Computerworld - Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), the beta of which was just released by Microsoft Corp., is designed to improve Vista's performance, reliability and security. And even though Microsoft didn't publicize the change, SP1 also alters the way Vista's search works, allowing you to substitute an alternate search tool of your own for the one built into Windows.
In this brief review of SP1, we'll take a look at those changes to Vista search, as well as the installation process -- and a bug that may be computer-specific to my setup.
Microsoft has issued a PowerPoint presentation and a white paper about SP1, which is now in the hands of about 12,000 testers. But nowhere in them will you find any mention of the change to Vista's search function. That may be because Microsoft didn't necessarily make the change willingly. It comes as an extension of the company's 2002 antitrust settlement with government regulators.
With SP1, third-party search technologies -- think Google Desktop Search -- can now be easily integrated into the operating system and used as the default search engine. And it's a change that's apparent as soon as you click the Start button. The search link, which was on the right-hand side of the menu pre-SP1, has been taken away. If you want to search from the Start menu, you'll now have to use the Start Search box. Otherwise, you can use the Search box embedded in Windows Explorer.
The following two figures show the Start menu, before and after installing SP1. Notice that the Search link is missing in the second figure.
  The existing Vista Start menu ... (Click for larger view.) |
 ... and the Start menu in Vista SP1. (Click for larger view.) |
In a smaller cosmetic change, when you enter a search in the Start menu search box and results appear, the names of the links to additional searches have changed, from "See all results" pre-SP1, to "Search Everywhere" in SP1. The "Search the Internet" link, however, remains unchanged.
Click "Search Everywhere" and it launches your search results inside your default desktop search program. If you haven't changed the Vista default, the desktop search program will be the one built into Windows Vista, called Windows Search Explorer. If you have changed it, for example, to Google Desktop Search, you'll see the results in that search tool.
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