The Windows 8 search feature is different from its predecessors because it uses a new platform that filters the search. The platform breaks down searches into Apps, settings, and files. To put some framework for this, here is a graph showing how in Windows 7 the categories of search were displayed.
The New Search Features in Windows 8 will make this basic operation more user friendly.
Control Panel and Searching Settings
The settings search experience brings together all settings and Control Panel items across the system in one view. Windows 8 matches the settings search results not only to the name of the Control Panel applet or task, but also to the various keywords that may describe it. For example, shutdown has not been available as a search result. But now it can be.
Searching files
The number of files on PCs keeps increasing over time as users continue to acquire and create more documents, music, photos, and videos. In redesigning the file search experience, the goal was to make it fast so users could achieve their task of finding a file without having to skip over to Windows Explorer.
It will also provide search suggestions as you type in order to help you complete the search efficiently. It accomplishes this by using the indexer. This program provides search suggestions using the content and properties of the files it knows about. This indexer concept actually arose from extensive use on the Web; and now it is part of the Windows 8 search framework.
Plus there is an improvement as this feature can also deal with typos or spelling errors; suggesting auto-corrected search term as you type. Using the arrow keys to choose suggestions autocompletes the term in the box. This makes it easy to add more terms to the query and quickly narrow down the set of results to find the one you want.
There is also backward compatibility since you can also still search using AQS (Advanced Query Syntax) from Windows 7. AQS allows for greater precision and control when constructing the query to get targeted results. Here are some sample searches and their advanced query syntax:
This approach to separating searches for apps, settings, and files into their own views will allow each of them to evolve and breathe separately. In this way, the results can display a unique format unlike the single list of results in previous versions, which required uniformity to work in the limited space.
Control Panel and Searching Settings
The settings search experience brings together all settings and Control Panel items across the system in one view. Windows 8 matches the settings search results not only to the name of the Control Panel applet or task, but also to the various keywords that may describe it. For example, shutdown has not been available as a search result. But now it can be.
Searching files
The number of files on PCs keeps increasing over time as users continue to acquire and create more documents, music, photos, and videos. In redesigning the file search experience, the goal was to make it fast so users could achieve their task of finding a file without having to skip over to Windows Explorer.
It will also provide search suggestions as you type in order to help you complete the search efficiently. It accomplishes this by using the indexer. This program provides search suggestions using the content and properties of the files it knows about. This indexer concept actually arose from extensive use on the Web; and now it is part of the Windows 8 search framework.
Plus there is an improvement as this feature can also deal with typos or spelling errors; suggesting auto-corrected search term as you type. Using the arrow keys to choose suggestions autocompletes the term in the box. This makes it easy to add more terms to the query and quickly narrow down the set of results to find the one you want.
There is also backward compatibility since you can also still search using AQS (Advanced Query Syntax) from Windows 7. AQS allows for greater precision and control when constructing the query to get targeted results. Here are some sample searches and their advanced query syntax:
| Query | AQS Syntax |
| Find all files authored by Jeff or Diane | author: (Jeff OR Diane) |
| Find all photos with an F-stop of 2.8 where no flash was fired | f-stop:2.8 flashmode:no flash |
| Find all files where the file name contains a word starting with Metro and the file size is greater than 1MB | filename:$<Metro* size:>1mb |
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