Windows Search 4.0 is an update of the new search facilities in Vista, XP, and Server 2008. It represents a decided improvement in several ways, for example by permitting remote searches using remote indexes; and yet it still represents a great example of how Microsoft can take something conceptually fairly simple, put some interesting technology into it, and yet make it nearly impossbile for users to figure out.
Sometimes when I ask students in my Vista classes if they’ve used the search facility, they reply with “which one?”. There’s a search box on the Start menu, and a search box that works differently on the Explorer window. Then there are “saved searches,” which, again, work differently. Don’t forget the “search pane” too, and “search options,” and the “advanced search” button. It’s all pretty ridiculous, and a classic example of user-unfriendly design. Further, when you initiate a search in Vista, it’s often not at all obvious what areas you’re searching, whether you’re searching file contents or metadata, and whether the search includes all files or a subset. It sure makes you nostalgic for XP’s little search dog. In XP, there was a single search dialog box, and it was actually fairly easy to understand.
The intrepid administrator can ease some of the pain of this contorted user interface through the careful application of Group Policy settings, and by doing some targeted user education. So, in some upcoming posts, interspersed with my ongoing Hyper-V adventures, I’m going to take a closer look at setting up a searchable file server using Server 2008 and Vista. Should be fun.
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