Windows 7 / Getting Started

Configuring How To Search

The following options configure how searching is performed:

  • Include Subfolders In Search Results When Searching In File Folders This option is enabled by default and causes Windows to search within subfolders when you search from any Windows Explorer window. Clearing this option will cause Windows to search only within the selected folder.
  • Find Partial Matches This option is enabled by default and causes Windows to display results as you type your search. For example, if you type fi in the Search box on the Start menu, one of the results returned will be "Windows Firewall" because the second word in this program name begins with fi. If you disable this option, however, you will need to type the entire word Firewall before it will be displayed in your search results.
  • Use Natural Language Search Selecting this option causes Windows to interpret the search string as natural language. For example, searching for "e-mail from Joseph" would return all mail messages received from users named Joseph.
  • Don't Use The Index When Searching In File Folders For System Files (Searches Might Take Longer) Selecting this option causes Windows to always use the slower grep method for searching file names. The contents of files are not searched when this is selected and the setting Always Search File Names And Contents (Might Be Slow) is also selected.

Configuring What Happens When Searching Nonindexed Locations

Users can enable the following search behaviors when they search nonindexed locations:

  • Include System Directories Selecting this option causes system directories to be included when searching a volume or folder using the grep method of searching. Note that beginning with Windows 7, this option is selected by default.
  • Included Compressed Files (ZIP, CAB...) Selecting this option causes compressed files to have their contents searched both for matching file names and matching content within these files.
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In this tutorial:

  1. Managing Search
  2. Search and Indexing Enhancements
  3. Search in Windows XP
  4. Search in Windows Vista
  5. Search in Windows 7
  6. Understanding the Windows Search Versions
  7. Search Versions Included in Windows 7 and Windows Vista
  8. Search Versions Included in Windows Server 2008
  9. Search Versions Available for Earlier Versions of Windows
  10. How Windows Search Works
  11. Understanding Search Engine Terminology
  12. Windows Search Engine Processes
  13. Enabling the Indexing Service
  14. Windows Search Engine Architecture
  15. Understanding the Catalog
  16. Default System Exclusion Rules
  17. Understanding the FANCI Attribute
  18. Default Indexing Scopes
  19. Initial Configuration
  20. Understanding the Indexing Process
  21. Modifying IFilter Behavior
  22. How Indexing Works
  23. Rebuilding the index
  24. Viewing Indexing Progress
  25. Understanding Remote Search
  26. Managing Indexin
  27. Configuring the Index
  28. Configuring the Index Location Using Group Policy
  29. Configuring Indexing Scopes and Exclusions Using Group Policy
  30. Configuring Offline Files Indexing
  31. Configuring Indexing of Encrypted Files
  32. Configuring Indexing of Encrypted Files Using Control Panel
  33. Configuring Indexing of Similar Words
  34. Configuring Indexing of Text in TIFF Image Documents
  35. Other Index Policy Settings
  36. Using Search
  37. Configuring Search Using Folder Options
  38. Configuring What to Search
  39. Configuring How To Search
  40. Using Start Menu Search
  41. Searching Libraries
  42. Advanced Query Syntax
  43. Using Federated Search
  44. Deploying Search Connectors
  45. Troubleshooting Search and Indexing Using the Built-in Troubleshooter