Start Menu - Add Libraries to Search in Start Menu

    Start Menu - Add Libraries to Search in Start Menu

    Start Menu - Add Libraries to Search in Start Menu

    How to Pin Libraries to Search and See More Results in Start Menu
    Published by
    Designer Media Ltd


    How to Pin Libraries to Search and See More Results in Start Menu

       Information
    This tutorial will show you how to add links for the Libraries in the Start Menu, to be able to search from the Start Menu Search Bar and See More Results directly within the Libraries.
       Note
    You will only be able to add a total of Five Libraries at a time, three that will be directly on the Start Menu along with the See More Results, and the other two from within See More Results.
       Warning


    • The Local Group Policy Editor will only be available in the Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions. You will not have the Local Group Policy Editor available in the Windows 7 Starter and Home Premium editions.
    • You will need to be an administrator to open the Local Group Policy Editor.



    Here's How:
    1. Go to the Start Menu and type gpedit.msc in the search bar and press Enter. Click OK for the UAC prompt.
    Start Menu - Add Libraries to Search in Start Menu-gpedit1.jpg
    2. In the Local Group Policy Editor, go to User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Explorer/Pin Libraries or Search Connectors to the "Search Again" links and the Start Menu, and double-click on it.
    Start Menu - Add Libraries to Search in Start Menu-gpedit2.jpg
    3. To enable the setting, click the dot for Enabled. Add the location for the Library you want. I have given an example in the screenshot below, just Enter your own Username and Library name. I have used the manually created Downloads Library here. Enter it, along with any others, into the 5 Locations To Pin areas. Click Apply - OK. You can now close gpedit.msc.
    Start Menu - Add Libraries to Search in Start Menu-gpedit3.jpg
    4. Now you can go to the Start Menu, and enter your search query into the bar, and you will see the first 3 Libraries there along with the See More Results.
    Start Menu - Add Libraries to Search in Start Menu-librariesstartmenu.jpg
    5. When you type your query in the Search bar, you can choose to click on one of your Library links, which will then give you your displayed results in the Library. Or you can choose See More Results, which will open a Window with all your displayed "Search again" links, including the other two Library links and your original Libraries link will also be there. You can then search from there if you want.
    Start Menu - Add Libraries to Search in Start Menu-librariesstartmenu2.jpg
    Start Menu - Add Libraries to Search in Start Menu-librariesstartmenu3.jpg

    That's it.

    Airbot






  1. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate RTM
       #1

    Hi Airbot, I'm new to the forums here, so I beg your pardon if I shouldn't post the question here.

    Anyway: in what way is this different from regular search? I mean, when you rise up the start menu, you can already type and search, and it will look into your libraries and indexed folders, right?

    The difference is that you can quickly restrict your search to one particular library, is that it?

    BTW, very nice tutorial, man! Thanks!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 18,404
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
    Thread Starter
       #2

    Hi Charlie Brown, welcome to sevenforums,

    Pretty much. just a way to have it on your start menu when you query something, if you wanted to look into that particular library. :)
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2
    Windows 7
       #3

    Adding back "See more results" after being removed by 3rd party search


    Hi Airbot,

    I installed Google Desktop Search and it replaced "See more results" with "Search Everywhere" which launches Google Desktop Search instead of Windows Search. Sometimes I prefer use google and sometimes I prefer to use the windows search so I was wondering if you knew of a way to add back "See more results" in addition to the "Search Everywhere" so I can easily select which one I want after typing in the search text.

    Thanks in advance for any tips!
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 18,404
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Hi spifire,

    "3rd party protocol handler" in your case Google Desktop.

    Start Menu - Add Libraries to Search in Start Menu-capture.jpg

    It doesn't look like it will allow it.
    Will have to look into it some more.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 2
    Windows 7
       #5

    Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I saw that and figured it was an either/or thing. If there's no way to have both, I'd be happy to just go back to having only the windows default on the start menu. I can always launch google desktop search from the task bar. I searched around but couldn't find any way to set it back to windows search... well, I could uninstall google desktop search but I'd really like to keep both search options. And unfortunately, the google desktop search doesn't have an option to install it without having it make itself the default search provider.

    Any ideas on how to set the default search back to windows without uninstalling google desktop search would be greatly appreciated.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 1
    Windows 7 x64
       #6

    My primary goal is to use the win7 search (start search or "win+F" search) to be able to search my network drives.

    I was able to use the Win7LibraryTool v1.09 to add the mapped drives to their own libraries folders.

    When I try to search using the windows start search, nothing comes up but if I click "see more results" followed by "search again in: Libraries", then the results come right up.

    I tried the procedure listed in the post but nothing changed. I'm not getting any search results from any of my libraries (they don't even show up as links at the bottom with the "see more results" link).

    It's not just the network files that aren't showing up either; I have libraries that reference both files on my computer and files on the network. None of the files show up.

    If I remove the files on my computer from the library, they do show up in the initial search.

    I checked the indexer options to see if it was still indexing but it said it was complete.

    Is there some option I don't know about that hides libraries from index searches?

    As a final note, I've used google desktop in the past but really don't want to again unless I have to. I prefer not to use 3rd party "background" apps that run all the time when windows has similar functionality built in.
      My Computer


 

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