Workers' Edge

The first thing I saw when I booted my PC yesterday evening was a notice that Google had prevented my default search setting from being changed. I certainly didn't want to switch from searching via Google by default. I hadn't even been considering a search change, regardless of Bing's pretty wallpaper.

The Google Toolbar prevented Windows Search from changing my default search setting without my permission.

(Credit: Google)

To find out what program was trying to change my search default, I opened Vista's Event Viewer by pressing the Windows key, typing event viewer, and pressing Enter. I clicked Application in the left pane and scrolled to the approximate time the warning popped up. It took all of about two seconds to realize that Windows Search Service attempted to change my search default.

Vista's Event Viewer identified the Windows Search Service as the likely source of the attempt to change my search default.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Well, I can't prove it based solely on the Event Viewer logs, but it's safe to say the search service is the prime suspect. I was relieved that Google prevented the change, but I couldn't recall asking the company to do so. I found the alert setting in the options of the Google Toolbar in Internet Explorer.

The Search tab in the Google Toolbar options lets you generate an alert whenever a program attempts to change your default search setting.

(Credit: Google)

Ironically, I couldn't find a comparable setting in the latest version (5.0.20090324) of the Google Toolbar for Firefox, which is my default browser.

The Google Toolbar for Firefox lacks a setting that generates an alert and prevents programs when they attempt to change your default search setting.

(Credit: Google)

Should you find your search default has been changed unexpectedly, resetting it is a breeze. In Firefox, type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Browse to and double-click browser.search.defaultenginename. Type the name of any search service listed on the search drop-down menu and press OK.

To add a search engine to the list, click Manage Search Engines and then Get more search engines. Download your engine of choice and restart Firefox to see it among the search options on the menu.

To make the same change in Internet Explorer 8, click the down arrow to the right of the search box and choose Manage Search Providers. Make your selection and choose Set as default. Or choose Find More Providers, pick a search service, and click Add to Internet Explorer to broaden your IE search options.

To change your search default in Google's Chrome browser, click the wrench icon in the top-right corner, choose Options, and make your selection in the "Default search" drop-down menu near the bottom of the Basics tab. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to add search providers to Chrome's list, though you may see more options by clicking Manage, choosing one of the services listed, and clicking Add.

The first program I open every day is Firefox, and most days the first Web site I visit is Google. That's why I'm glad so many Firefox add-on developers have created tools that give me a new perspective on my Google search results. Here are three of my favorites.

Sharpen your searches with GoogleEnhancer
The primary reason I click Google's Advanced Search option is to limit the results to a specific date range. With NettiCat's GoogleEnhancer add-on I can narrow my searches by date as well as by file type and a handful of languages via drop-down menus that are placed to the right of the search box.

The GoogleEnhancer add-on for Firefox puts drop-down menus next to the text box that let you narrow your results by time, language, and file type.

(Credit: NettiCat)

As nice as the search enhancements are, one of my favorite GoogleEnhancer features is the addition of icons to the left of the results for each link's site. The add-on also numbers the results, though these don't really add much to the results, in my opinion.

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A big reason for the growing popularity of the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser is the amazingly creative and abundantly useful add-ons that are being created for Firefox. My three new favorites let you ax the ads on a site, see the tracking pixels on the current page, and gain a wealth of options when you select and right-click text in your browser.

Browse faster by blocking ads
Wouldn't you like to watch TV and listen to the radio without having to sit through the ads that pay the freight? Or dismantle the billboards that line the freeways? I can't help you with TV spots or roadside distractions, but you can kiss Web ads good-bye. Just download and install Wladimir Palant's Adblock Plus extension for Firefox.

After browsing with Adblock Plus enabled for a while, I started to wonder how I ever managed to surf without it. I noticed an immediate increase in the load speed of many of the sites I visit frequently, such as ESPN.com and CNN.com. And it's so much easier to find the information I'm looking for on a crowded page without all the ads getting in the way.

When you restart Firefox after installing Adblock Plus, you're given the option to import a set of filter rules or create your own rules. I took the easy route and opted for the canned filters, which do a good job of removing the ads from the sites I frequent.

You can view the number of blocked items on the current page by hovering the mouse pointer over the "ABP" icon in the top-right corner of the Firefox window. Or click the down arrow to the right to access the extension's preferences and other options.

View the number of blocked ads on a page by hovering over the ABP icon.

(Credit: Wladimir Palant)

Some ads manage to slip past Adblock's filters, but you block them in the future by right-clicking the ad and choosing Adblock Image. There are a wealth of other options in the program; visit the developer's FAQ page for more information.

Know when you're being tracked
I'm usually not very curious about which of the Web-tracking services may have planted a pixel in the Web pages I visit, but knowing which sites use which tracking services gives me a little more information about what I can expect from the people behind the site.

Jan Bogutzki's Counterpixel detects the presence of tracking pixels from 19 different services, including Google Analytics, WebTrends, and Site Meter.

Counterpixel doesn't block the trackers; it merely alerts you to their presence on the current page. This might provide more information than the average Firefox user needs, but the add-on is a great way to find out a little bit more about the sites you frequent.

Get more right-click options for selected text
I've been using the Hyperwords extension for only a few days, which is not nearly enough time to learn all the text tricks this program performs. The first Hyperwords feature that caught my eye was the Translation option, which lets you convert the selected text into more than a dozen languages.

Customize the right-click options that the Hyperwords extension adds to Firefox.

(Credit: Hyperwords)

Other Hyperwords context-menu options let you search for the selected text at various reference sites and view other occurrences of the text on the page by sentence or paragraph, among other alternatives. You can also save the selection as a text file or send it directly to your printer.

It's a mystery to my why more people still use Internet Explorer than Firefox or any other competing browser. But I don't get the success of American Idol, either, so it must be me.

After finding my post from last March about tweaking Vista's index locations, a reader sent me five questions. I don't have the person's name or e-mail address, so I'm going to respond in this post and hope they're still reading.

"Please advise step-by-step how to delete all the locations in the Indexed Locations screen at one time."

Press the Windows key, type indexing options, and press Enter. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Modify > "Show all locations" (you may need to click through the User Account Control warning). Uncheck all the items listed under "Change selected locations," and click OK.

Uncheck all the options under "Change selected locations" to stop Vista from indexing any locations.

(Credit: Microsoft)

"Will deleting the locations in Indexed Locations have any effect on the files and folders, and whatever those locations are referring to?"

No. Your files and folders will not be affected by these settings.

"Is it 100 percent safe to delete the locations in the Indexed Locations screen?"

Yes. To undo any changes, simply reopen the Indexing Options dialog box, click Modify > "Show all locations," recheck the locations you want Vista to index for its search function, and click OK. Or select the Advanced button, choose the Restore Defaults option under the Index Settings tab, and click OK.

Restore Vista's default index settings by clicking Restore Defaults under Advanced Index Settings.

(Credit: Microsoft)

"How do I simply prevent the Indexed Locations screen from accepting any more locations without actually deleting the Indexed Locations program?"

You can undo any change made to these settings, as described above.

"Do you happen to know of a Web site that has many items...found in Vista's Msconfig > Startup, showing their abbreviations and descriptions, and possibly also which items should not be unchecked?"

You can use Windows' System Configuration utility (aka Msconfig) to remove unwanted programs from your list of apps that start automatically with Vista, but there's a better way.

You can remove programs from Windows autostart list via System Configuration, but Vista's got a better way.

(Credit: Microsoft)

To clear Startup apps the Msconfig way, press the Windows key, type msconfig, press Enter, click the Startup tab, and uncheck the items you don't want.

I prefer to use the Software Explorer component of Windows Defender to prune my autostart list. This program provides more information about the programs on the list and gives you more options. To open it, press the Windows key, type windows defender, press Enter, and click Tools > Software Explorer.

Choose Startup Programs in the Categories drop-down list, and click "Show for all users" at the bottom of the window. Select an item in the left pane to see information about it in the right window. Clear the program from your startup list by selecting it, and clicking either Remove or Disable.

Vista's Software Explorer applet provides more information about your autostart programs.

(Credit: Microsoft)

You'll find more details on Vista's Software Explorer in a Worker's Edge post from last April.

Microsoft claims that Office 2007's ribbon interface saves time by putting the features people use most often closer at hand. For those of us who spent years learning where those functions were in previous versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the changes aren't the productivity boosters Microsoft envisioned.

I've done more than my share of rummaging around the ribbon in Office 2007 trying to find a particular command, and I've even used Microsoft's user-interface guides to hunt down the feature I needed. Now Microsoft Office Labs has developed the free Search Commands add-on for Office 2007 that lets you type in a command and access it in an instant.

After you download and install the add-on, the Search Commands tab is added to the ribbon. Click it (or press the Windows key and Y) and type the name of the command you need.

For example, the other day I was looking for the Reveal Formatting option in Word 2007. I eventually found it under the Display tab in Word Options (off the Office button menu). It would've been much faster for me to simply open Search Commands, type "reveal formatting," and enter the number that appears next to that option ("5" in this case).

The free Search Commands add-on for Office 2007 makes finding options almost instantaneous.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Office Labs' only other offering to date is the Community Clips add-on designed to facilitate finding and sharing how-to videos relating to Office 2007. The site describes three other projects: one that creates a wiki on a SharePoint server, one that is intended to improve the Tablet PC pen interface, and one designed to serve as a marketplace for freelancers.

Note that all of the projects are prototypes, and Microsoft collects "usage metrics" in an attempt to enhance them, though you can opt out of sending any data to the company. I don't know about the other Office Labs projects, but Search Commands is an add-on I expect will save me quite a bit of time by slicing the ribbon to ribbons.

The first application I open and the last one I close each workday is Gmail.

Even though I use the service's labels and filters to sort my mail, I often found myself scrolling through the 600-plus messages in my Gmail in-box to find the one I need.

Then I discovered Gmail's search operators, and my scrolling days were over.

For instance, when I need to find the message from Ellen with the agenda attached, I type from:ellen filename:doc. If I need to find the message I sent my brother Larry about the NCAA basketball tournament pool we entered, I type to:larry subject:ncaa. And to locate the e-mail from one of my editors (for whom I've created a label) about my blog posts for the last two months, I enter label:editor (february OR march).

You'll find some of these same search parameters when you click "Show search options" to the right of the Gmail search box, but operators are faster, plus they give you more flexibility. For example, you can use the date range drop-down menu in the Search options box, or just enter after:2008/04/04 before:2008/04/07 to search mail that arrived last weekend.

Gmail's Search options box provides options for narrowing your e-mail searches, but they're not as fast as using the service's search operators.

(Credit: Google)

Get your Gmail work done faster via keyboard shortcuts
I'm a keyboard shortcut fan from way back, so it's embarrassing to admit that I didn't realize I could use the time-saving wonders in Gmail until I had been using the service for more than a year. To activate the shortcuts, click Settings and select "Keyboard shortcuts on" under the General tab.

Now when you want to compose a new message, type C, or Shift-C to open a blank message in a new window. Type a slash (/) to put the cursor in the search field, # to move the selected message to the Trash folder, ! to report it as spam, K to select the previous message in your in-box, and J to move to the next one.

When you're in "Conversation" mode, type R to reply to the selected message (Shift-R opens a new window for the reply), A to reply to all, and F to forward the message. Remembering these options can be a challenge, so type ? to view a list of keyboard shortcut options (and Esc to close the list).

Tomorrow: Get more out of Mozilla Thunderbird's search options.

After I compared three popular desktop-search programs a couple of weeks ago, the folks at Google contacted me about a couple of inaccuracies in that post. I had thought that because local files are listed above Web sites when you use Google to search in your browser, the ads that appear on the results page are related to the content of the local files. In fact, Google keeps an index of your local files on its servers only when you enable the Search Across Computers feature, which is off by default. And even then, the index disappears once the search results are delivered. Otherwise the index of your local files resides only on your machine.

The post also stated that Google Desktop Search slows down your PC as it creates and maintains its index of local files. That may be true on Windows XP systems, though the impact is greatest when you install the program and it creates its initial index, but on Vista the search tool uses the OS's own Indexing Service. I use Google Desktop Search on my four-year-old XP machine, and when I uninstalled the program as part of my testing, it appeared to me that the system ran faster, though I didn't perform any precise measurements.

The upshot is that after the initial index, Google Desktop Search affects system performance about the same as any other always-on application (most of which are represented by icons in your system tray). Nor does it pose more or less of a security risk than the other desktop programs you use. (I still prefer Copernic Desktop Search for its easy customization options and clear interface.)

Boost performance by tweaking Vista's indexing options
Just because the Vista version Google's desktop-search tool uses the same indexer as the OS doesn't mean you can't improve its performance by deciding for yourself what file locations it should include in its index. Click Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Indexing Options. Choose Modify > Show All Locations, and uncheck the folders and storage devices you want to exclude. When you're done, click OK to return to the Indexing Options dialog box.

Uncheck the locations you want to exclude from Vista's index of local files.

(Credit: Microsoft)

You can also exclude specific file types from the index by clicking Advanced > File Types, and unchecking the entries you want the index to skip.

Tell Vista's indexer to exclude file types by unchecking their entry in the Advanced Indexing Options dialog.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Entries under the Index Settings tab let you index encrypted files, move your index to another location, rebuild it, or restore its default settings. After you click OK, you may be warned that "Indexing speed is reduced due to user activity."

Change the location of your index file and make other index tweaks via Vista's Advanced Indexing Options dialog box.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Another way to disable indexing of a particular drive is to right-click it in Windows Explorer or other folder window, choose Properties, and uncheck "Index this drive for faster searching." The fastest way to disable Vista's built-in search entirely is to press the Windows key, type services, arrow down to Services, and press Enter. Double-click Windows Search, choose Disabled in the Startup type drop-down menu, click OK, and close the Services window.

Disable Vista's automatic search service by choosing Disabled under Startup type in its Properties dialog box.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Monday: use Google Docs to create and manage your NCAA basketball tournament pool.

The more files you store on your PC, the harder they are to find and manage. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Copernic Desktop Search, my favorite local-search freebie, and compared it to Google Desktop Search and Windows Desktop Search. All three retrieve the files you're looking for much faster and more simply than Windows' built-in search tool, but I prefer Copernic for its customizability and clean interface.

Still, most people spend the majority of their file-management time in Windows Explorer, which by default isn't particularly informative about the files and folders it displays. You can spend time tweaking Details view so that it shows more information about files and folders, or choose Thumbnails view to convert image-file icons to mini versions and to get a glimpse of up to four of the image files stored in a folder, but this still leaves the searching to you.

A faster way to find a particular file among the gigabytes of data on your PC's various storage media is to create virtual folders that store all the files matching specific search criteria. Vista even updates these folders for you automatically, though in XP you have to perform a new search to add recent files when you return to these folders.

You already use virtual folders all the time. Desktop, My Documents (or Documents in Vista), the Recycle Bin, and many other standard file "locations" in Windows are virtual. The contents of these folders don't depend on the actual physical location of the files. In fact, the WinFS (Windows Future Storage) technology originally intended for use in Vista relies completely on virtual folders.

To create a virtual folder in Vista, click Start > Search, enter your search term (click the down arrow to the right of Advanced Search to see more options), and once the search is completed, click Save Search. By default, the new virtual folder is placed in the Searches folder under your user ID, along with Vista's pre-built virtual folders: Recent Documents, Recent E-mail, Recent Music, Recent Images and Video, Recently Changed, and Shared by Me. You can save the new folder anywhere, but I find it simplest to keep all my virtual folders in one place.

By default, Vista places your new virtual folder in the same folder as its pre-built virtual folders.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Now whenever you're looking for a file matching the criteria you specified, simply navigate to and select that virtual folder in the Searches folder under your user name to see an updated list of the files returned by the search.

You can approximate Vista's virtual folders in XP by clicking Start > Search, entering your search term in either or both of the two text boxes, choosing the drive or location to search, or using any of the other search options available, and clicking Search. When the search finishes, click File > Save Search, specify a location for your saved search file (the default is My Documents), give the file a name (or accepting Windows' default name), and click Save. When you open that .fnd file subsequently, a search window opens with the specified criteria entered automatically, but with no files in the results window. Click Search to repeat the search.

Repeat a search without re-entering the search criteria by using Windows XP's Save Search feature.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Tomorrow: Do desktop-search tools slow down your PC?

You've got your pick of free desktop-search utilities, nearly any of which are faster and less processor-intensive than Windows' built-in file-search feature. I've used at least a half-dozen different file-search tools in the last few years, but three have stood the test of time: Google Desktop Search, Microsoft's Windows Desktop Search (or simply Windows Search in Vista, where it replaces the old Indexing Service), and the oldest and best of the bunch, Copernic Desktop Search. After bouncing between the three, I've settled on Copernic for its speed, ease of use, and relatively small footprint.

That's not to say there's anything wrong with Google Desktop Search or Windows Desktop Search, both of which help you ferret out those important e-mails, Office files, images, videos, and other items you've misplaced on your hard drive and other storage devices (though these locations may not be indexed by default). In my experience both seem to slow things down more than Copernic Desktop Search. Also, Copernic gives you more control over what types of files and other content gets searched, and how often.

Customize Google Desktop Search
By default, this program resets your browser home page to Google, and makes the service your default Web search engine. It also will install a sidebar with news, e-mail, weather, and other gadgets, unless you uncheck this option during its installation. You can change these settings later, if you wish.

Uncheck the default options when installing Google Desktop Search to keep the program from changing your browser settings.

Google Desktop Search indexes all fixed disks on your PC by default. You can add other devices by clicking the down arrow to the right of the search box that the program adds to the taskbar, choosing Options, and selecting Add drive or folder to search in the Search Locations area under the Desktop Search tab in the resulting browser window. This is also where you can enter folders and Web sites you want to exclude from your searches.

Add storage devices to be indexed by Google Desktop Search, or exclude folders or Web sites from its search index.

A big question with Google Desktop Search is security: If your hard drive is formatted as NTFS, you can choose to encrypt your index and data, but this slows down your file searches and indexing. Google makes its money by serving up ads related to your searches, and that includes those for your local files. Google's privacy statement says the company doesn't make your data accessible without your permission, but the Web search king's track record for privacy is spotty at best.

Tweaking Windows Desktop Search
When it was first released a couple of years ago, I was impressed by Microsoft's desktop-search product, in large part because it was so much faster and more accurate than the file-search options in Windows itself. While it offers more customization options than Google Desktop Search, Windows Desktop Search is slower and clunkier to use than Copernic Desktop Search, though a new version is reportedly in the offing. Windows Search 4 promises to improve searching across networks of PCs and Windows servers, and to support the OpenSearch standard for searching Web services.

You access Windows Desktop Search options by clicking Desktop Search Options on the Options drop-down menu in the top-right corner of the search results window. Click Indexing in the left pane to change the locations the program searches, Advanced to reset the file types it retrieves and place its index file in a different folder, and Deskbar to hide or show the program's search box in the taskbar.

Set Windows Desktop Search to index other locations on your PC via the Indexing Options dialog box.

As the new default local-search service in Vista, Windows Search leaves much to be desired. I've used its Advanced Search options to narrow my searches by file location, date, type, and other attributes, but I'm unimpressed with the results. That's what prompted me to reload Copernic Desktop Search, which I've used on PCs dating back to Windows 98.

The file-search oldster outshines the new challengers
I noticed a difference immediately: Copernic is a breeze to use and customize, and it seems to index faster, while taking a smaller bite out of your system resources. The search-results window is clearer and more intuitive, allowing you to view the results by file type, several of which are shown as tabs along the top of the window. Searching within the results is just as easy and intuitive, and you can search your chosen term on the Web with a single click.

Copernic Desktop Search's results window lets you filter your file searches by type with a single click.

To change your search settings, click Tools > Options, and then select one of the tabs in the left pane to see and reset your options in that category. For example, you use an Explorer-like folder tree to include or exclude locations to be indexed. Adding or removing file types, and changing the folder the index is store in are just as simple.

Change the frequency and idle time before Copernic Desktop Search begins indexing via the Indexing & Performance Settings dialog box.

Copernic Desktop Search shows that there's still plenty of room for specialists in the PC software industry. Maybe there are some programming tricks the big boys haven't figured out yet. I'm thankful for tools such Copernic, which shorten my workday without costing me a penny.

Monday: where Web services outshine their desktop-application counterparts, and where they still come up short.