June 17th, 2008
10 top Vista tweaks, part 2
7. Fine-tune your search settings
As I noted in the final installment of my Fixing Windows Vista series, the most important tweak you can make is to install Windows Search 4, a major update to the engine that powers Windows Search (the update makes no noticeable interface changes). With that task out of the way, tweaking Search capabilities means going to three different dialog boxes, each of which deals with a completely separate aspect of search. In the illustrated step-by-step instructions for this tweak, I explain where to find each of these settings and what you should and shouldn’t do with each one.
- Start menu search behavior. When you click Start and begin typing in the Search box, your search results include programs first, but they also include just about anything else that matches what you’ve typed. The full list includes e-mail messages, Internet Explorer Favorites and history, and files and folders stored in your user profile. To change these options, right-click Start, click Properties, click the Customize button on the Start menu tab, and scroll down to the block of Search options. You can exclude any of these groups by clearing its check box. You can also expand the search to the entire index instead of just the files in your profile.
- Folder Options. The default settings on the Search tab are correct for most users. The one exception? Select Use natural language search if you want to be able to create and save complicated multi-field searches without having to use the strict search syntax. With natural-language search enabled, you can type email from Fred or Rick received this week instead of the more daunting kind:email from:(Fred OR Rick) received:this week. The strict syntax is more useful if you want perfect control over results, but the more relaxed natural-language syntax is slightly easier to use. In either case, you’ll want to learn the ins and outs of the search syntax to get best results
- Advanced Indexing Options. Windows Search can search for file names and properties such as date and size for any sort of file, but it can only find content inside those files if you’ve installed an IFilter that understands how to open the file and unlock its contents. I’ll discuss IFilters in more detail in the rest of this post. To check that the file contents are being indexed properly, open Indexing Options in Control Panel, click the Advanced button, and click the File Types tab. For each important file type, be sure that Index Properties and File Contents is selected and that the correct IFilter is listed.
Now, about those IFilters. The IFilter format has been around for years, powering Microsoft’s search capabilities on servers and workstations, including the full-text search services in Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint Portal Server. An iFilter written for any of those servers should work just as well on Windows Search. Many IFilters are installed automatically along with programs such as Office 2007 and Adobe Reader or Acrobat version 7 or later. If you don’t have those programs installed, you can download alternatives, usually free, such as the Microsoft-supplied IFilter pack for Office 2007 documents and the the Foxit PDF IFilter. There are also IFilters for StarOffice and OpenOffice document files, and WordPerfect 12 Service Pack 2 reportedly includes an updated IFilter that should work fine with your WPD files.
On any Windows Vista system, I typically install the Microsoft Filter Pack, which includes IFilters for Office 2007 and Visio and, most importantly, adds support for searching filenames within Zip files.
You can find an index of available iFilters at MSDN Filter Central. Others are at ColumbiaSoft, at IFilterShop, and at IFilter.org. Some IFilters are available through Citeknet as well, and their offerings also include an IFilter Explorer that allows you to examine and tweak the IFilters installed on your system. The Citeknet website appears to have been abandoned in late 2006, and no one responded when I used the Contact form to send a message.
Tweak #8: Tune up shadow copies and System Restore –>
Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 06/17/08
