12 tips to make the most of Windows Vista's search options

When hard drives were tiny and we only saved work stuff, finding things was easy. Now, though, hard disks are massive and we stuff them with songs, photos, home videos, drives and emails – so finding a file by browsing your hard drive is like looking for a needle the size of an atom in a haystack the size of the universe.

Hurrah, then, for the search system in Windows Vista. Now you’ll never lose another file again, from that important spreadsheet to those family holiday snaps.

1. Find By Kind

When you use the Search window (Start ➜ Search) you’ll see a toolbar beginning with the label ‘Show only’. This enables you to limit your search to a particular kind of file, so, for example, if you want to look for a file in your Windows Media Player library click on Music and then type your search criteria in the search box.

2. Do it by Date

Click on the Advanced Search button and use the Date field to limit your search to files changed on, before or after a specific date.

3. Find by Name

If you know the file name you can narrow the search by clicking the Advanced Search button and entering it in the Name field. Any file names without the specified text will be ignored.

4. Choose the Culprit

You can also limit your search to a specific author, which is handy if you’ve got multiple accounts on your PC. To search this way, again click the Advanced Search button, and enter the author’s name in the Authors field.

5. Folder Search

You can also limit your search to a particular folder, which is handy if you know roughly where something is. Simply navigate to the folder you want to search and type your criteria in the search box in the top right corner.

6. Search All

Often the file(s) you’re looking for will be in obvious places. However, you might need to search your entire hard drive or a removable drive. Click Advanced Search and then Location to tell Windows Vista where to look.

7. Track the Tags

Tags enable you to add extra information to files, and Windows Vista can search for those tags. Go to Advanced Search and type the tag or tags you want to find in the Tags field.

8. Sort Results

Sorting your results can help make things clearer. Click on column headings to sort by that field or use the drop-down arrow at the right of the column heading to apply sort criteria.

9. Pile The Files

You can also stack your results into piles. Click on the dropdown arrow at the right of a column heading and choose the Stack By option to create stacks based on that column.

10. Preview Files

You can see a file’s contents without leaving the Search window. Click on Organize ➜ Layout and tick the Preview Pane box. In the case of Microsoft Word docs, this means you can read the file without opening it.

11. Save Your Search

Once you’ve fine-tuned your search criteria, you can save it for future use by clicking on Save Search. Anytime you want to run it go to Username ➜ Searches and double-click on your search folder.

12. Plain English

If you go to Control Panel ➜ Appearance & Personalization ➜ Folder Options ➜ Search you can switch on natural language searching. This means you can use plain English, such as ‘charges overdraft’.

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