Windows Search, Browse, and Organize Administrator's Guide

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

August 2009

This Administrator’s Guide provides instructions for managing Search, Browse, and Organize features in Windows® 7. It is designed for IT professionals and desktop specialists who are responsible for managing desktop functionality in an enterprise environment. This guide is divided into the following sections:

This document is provided for informational purposes. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to this document or the information contained in it. In addition, this should be considered a living document and as such readers should check back to the online version located at Microsoft TechNet for any updates that may have taken place since the time this document was created. This document targets an audience of IT managers and administrators and pertains to Windows 7 operating systems. Where applicable, references are made to the administration guide of Windows Search 4.0, which is supported for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003/2008 and Windows Vista® operating systems.

What's New in Windows Search, Browse, and Organize?

Windows 7 introduces a number of new features and enhancements that can help IT professionals deploy and maintain desktop browse, organization, and search functionality:

  • Improvements in the performance and stability of the indexer.

  • Improvements in the performance of the search experience.

  • Improvements in the performance and user interface of Windows Explorer.

  • Introduction of federated search and search connectors.

  • Introduction of aggregation and visualizations to improve the organization of search results.

  • Introduction of libraries to help with organization.

  • Additional Group Policy settings, available on all supported operating systems.

  • Reduced impact on servers running Microsoft Exchange Server when indexing uncached (classic online) e-mail.

  • Ability to index delegate mailboxes for online e-mail.

  • Support for indexing encrypted documents of local file systems.

  • Support for indexing digitally signed e-mail of Microsoft Outlook.

  • Expanded ability to do fast, remote queries of file shares, including on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and earlier versions.

These new and improved features are discussed in more detail in this guide.

See Also

Reference

Windows Explorer and Common File Dialog
Windows Libraries

Concepts

Windows Search Features
Windows Indexing Features
Federated Search Features
Administrative How-to Guides
Group Policy for Windows Search, Browse, and Organize
Additional Resources for Windows Search, Browse, and Organization