Find desktop files quickly and easily. Because the MSN Search Toolbar searches for keywords within files as well as in a file’s title, consumers save time and increase productivity by quickly finding virtually any type of document, media file or e-mail item on their PC, including the following:

Preview desktop search results. A new preview pane lets people preview the contents of their PC directly from the Windows Desktop Search results window and drag and drop files into other applications, allowing for quick access to both find and act on the items they’ve located.

Get the right results and act on them. Powerful filtering and sorting tools let people find information on their hard drive or in Outlook. People can further refine results by sorting by date, title, author and other criteria that increase control over search results, enabling quick access to take action on their results including managing, sharing, deleting, opening or playing files.

Easily review search history. An automatically updated history list lets people return to previous searches quickly and easily.

Get quick access to the Web. From any of the toolbars, consumers can easily select the option of searching either their desktop or the Internet for information; Internet searching displays Web search results from the new MSN Search.⁴

Have direct access to popular MSN content. People can enjoy convenient, one-click access to MSN sites such as MSN.com, MSN Hotmail, My MSN, News and Shopping.

Movable Deskbar. The MSN Search Deskbar is fully movable so that people can make it available wherever they most need it — top, bottom, left, right or even floating on the desktop.

Search while you type. The MSN Deskbar query box uses “word wheeling,” dynamically displaying results as a person begins to type in a search term. For example, a person who types “m-o-t-o-r” into the search box automatically sees a list of Desktop search results and a list of any desktop applications that contain the word “motor.” Or people can type
“w-o-r-d” and easily open Microsoft Word if it’s installed on their PC.

Personalized Deskbar shortcuts. People can assign shortcut keys to launch applications, jump to favorite Web sites or execute frequently used commands on their PC.

Direct access to Outlook items. People can immediately and easily retrieve information from e-mail messages, attachments, contacts, calendar appointments, tasks and more.

Easy Outlook folder searching. People can specify which Outlook folders they want to include in their Desktop Search results experience by selecting the specific folders they want to be indexed.

Convenient drop-down menu. People can also expand their searches to cover the entire computer or the Web through a simple drop-down list.

Ability to view and act on MSN communication services. People can stay informed with their most important information from the MSN Messenger, MSN Hotmail^® and MSN Spaces⁵ services. With one step, they can also send and share Web pages with others either through a Hotmail e-mail, MSN Messenger instant message, or blog about a Web page on their space.

Direct access to the entire computer. Desktop search has been included in Windows for years, but people can now use the MSN Search Toolbar for Microsoft Windows Explorer to quickly scan their entire computer for any file related to their search phrase or words and get information quickly about the files they locate.

Search history integration. People can find their updated search history directly in the folder navigation window for quick and easy access to their previous searches.

Convenient tabbed browsing. Now people can streamline their everyday activities using quick and easy tabs in Internet Explorer to get more out of their time on the Web. This feature enables people to quickly access, manage and save commonly visited sites into automatic “routines” of Web pages that can all be opened simultaneously. It also enables people to launch MSN Search results in new background tabs, which makes their Web search browsing experience faster and easier than before.

Protection to help against pop-up ads. When they use the toolbar, people get the added benefit of a built-in pop-up ad blocker for a hassle-free Web-surfing experience. Users can turn this feature off if they have the Windows XP SP2 pop-up blocker turned on.

Password-protected Form Fill. People don’t have to fill out the same online forms more than once; using the toolbar’s password protected Form Fill feature, they can set up multiple versions of their personal information to quickly and easily fill in form fields with sensitive information and save them for easy retrieval at a later time.

Highlighter and highlight viewer. The toolbar’s convenient highlighting feature color-codes search keywords on a results page and enables people to easily jump to the part of a page that contains their search keywords. It also provides a thumbnail navigational window so people can quickly scroll through results and Web content to locate the information they want.

Ability to view and act on MSN communication services. The toolbar gives people quick access to MSN Messenger, MSN Hotmail and MSN Spaces, enabling them to initiate common communication tasks right from the bar, including e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and inserting Web page URLs into their blogs on MSN Spaces.

What’s on a person’s desktop stays on the desktop. People can feel more secure knowing that none of their information is recorded by MSN or Microsoft Corp., but is stored on their computer only. MSN Search Toolbar also helps protect their personal information in the following ways:

More control over searches. People can decide what information remains private by choosing what folders should be indexed on their desktop and by determining the sections of their hard drive they don’t want searched. People can also decide where they want their index content to be stored on their PC.

Invisible indexing. People don’t need to worry about being interrupted when they are busy; the toolbar’s “polite” indexer will automatically stop indexing when they are actively using their computer. People also can temporarily pause the indexing of their computer using the easy “snooze” function.

Automatic updates. People will be notified automatically when new versions of the MSN Search Toolbar are available, which allows them to keep their toolbars up to date and lets them take advantage of new features as soon as they are available.

Microsoft Windows XP operating system, Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 or later

The new desktop Search technology requires Microsoft Outlook 2000 or later, or Microsoft Outlook Express 6.0 or later, to index and search e-mail.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later browser software must be installed (it does not need to be the default browser).

Pop-up ad blocker requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.

500 MB of hard disk space recommended. Index size depends on how much content is on the hard drive.

Pentium 233MHz processor or better (500MHz recommended)

Minimum 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended)

1,024x768 screen resolution recommended