Tip #3239 - Windows Desktop Search
Printer Friendly Version | E-Mail This Tip
Windows
Desktop Search
I’m sure you
know the scenario: You are certain you sent an e-mail about that dinner
appointment awhile back, but where is it now? Or you recall making out
an agenda for the next club meeting, but can you find it? Not on your
life!
Also, the longer you’ve
had your computer, the more files you get and the harder it becomes to
find what you are looking for, right?
Wouldn’t it
be good if you could very quickly find those files or e-mails based on
one or two words you have remembered? And wouldn't it be nice to have
a look at it before you open it to make sure it is the right one?
Admittedly, you do
have a search function in Windows and Outlook, but they take forever to
find what you are looking for and they come with no great degree of certainty!
Well, now you can
find that file easily by the courtesy of our friends at Microsoft.
It’s called
Windows Desktop Search and it’s 100 percent free!
(Note: this program is for use in Windows XP only).
So, let’s see
how easy it is to set up and use this searcher and how indispensable it
will become.
First of all, pick
up a copy of Windows Desktop Search from Microsoft’s download site
right from here.
(You may also have to go through the Microsoft validation process to ensure
you have a genuine copy of Windows. See the picture below for help with
this).
After downloading,
click on the file and run through the setup process (see below).
When you're done with
that, you will find that you have a search window (number 1 in the picture
below) and a magnifying glass icon (number 2 in the picture) at the bottom
of your screen.
Before we can use
this, we need to configure the program to suit our needs and requirements.
Right click on the
icon (number 2 in the picture above) and select Windows Desktop
Search Options.
This will produce
the following screen, from which you should select Modify (1)
so that we can select the drives and folders from which we want to be
able to find our files, etc. Then this screen appears:
From here, you can
select the folders you want the Desktop Search to include. For instance,
you might have a folder you just use for downloaded files that you have
no need to check out, so this need not be included.
If you want the whole
drive to be included, click the drive letter and it’s done. On the
other hand, if only selected folders are needed, then click on the folder
so that a tick mark is placed in the box (see illustration above).
If for any reason
the Desktop Search will not allow you to do this, you have not given permission
for this drive to be indexed by Windows. Therefore, you need to go through
the following procedure.
Go to My Computer
and click on the drive you want to be included. Right click the mouse
to produce the following menu, on which you should select Properties.
On the General
tab of the next box, make sure you tick "Allow Indexing Service
to index this disk for fast file searching."
You will then be asked
if you want to index the whole drive or just the highlighted folder. Select
subfolder and files) and then click OK.
Now, we can go back
to where we were. Finish selecting the folders we want to index. When
completed, go back to this screen:
This time, select
Advanced (2), which will give you a screen like this:
This is useful if
you have some files with "unusual" extensions that you would
like to be indexed. If you don't, you can just ignore this step.
Make sure all the
types of files you want indexed are ticked or rectify them if they're
not.
Finally, ensure the
line Index Properties and File Contents is selected (see
picture).
Now, we are ready
to use the Windows Desktop Search (right click on magnifying glass icon
and select Search Now).
Let’s have a
look at what we can do here. Here is the bar at the top of the page:
At (1) or (2), we
select whether the search is on the computer or the Internet.
At (3) to (8), we
can select locations and types of files (for example, documents, e-mails,
music, pictures and videos).
Clicking the arrow
on (9) reveals this, where we can make specific choices:
So, enter the word
or phase you want to search on (maybe a word or two you remember from
the document or e-mail) and the type of file you think it is. (Just click
Everything if you are not sure).
After searching through
the files, the search will come up with something like this:
At the top is a list
of the files containing your search term and at the bottom, a preview
of the file so you can get an idea whether it is relevant or not.
Incidentally, if you
prefer to have the preview box elsewhere, selecting View,
Preview Pane will give you a few options for positioning.
If you double click
on the file you have selected, it will load up in the application that
produced it (for instance, Word, Excel, Outlook, etc).
So, no longer will
you be frustrated with not being able to find that elusive document or
e-mail. With Windows Desktop Search, courtesy of Microsoft, you will be
able to find it quickly and get on with some productive work.
Enjoy!
~ David Woodford
Want To Comment On This Tip? Click Here! We'd love to hear from you :-)
Like These Tips? Get 'Em Free In Your E-mail
