Windows 7 - Search Shortcut - Create

**Brink**

How to Create a Search Shortcut in Windows 7

Information

This will show you how to create or download a Search shortcut that opens the Search window. You can also Pin to Taskbar or Pin to Start Menu this shortcut, or move where you like for easy use.

Note

Credit belongs to our member MoinMoin for this tip.

Tip

Before doing a search in Windows 7, you should make sure that you have set your Search Options for the What to search, How to search, and When searching non-indexed locations settings. If you have the index enabled (it is by default), then you should also have any locations and file types added to be indexed so they will be included in the search results when doing a search.

EXAMPLE: Search
NOTE: Normally you can press F3 or Windows Key + F to open the Search window. For more on how to use search, see How to Search in Windows 7.

OPTION ONE

To Download the "Search" Shortcut

1. Click on the Download button below to download the Search.zip file.

2. Click on Save, and save the .zip file to the desktop.

3. Open the .zip file and extract the Search shortcut to the desktop.

4. Right click on the Search shortcut, and click on Properties, General tab, and on the Unblock button. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you do not have a Unblock button under the General tab, then the shortcut is already unblocked and you can continue on to step 5.

5. Move the shortcut to where you like for easy use.

6. When done, you can delete the downloaded .zip file on the desktop if you like, or save it to use again.

OPTION TWO

To Manually Create the "Search" Shortcut

1. Right click on a empty area on desktop, and click on New and Shortcut.

2. Copy and Paste either location below into the location area, and click on the Next button. (See screenshot below)
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe search-ms:

OR

%windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{9343812e-1c37-4a49-a12e-4b2d810d956b}

3. Type Search for the name, and click on the Finish button. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You can name this anything you would like though.

4. Right click on the new Search shortcut on the Desktop and click on Properties.

5. Click on the Shortcut tab, then click on the Change Icon button. (See screenshot below)

6. In the line under "Look for icons in this file", Copy and Paste the location below and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll

7. Select the icon highlighted in blue above and click on OK. (See screenshot above)
NOTE: You can use any icon that you would like instead though.

8. Click on OK. (See screenshot below)

9. Move the shortcut to where you like for easy use.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

**moinmoin** · 11-08-2009

Option Three:
Open the Search and drag the magnifying glass to the desktop or startmenu.

For german user: http://www.deskmodder.de/wiki/index....enü#Variante_3

Thanks for the Note, Brink

**LuxZg** · 12-17-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by moinmoin

Option Three:
Open the Search and drag the magnifying glass to the desktop or startmenu.

Moinmon, those were some great tips. And I'm now laughing becuase I didn't think about drag-and-drop before

Why is this so great? Well, simple, create your own search folder in 4 easy steps:
1) Win+F to open search
2) do your search (like file:mp3)
3) drag & drop the little magnifying glass icon in addressbar to your desktop
4) and rename it (to MP3 for example)

And now whenever you click that icon a search will be run automatically

Saved search - fast and easy

Just pinned search for *.sql to my desktop and I like it a lot!

Thanks!

**Brink** · 12-17-2009

Hello LuxZg, and welcome to Seven Forums.

That method will work just fine, but you just will not be able to "Pin to taskbar" with it. Only the one in the tutorial will instead.

You might also look at the tutorial below to save a search to see if that may be something you would want to use for your frequent searches of the same items.

Save a Search

Hope this helps,
Shawn

**LuxZg** · 12-19-2009

Hi Brink, thanks for a warm welcome

The shortcut pointing to search can be pinned to Windows Explorer in taskbar, so it's almost as easily accessible as if it was a standalone icon, so I don't mind.

But the saved search is really a better solution, it can be pinned to Windows Explorer in taskbar as well, but can be "browsed" easily.. I can't believe I never noticed that link in the Explorer menu. I guess that's what you get when menus lose all the icons and are left with text that...just looks the same. So thanks for the link and the tutorial, seems I'll have to browse through the tutorials a bit more to find all the not-so-obvious features

**Brink** · 12-19-2009

You're welcome LuxZg.

**qfunk** · 06-29-2010

Hi! I was Looking for an [ Alternative to Avafind (a search utility) ] ... and I found this thread. Thanks for the useful tutorial. I would be trying this method tomorrow on my pc, as I'm on a XP computer right now.

Just wanted to ask you if this shortcut can be pinned as an address utility like the google desktop to the taskbar?? Cause just clicking on the shortcut might just bring the search window, Was just hoping it could be searched directly from the taskbar.

**Brink** · 06-29-2010

Hello Qfunk, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You could use Pin to Taskbar for this shortcut to make it easier to use from the taskbar.

**qfunk** · 06-29-2010

thanks!! ++!

**Brink** · 06-29-2010

You're most welcome Qfunk.

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