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As we all collect more and more files, photos and media on our computers, sorting through it all becomes increasingly important.  With Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced tags (metadata) and ratings to any type of file.  Adding these tags can be a difficult and time-consuming process.  I can assure you all however that nothing I’ve ever done on my PC has been more rewarding long-term.

They also introduced the fabulously useful saved searches, virtual folders capable of storing any content on your PC you like, and displaying it in a context that’s good for you.  For instance, all PDFs and office files containing your home address.

With Windows 7 they’ve taken things a step further with Libraries, single simple to use locations in which you can find all your files, regardless of which folder or drive you have them stored on.

But in the midst of all this came a court case from Google in the US that resulted in Microsoft removing the search option from the Start Menu in Vista Service Pack 1.  Search was still there, on the Windows key + F, but unless you knew where to look contextualised searches, by which I mean searching by clause rather than just title, became much more difficult.

With Windows 7 Microsoft are aiming, and rightly so, to a system whereby it’s easier than ever to find our files and documents, through features like saved searches and the libraries.  However, at the same time they’re making it almost impossible to do a detailed search.  Take a look at the three screenshots below (click to view them full size).

xpsearchvistasearchwin7search

These represent the search capabilities of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

You’ll see that with Windows 7 it’s immediately considerably more difficult to do a contextualised search.  It’s still possible but you need to type text commands, and who is going to remember those?  I’ll publish a complete list in my Windows 7 Power Users Guide.

So what are the solutions to get a simple, easy to use contextualised search facility back into Windows?  The obvious answer, Microsoft Desktop Search won’t do it, that leaves Google Desktop Search and Copernic Search.  These will provide all the contextualised search facilities you need, but they won’t (at least not yet) integrate with the saved search or Library facilities in Windows Vista and Windows 7.  Worse, they also have their own indexing facilities, and having just one indexer running on your PC can affect performance if it’s busy.

Sadly I feel my dream of having a Library of documents relating to my household bills and receipts and another Library for exclusively work-related files are an increasingly distant way off.

Microsoft need to do something about this, and very quickly, to stop the search facility itself completely undermining all the good work they’ve done with aggregated search elsewhere.