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Did you know you can directly search your organizations SharePoint search center from your Vista search bar without opening SharePoint? Here's how you can add SharePoint to your search options in Vista.

Click the Start button and type gpedit.msc in the search field and press enter this will open the Group Policy Editor allowing you to add SharePoint search to your desktop.

1. Open the following folders by clicking in the left window pane User Configuration – Administrative Templates – Widows Components – Instant Search.
2. In the right window pane double-click Custom Instant Search Internet search provider and choose enable.

1. In the first field enter a user friendly name, in this case I used Intranet, this will appear in the search bar on Vista
2. In the second field enter your organizations search results page with the tag =%w on the end of the URL. Example: https://ext.projectleadership.net/searchcenter/pages/results.aspx?k=%w
3. Click ok and close the Group Policy Editor.

   
   
   

4. Open a command prompt by typing cmd in the search bar and press enter.
5. Type gpupdate /force, allow the update to finish and close the DOS window.
6. Enter the term you wish to search and click the new option shown; in this case I clicked Intranet. This will directly search the SharePoint site
   

   

   The search results will open the SharePoint search results location in Internet Explorer and look something like this.
   

Kris Wagner
Senior Consultant
Project Leadership Associates