11. Working with data

Desktop search

Just about everywhere you look in Windows Vista there's a new search field. As detailed previously, the Start menu's search field finds programs and data files to open. Control Panel's search field finds Control Panels. Internet Explorer's finds words on the currently loaded Web page. All of these search fields also give you the option to search the Web by keyword. Behind the scenes, Microsoft has built a new indexing service (which you can configure with the Indexing Options Control Panel) that continually uses the data areas of your hard drive for new files. This service operates well enough that Microsoft turns it on by default in Vista.

If this were all that Microsoft desktop search did, it would be a nice little feature, very much akin to Apple's integrated desktop search for OS X Tiger. Microsoft has continually scaled back during Vista development on a more significant use of its search index, but a usable semblance of this effort is still available. Dubbed the Search Pane, it's an advanced search option available from the Search drop-down menu of any folder window.

When you open Search Pane, it gives you several clickable options for adding multiple "and/or" searches, and it can also search your index based on file types and file contents. Once you've created a search you like, you can save it in the Searches folder. Every time you open it, it will display up-to-date search results that include all new files that match the search criteria.