Windows Vista for IT Professionals
Overview
Windows Vista enables you to lower your organization's IT costs by helping you to optimize your desktop infrastructure, reduce risk, improve security and compliance, and keep your mobile employees connected securely and seamlessly to information, co-workers, and customers. Importantly, Windows Vista also allows your users to more easily find and use information that helps them be more productive and make better business decisions.
Windows Vista introduces greatly enhanced desktop search and organization features that help your users locate files and e-mail messages on their PCs. Windows Vista also goes far beyond mere desktop search to help users see their files in multiple ways through the use of file metadata properties or user-added tags.
Windows Search functionality in Windows Vista offers users a great search experience, is enterprise-ready for easy and flexible management, and provides an extensible platform to let you increase the power of the enterprise search experience. Get Windows Search 4.0, the latest version of search functionality for Windows Vista SP1!
A user experience your users will just "get"
Instant Search in Windows Vista enables users to type a file or application name, a metadata property, or even text contained within a file or e-mail, and it will quickly return pinpointed results. Instant Search is also contextual, searching only the location where the current activity is taking place, such as the Control Panel, Help and Support, or the Start menu. And because Windows Search functionality is also utilized by Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Office OneNote 2007, search within these applications returns rich, actionable results.
From the Start menu, users can find virtually anything on the PC as fast as they can type, be it a specific file, application, or Internet Favorite. The Control Panel also features Instant Search, so users just need to open the Control Panel and start typing to change PC settings like power options or screen resolution. In addition, every Explorer window offers Instant Search in the top-right corner. The search is contextual and will automatically encompass whatever is currently shown on screen, which enables users to set a search scope to a specific folder without having to use drop-down menus.
In the Search Explorer, your users can use Instant Search and the Advanced Search options for more detailed searches or to use multiple search criteria, such as a specific location or content type. Additional filters, such as specific keywords and date ranges, can also be added, and the query can be saved as a Search Folder, enabling users to later rerun that same search to see automatically updated results. Windows Vista comes with preconfigured Search Folders, such as Recent E-mail, which shows users all e-mail for the current week, and Recently Changed, which shows all files that have recently been edited. An added benefit of Search Folders is that they don't have to be limited to the local PC—they can also include external hard drives and networked file shares.
Go beyond search with new ways to organize your files
Windows Vista organization features give your users new ways to view and interact with their search results.
The powerful Explorers in Windows Vista take the benefits of the system's new desktop search capabilities to the next level by combining Instant Search with the ability to auto-organize content throughout the PC based on file properties. Rather than having to remember specific locations or folder names to find documents and e-mail, users can rely on Windows Vista to search file metadata. The Explorers also feature a context-sensitive Command Bar that lets users perform one-click actions that are specific to the type of file selected.
The file organization features in Windows Vista make extensive use of metadata to provide an even more dynamic way for users to interact with their information. Many files already contain metadata properties that are immediately usable on Windows Vista. For example, the 2007 Microsoft Office system automatically saves certain properties of created documents, such as author and date created. Custom properties can also be applied to files from the new common File dialog box used in Windows Vista for opening and saving files, or from the Details Pane at the bottom of the Explorer. Many of the entry fields in the Details Pane support AutoComplete, making it even easier to add properties. Selecting multiple files and adding a property via the Details Pane adds that property to all of the selected files.
Enhanced column header controls take advantage of the extensive use of file properties in Windows Vista to enable users to better manage large amounts of on-screen data. The new column header controls let users search or filter on two or more values at the same time. For all the files currently in view, the new column header controls feature innovative drop-down menus that can display all the values across any of the columns. Using simple check boxes, users can specify one or more types that they want to see, such as PowerPoint presentations and Word documents.
In addition to the traditional "Sort" view, the new column header controls feature two other ways to view your content. The new Stack View shows currently displayed data organized by stacks based on the values in a specific column. If a file has two tags, users can view it from both stacks.
Because all of a user's important data isn't stored on the local PC
In an organization, all the data important to a user is not necessarily stored on a single desktop, but spread across multiple PCs and network file shares. The next-generation search capabilities in Windows Vista are designed for use in distributed data environments in several important ways, including:
Many enterprises concerned with the safety and security of end user data redirect or "roam" user folders, such as their Documents folder, to a server. This means that all user data is stored on the server. To preserve user productivity, client-side caching is turned on in Windows Vista and Windows XP so the data is still available when a user is offline or not connected to the server. At the same time, workers using server shares to store personal or project data frequently want that content to be available offline. In Windows Vista, taking folders or files offline has the effect of copying that content locally and creating a sync relationship between the local and server copies. Doing this also ensures that the local content is indexed by the Windows Vista system index, thus giving users an easy way to search over server-based content.
By default, a search includes only the local computer. However, users can search other Windows Vista-based PCs connected to their network by using a PC-to-PC search. When searching a remote computer, the target computer instantly provides search results with file shares that the user is authorized to access. With Windows Search 4.0, the latest update to search in Windows Vista SP1, users can extend remote searches to file shares on PCs running Windows Search 4.0 and Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.
IT managers need to roll out desktop search solutions quickly, avoiding time-consuming deployments and difficult customization. Windows Search in Windows Vista enables IT managers to easily and flexibly deploy, manage, and control desktop search in the enterprise IT environment.
First, because the user experience shares the same design principles as Windows Search 4.0 and earlier versions of Windows Desktop Search, you can expect minimal end user friction as you migrate your users from Windows XP to Windows Vista. Your users will be able to get up and running faster with less training required. If you wish to provide your users with some fast Windows Search training, for Windows Vista or Windows Search for Windows XP, please view our training videos.
Group Policy can be used to customize the search experience your users will have as you can control which groups of users or devices can index, search, and access information. In addition to having the same level of security for desktop search found in Windows Search for Windows XP, Windows Vista also has a new feature called BitLocker Drive Encryption. BitLocker locks down the system drive and consequently, the index, to maintain security by ensuring the contents of the index (and the PC) are not exposed to unauthorized users should the PC be compromised or stolen.
Lastly, Windows Vista works seamlessly with the other Microsoft products in the organization, including the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and is covered under existing Windows service and support agreements. Learn more about Windows Search 4.0, the latest update to search in Windows Vista SP1.
As an IT manager, you need a desktop search solution that easily fits into an overall enterprise information management model, including data stored in proprietary applications and line of business solutions. Windows Search is both rich and extensible, allowing for the development of add-ins such as IFilters and protocol handlers to improve the quality of user searches. IT professionals and partners can team to develop applications that help their users take advantage of the powerful search features in Windows Vista and the wealth of information within the enterprise.
