How to speed up Windows Vista start menu search

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
by knight17

The start menu search box is one of my favorite features in Vista, but searching can be slow if you have a lot of personal files - by default the start menu search also searches files, Windows contacts, Windows mail, history, and favorites.

You can customize the search results returned in the start menu search box to only return the results that you want. I personally only want to use the start menu search to pull up applications, so I disabled everything else.

To configure this setting, right click on the Start button and select Properties. Click the Customize button, and you can scroll down to the Search checkboxes.

For best results, change the search files radio button to “Don’t search for files.” The start menu is too small to find files anyway. This will speed up searching immensely.

Here are the details on what the other options do:

Search - Should disable the search entirely, but doesn’t seem to remove the search box. I left this enabled.
Search communications - Disables searching through emails and contacts. As far as I can tell, it’s only Windows Mail and Windows Contacts right now. I assume other applications will eventually be included here. I disabled this since I don’t use either product.
Search favorites and history - Searches through your IE favorites and history. Perhaps it will also search a future version of Firefox. I disabled this since I use Firefox.
Search Files - You can change this to search all files, or just your home directory. Or disable entirely for speed.
Search Programs - Searches through the start menu and applications.

Tags: windows, tips, search, start menu search

7 Comments

Techzi » Blog Archive » Speed up Vista’s start menu search

March 30th, 2007
at 3:56pm

[…] Beyond that, the Customize Start Menu dialog is worth a look for anyone who’s recently installed Vista (right-click the start button, select Properties, then click Customize…). It operates pretty much the same way as XP’s customize start menu, but it’s worth looking at to make sure the items you want show up and you get rid of the items you don’t want. — Adam Pash How to speed up Windows Vista start menu search [Lockergnome] […]

Chris Kringle

March 30th, 2007
at 8:14pm

That is soooo sad that you use Vista.
http://trailfire.com/floweringmind/trailview/20638

Kolz Blog » Blog Archive » Speed up Vista’s start menu search

March 30th, 2007
at 10:28pm

[…] How to speed up Windows Vista start menu search [Lockergnome] […]

up game » How to speed up Windows Vista start menu search

April 1st, 2007
at 8:11am

[…] Shuman Ghosemajumder wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI personally only want to use the start menu search to pull up applications, so I disabled everything else. To configure this setting, right click on the Start button and select Properties. Click the Customize button, and you can scroll … […]

Speed up Vista's start menu search - 00de Forum

April 2nd, 2007
at 7:17am

[…] The Lockergnome weblog details how to speed up your Vista start menu search by selectively enabling how deep your search goes. For example, the author notes that if you’re only really interested in using the start menu search to launch applications, disabling the file search will tremendously speed things up. Aside from that, since the "Search communications" option currently only searches email and contacts kept in Windows Mail and Contacts, it can be disabled - and if you don’t use IE, "Search favorites and history" needn’t be enabled, either. Point is, if you want to stick to launching apps with the start menu search and searching your desktop with a different desktop search app (say, Google Desktop), this should help you speed up the start menu search for launching. Beyond that, the Customize Start Menu dialog is worth a look for anyone who’s recently installed Vista (right-click the start button, select Properties, then click Customize…). It operates pretty much the same way as XP’s customize start menu, but it’s worth looking at to make sure the items you want show up and you get rid of the items you don’t want. link I am what i am, much more than a God, much less than a man […]