Windows 8 Search – Don’t Overlook This Powerful Feature

A lot of people love to hate Windows 8. They miss the old-school Start Button, but the powerful and convenient search feature in Windows 8 does everything that the Start Menu did and a little bit more.  Let’s check it out.

To activate the Search Charm, just swipe your finger or stylus from right to left on the right side of the screen or point to the upper-right of the screen with your mouse pointer and move the pointer down.  You’ll get a ribbon with Search, Share and Start.   Select Search by either tapping or clicking on the magnifying glass icon.

You’ll see the Search Charm, which allows you to find things on your computer, in the Windows Store and on the Internet from one location.

Let’s say we type the word “Word” into the search box. You’ll see that there are 2 results in Apps, 17 results in Settings and 2616 results in Files.

Let’s take a look at what each of those mean. Apps replaces what would be called Programs in previous versions of Windows. So, if you want to open any program or application in Windows 8, type it in the search box and select Apps.

 

When I search “Word” in Apps, over to the right of the screen, the results will be displayed. Here, I see Word 2013 and WordPad. If I click or tap on either of these icons, I will open the program.

Now if I click or tap on Settings, I will see a different set of results.

In results under Settings, I’ll  see options to change passwords, autocorrect words, enlarge the size of text. All settings that have to do with “words.”

If we select Files, we’ll see another set of results.

These results include documents and pictures.

You can also search for things on the Internet. If you choose Store, you can look for Apps in the Windows App Store.

Here I have results for Apps that contain the “Word” in the name.

If I choose the Internet Explorer Icon, I’ll get search results for “Word” from Bing. Weather will show places with “Word” in the name and People Will show show Contacts with “Word” in their names.

You can even search within Apps. Here, I’ve selected the Cocktail Flow app.

 I’ve typed in “martini.”

 

Here are my results.

 

If those results aren’t what I’m looking for, I can simply tap Internet Explorer and get search results for Martinis instantly.

 

 All in all, an exceptionally handy way to find things all in one place. It’s really much quicker than the old Start Menu. So, if you have Windows 8, make sure to take full advantage.

~ Cynthia