Lyte Byte

As most don’t know that you can refine the search and get accurate results in Google, many also don’t know that you can do the same while searching your computer. Windows Search engine otherwise known as ‘Windows Desktop Search’ is used in Vista and earlier Windows. If you generally search a word, say ‘Byte’, it will list all the files which have ‘Byte’ as the part if their name of files which are tagged with word ‘Byte’ or by the Author ‘Byte’.

You can refine these searches by using the specified syntax and be defining the file property. Here are few examples,

Kind: music artist: Bryan Adams -> This finds all music files with Bryan Adams as artist.
Name: Sky -> This will find the files which have the word ‘Sky’ in their file name.
Modified: 05/06/2007 -> Find files which are modified on a particular date.

You can also enhance this by using Boolean operators. (Note: When you use Boolean operators, you need to mention them in capital letters)

blue AND sky -> It finds files which has both blue and Sky.
blue OR sky -> It finds files which has either one of them.
blue NOT sky -> It finds files which has blue but not sky.

Other important search options include,
“blue sky” -> It finds files with exact words and phrase.
(blue sky) -> It finds files which has both words in any order.

Microsoft has listed down all these syntax in their “Windows Desktop Search: Advanced Query Reference“. It lists options for different types of files and syntax which are common for all and they also have listed some syntax for specific files types like Music, Picture, Video, Documents etc.

Enable Natural Language Search:

If you are not too comfortable in searching with colons and syntax, you can enable ‘Natural Language Search‘ and still get the same results. Here is an example which will help you identify the difference.
Natural Language Search turned off: Kind: music artist: (Bryan Adams or Enrique Iglesias)
Natural Language Search turned on: music Bryan Adams or Enrique Iglesias

Follow the procedure to turn on Natural Language Search
Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> Folder Options -> Search Tab -> Select ‘Use natural Language Search’ check box -> Apply -> Ok

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