure search options. To restore the default search options, discussed previously, click Restore Defaults, click OK, and then skip the remaining steps.

Figure 3. Configuring the search options

1. On the “What to search” panel, select the options that best describe what you want to be searched. To have the Windows Search service always search filenames and contents, select “Always search file names and contents.” To have the Windows Search service search contents only for indexed locations, select “In indexed locations.”

NOTE

If you select the “Always search” option, you force the Windows Search service to ignore whether a folder is indexed when searching. This does not mean that indexes won’t be used, however. When indexes are available, the Windows Search service will use them. When indexes aren’t available, the Windows Search service will not be able to use indexes to speed up the search process, and this can result in extremely slow searches.

1. On the “How to search” panel, use the following options to configure how searches work:

   Include subfolders in search results

   When selected, the Windows Search service searches the selected location and all subfolders underneath it. This lets you search entire drives or complete folder structures. When not selected, the Windows Search service searches only the selected location and does not search their subfolders.

   Find partial matches

   When selected, the Windows Search service returns results for partial matches as well as whole-word matches. When not selected, the Windows Search service performs whole-word searches only.

   Use natural language search

   When selected, the Windows Search service allows you to enter search text as a question you might ask someone else. For example, you could enter the question, “Where is the Music folder?” and the Windows Search service would know that you are looking for a folder named Music or folders containing music. When not selected, the Windows Search service uses all the text you enter for matching, as discussed previously.

   Don’t use the index when searching in file folders for system files

   When selected, the Windows Search service ignores indexes when searching in file folders for system files. This forces the Windows Search service to examine the current state of system files, but it can be extremely slow. When not selected, the Windows Search service uses indexes to speed up the search process if indexes are available. Normally, system files are not indexed as they aren’t searched very often by most users and for this reason you’ll want to bypass the index when you are searching for system files. However, if you are an advanced user or administrator and have indexed system files, you’ll want to use the index when searching (in most cases).

2. On the “When searching non-indexed locations” panel, specify whether the Windows Search service includes system locations, compressed files, or both when searching nonindexed locations.

3. Click OK to save your search options.