Features

Learn more about the features that make Google Desktop so useful.

Overview
Search Your Computer
Google Gadgets and Sidebar
Additional Features

Overview

Google Desktop makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google. It's a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, files, music, photos, chats, Gmail, web pages that you've viewed, and more. By making your computer searchable, Desktop puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails and bookmarks.

Google Desktop doesn't just help you search your computer; it also helps you gather new information from the web and stay organized with gadgets and sidebar. Google Gadgets can be placed anywhere on your desktop to show you new email, weather, photos, personalized news, and more. Sidebar is a vertical bar on your desktop that helps you keep your gadgets organized.

Search Your Computer

Useful Results

When you do a Desktop search, you'll go to a page showing you the most relevant search results, each of which include the file name and a brief snippet with your search terms highlighted. You can filter for a particular type of item -- only files, for instance -- by using the links at the top of the page. You can now also preview your Desktop search results right inside the browser (no more waiting for an entire application to open just to verify that you've found the file you were looking for).

Smart Indexing

After you install it, Google Desktop starts indexing the email, files and web history stored on your computer. This one-time indexing occurs only when your computer is idle for more than 30 seconds, so it shouldn't slow down your machine's performance, but depending on the number of items, this process can take a total of several hours. Desktop also makes sure your index stays up to date by adding new email as you receive it, files as you update them and web pages as you view them.

Finding Deleted Files

Google Desktop creates cached copies (snapshots) of your files and other items each time you view them, and stores these copies on your computer's hard drive. As a result, you can often use Desktop to find items you accidently deleted, instead of having to recreate them from scratch.

Advanced Search Form

Clicking "Advanced Search" next to the search box on the Desktop homepage brings up an advanced search form. You can easily specify the type(s) of search you want to do without having to remember specific search operators. You can also restrict what time period your results are from.

Quick Search Box

The fastest way to search the web, and your own computer, is to use the Quick Search Box in the center of your desktop (simply press the "Ctrl" button twice to call up the search box, and press "Ctrl" twice again to hide it). Just type a few letters or words into the search box and your top results pop up instantly. You can also use it to launch applications without having to surf the Start menu; for example, you can launch Microsoft Word by typing "wor" into the Quick Search Box and selecting "Microsoft Word" in the list of results that appears. Or, simply type in your search term and press "Enter" to search the web.

Multiple File Types

Google Desktop automatically indexes, and allows you to search the full text over, the following types of items on your computer:

Outlook Email		Netscape Mail / Thunderbird
Outlook Express		Firefox / Mozilla / Netscape
Word		PDF
Excel		Music
PowerPoint		Images
Internet Explorer		Video
MSN Instant Messenger		Zip
AOL Instant Messenger		Text and others
Google Talk		Even more with these indexing plugins

Google Gadgets and Sidebar

Google Gadgets

Desktop gives you one-glance access to personalized and up-to-the-minute information with Google Gadgets -- interactive mini-applications that can be placed anywhere on your desktop or on your iGoogle page to show you new email, weather, photos and personalized news. Other gadgets include the clock, calendar, scratch pad, todo list and many more. You can choose to add the gadget to your desktop, your iGoogle page, or both.

Deskbar and Floating Deskbar

If you'd rather not have a sidebar, you can minimize it into either a deskbar -- which you can use to keep a small search box right in your Windows taskbar -- or a floating deskbar -- which includes a search box that floats above all other windows and can be dragged anywhere you want on your desktop. Both these options allow you to quickly launch applications or search your computer and the web.

Maps
Maps

Sidebar

You can also keep your Google Gadgets organized in your sidebar, a vertical bar on your desktop which basically functions as a control panel for your gadget. You can drag and drop any of your gadgets into or out of your sidebar, or move them up or down to arrange them in any order. The sidebar can be set to always stay on top of other screens, and we've re-designed it to blend better into your desktop.

Add Gadgets Interface

With the Add Gadgets interface, finding new gadgets is fast and easy. Simply click on the "+" button at the top of your sidebar or select "Add gadgets" from the option menu to bring up this screen. From here, you can view gadgets by category by clicking on the titles on the left or search for specific gadgets by using the search box in the top right. Once you've found the gadget you want, just mouse over it and click the "Add" button.

Additional Features

Outlook Integration

Google Desktop makes searching your Outlook email more convenient by adding a toolbar into Outlook. Just open Outlook and type a query into the search box. Outlook will display the search results in its familiar list view, including columns for "From", "Subject", and "Date". Each result also shows a message snippet containing your search terms. You can sort the result list by clicking on its column headers and can jump to locations in the list by typing a letter.

Lock Search

If you want to temporarily prevent anyone from doing a Desktop search on your computer, you can easily do so by enabling Lock Search. Simply click on the Desktop icon in your taskbar and select Lock Search from the menu. Now you can no longer search from the Desktop home page, and typing search terms in the sidebar, deskbar, or floating deskbar query box will return a message that Desktop search is locked (you can, however, perform other types of searches, such as a web or image search). To unlock Desktop search, enter the Windows password of the current user on the Desktop home page.