powered by Live Search
 
Bring your whole life together.

Explore the features: Search Folders

Search Folders

This feature is included in the following editions of Windows Vista:

Included in

Home Basic

Included in

Home Premium

Included in

Business

Included in

Ultimate


Windows Vista introduces Search Folders, a powerful new tool that makes it easy to find and organize your files—wherever they may be on your PC. A Search Folder is simply a search that you save. Opening a Search Folder runs your saved search, displaying up-to-date results quickly.

For example, you could design a search for all documents that are authored by John and that contain the word "project." You'd save this search, titled "Author John/Keyword Project," as a Search Folder. When you open this Search Folder, the search runs and you see the results right away. As you add more files to your computer that are authored by John and contain the word "project," those files will appear in the Search Folder alongside other matching files, no matter where you physically saved them on your PC. It's simple and fast.

Being able to view content on your computer sorted into saved Search Folders adds a lot of flexibility to the ways you can work with your files.

In addition, Windows Vista still supports traditional, location-based folders. Folders are useful because they foster easy migration from one computer to another, and because your existing programs would break without them. In Windows Vista, you'll still save content in folders, but it's easier to use those folders because of tools such as Instant Search and enhanced column header controls.