Search and organization
This feature is included in the following editions of Windows Vista:
The desktop search and organization features in all Windows Vista editions help you locate files, e-mail messages, and other items on your PC.
Search
Instant Search helps you find what you’re looking for by searching for a file name, a property, or text contained within a file. To find a specific file, application, or Internet Favorite, open the Start menu—or press the Windows key on the keyboard—and start typing in the embedded Instant Search box. As you type, Windows Vista searches file and application names, metadata, and the full text of all files, and groups your results by category: Programs; Favorites/Internet History; Files, including documents and media; and Communications, including e-mail, events, tasks, and contacts.
The Search Explorer.
You can find Instant Search in the top-right corner of the Documents Explorer, Music Explorer, Pictures Explorer, and the Search Explorer. As in the Start menu, you only have to type a few letters before you start seeing the most relevant results. If the results aren't what you're looking for, there are tools that can help you refine your search or search across the Internet using your favorite search engine.
Instant Search in the Start Menu.
Instant Search also appears in the Control Panel and in Windows Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Media Player 11.
Organization
Explorers combine Instant Search with the ability to auto-organize content across your PC based on file properties. Rather than having to remember specific locations or folder names to find your documents, music, pictures, and e-mail, you can rely on the ability of Windows Vista to search file properties known as "metadata."
Tagging your files
You can search and organize files in numerous ways, based on the metadata assigned to them. Many of your files already contain useful metadata. For example, Microsoft Office automatically records certain document properties, such as author and date created. And music ripped from CDs often has properties such as song, album, and artist name. You can also apply custom properties to your files.
You can apply properties to any file or group of files in:
Details Pane. You can add a property to a file is to select the file and change it in the Details Pane at the bottom of the Explorer. Many of the entry fields support AutoComplete to help you add properties, for one file or across many files. Selecting multiple files and adding a property via the Details Pane adds that property to all selected files.
Properties window. You can also go to the Properties window by right-clicking a file and selecting Properties. In the Details tab you have quick access to a file's metadata. You can remove all properties of a file with a single click, which can help you prepare a file for sharing with others by removing details such as the author's name.
Saving a file. Windows Vista features a common File dialog box for opening and saving files. Applications that use this control enable you to use the searching and tagging features when you open and save files. To add properties when saving a file, you can enter properties directly into the appropriate field in the common File dialog box.
Windows Photo Gallery. Windows Photo Gallery enables you to import, edit, and tag photos. Any tags applied to photos are reflected in the Pictures Explorer.
Windows Media Player 11. Any changes made to properties of your music files are reflected in the Music Explorer.
Folders and Search Folders
Windows Vista also has customizable Search Folders. Clicking a Search Folder runs a search. There are also preconfigured Search Folders, such as "Important E-mail," which shows you all your flagged e-mail, and "All Attachments," which shows you all files that are mail attachments. You can create and save your own Search Folders, too.
Column header controls
Column header controls feature menus so you can filter all of the files currently in view. For example, choosing the Type column header control will display all of the different file types across the visible documents. Using simple check boxes, you can pick the types that you want to see. Selecting .ppt and .xls, for example, filters out all other document types on the screen, leaving only your Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Excel files visible.
Windows Vista column header controls offer two other ways to view your content: Stack View and Group By View.
Stack View organizes currently displayed files based on values in a specific column. For instance, if you select the Author column header and choose to stack files, all the files currently in view—irrespective of their hard disk locations—will be rearranged and "stacked" by author. The resulting stacks behave much like folders: You can click to open them and see the items inside. Unlike folders, however, stacks have no physical location on your hard disk.
Group By View, on the other hand, merely ranks displayed items according to the values in a particular column header. So, grouping files by author gives you a more detailed view of which documents belong to which author than the more simplified Stack View.