Start Search may do more than you think.

[Colin Barnhorst]

Lots of replies in this ng have been to "open the Run box and then type
(command)." Good advice but did you know that typing (command) directly in
the Start Search textbox does the same thing in most cases, saving you a
step?

When you see the grey text "Start Search" in the box, think "Start Search or
Run Command."

Try it with your favorite system tool. Click Start and then enter your
command in the Start Search box. Try, for example, "msconfig". Instead of
searching for the folder containing the tool, the tool just runs.

There are some quirks that are system specific. For example, I tried out a
program called "Smart Go" on my Vista x64 system. It installed but would
not activate. I left it on the system. Now if I type 'ver' in Start Search
I get the Smart Go installer instead of the expected version info box. Go
figure, so to speak.

Enjoy.

 

[Mark Dietz]

There are a few times where this may not work completely, but for the most part
it works. The main thing that I see that doesn't work is "appwiz" works in the
"Run..." box, but you need "appwiz.cpl" in the Start Menu search box. It's a
great tip. Some stuff is the opposite though, as you need "services.msc" in the
"Run..." box but just "services" works in the Start Menu.

 

[Chad Harris]

I aplaud Colin's consistent unselfish excellent high quality help here and
in several other groups. I learn a lot of excellent info. It's also a great
function of the groups that people post tips in them. I'm going to put
everything but the kitchen sink into that search box, still wrestling with
how much search and indexing to allow to run "CPU-wise" including MSN's
ancillary search which seems to be more and more integrated.

I have to work with this search box more, and also I think it will yield
more info as well when Help gets fleshed out because remember Help comes
from a web server at MSFT now and it's still a work in progress and help
seems to have a relationship with the search box even when you search the
computer.

When I use run though, I don't have to go get it. If you right click the
taskbar>toolbars>address>unlock the taskbar that address bar in your taskbar
will do double duty as a run box or you can hit the win key +R (not case
senseitive) and have run in front of you in one motion. You could of course
shortcut run or about anything else and drag anywhere, but that would still
be a click to open.

One of the driving forces has to be the acqusition of Dr. Gary Flake by MSFT
a Ph. D. who came used to head Yahoo Search and was brought on at MSFT as
one of their Distinguished Science Apointments. Coupled with MSFT's
acquisition of Rakesh Agrawal, who is credited with creating data mining,
from IBM one would hope that this kind of star power in their Search labs
will trickle down to the humble desktop and small business users. If I were
running and planning enterprise IT I'd be excited about this.

Data-mining pioneer Rakesh Agrawal joins Microsoft
http://news.com.com/2100-1022_3-6072321.html

MSN Hires Dr. Gary Flake
http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2005/04/12/407637.aspx

A Conversation about Microsoft Ray Ozzie, Yusuf Mehdi & Gary FlakeThree
Microsoft Visionaries
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail843.html

CH

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Thanks for your kind comment and for carrying the topic forward with more
great stuff.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Do you think these odd differences are bugs or are you figuring out some
logic to the exceptions?

 

[Mark Dietz]

I'm not sure what the reasoning is for the oddities. My guess is that it has to
do with the content that is indexed. Since the search box looks only at stuff
that is indexed, you need the full filename for some stuff. In the run box, it
will open the first file it finds in the system32 folder with the given name if
whatever is entered doesn't have a file extension. Since services.exe comes
before services.msc, that would likely explain the reasoning there. I'm not
really sure what might truly be causing these things though.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Good thought. It may be a larger issue than that though because I have a
third party installer that has bumped ahead of a system tool in x64.
According to the dev the system32 folder would not be in play. When I enter
the name of the tool I get the installer for SmartGo instead. Bugged it, of
course.