Microsoft announced the release of its MSN Desktop Toolbar Suite beta yesterday, including a new desktop search capability aimed at making it faster and easier for Windows computer users to find the information on their local systems.

Like the recently released Google desktop search, the MSN desktop search has a decidedly Web-like interface; but Microsoft has used its own proprietary capabilities to build direct hooks into Windows' applications much like it has integrated Microsoft Office with Windows, and included Windows-like elements. The result is a product that can be accessed quickly from the Windows desktop and other Microsoft applications. The company has also addressed some of the security issues that previously had plagued desktop search software.

First Impressions

The MSN Desktop Toolbar suite installs quickly, placing complementary toolbars in several of the Microsoft products from which you're likely to want to search: your Windows desktop, Internet Explorer (Web-browser), Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express (e-mail applications), and My Computer & Windows Explorer (file/folder browsers). These toolbars allow you to type a word or phrase into a field; then, select [Enter] or click an icon to give you all of the items on your system containing that word or phrase. Within seconds, you'll see a screen that looks like a web-search results screen listing the documents, folders, e-mail messages, calendar appointments, tasks, notes, journal entries, or contacts that contain that word or phrase. You can then narrow your search to a type of item; so you can find only your address book entries, for instance. A double click on the appropriate item will open it for you.

To provide the rapid search capability, MSN desktop search needs to create an index of information that is in each item, much the way a publisher creates an index at the back of a book, letting you know where to find information. When you submit your searches to the MSN desktop search, it goes straight to the index (or possibly a set of smaller indexes) to find the information and point you in the right direction. That's how it makes your searches go so fast.

The MSN Toolbar also takes full advantage of the MSN Web search function that Microsoft announced a few weeks ago. If you want to search the Web instead of your local disk drive, simply type your word or phrase into the Deskbar -- that's what Microsoft calls the toolbar that shows up at the bottom of your Windows screen -- and key in +[Enter], instead of a plain [Enter]. This will show you results from only the World Wide Web. You also can specify to search online in only the Encarta dictionary or encyclopedia; or look up only telephone numbers in yellow or white pages online.

So far, I've found the searches to be accurate and fast, and they provide more information on first glance than in other local computer search tools I've used.

Security still an issue

Microsoft's desktop search beta seems to have addressed several of the security problems that plague the Google beta desktop search. It doesn't index cached or secured Web pages that are on your hard drive; so it won't expose information from those pages that are confidential. It also bases its index on the person who is logged in. So it doesn't expose one person's documents to another person who can log on to the same system under a different user name.

But it doesn't give the user the ability to select which Outlook folders should be indexed, which means confidential information sent to or from you by e-mail is at risk. You also may be at a heavier risk of being infected by a virus if you opted to index attachments and don't have adequate anti-virus protection.

All in all, the product looks like a good enhancement for users of Windows XP or later versions of Windows 2000, but not Windows 9x systems, which are not supported. But those who are security conscious, including corporations, should tread cautiously before putting their confidential information at risk. Remember, this is being called a beta by Microsoft, which means pre-release version.

I'll address additional features of the product in my e-mail TipLetter, and I'll give you my view on the security issues in my Connected column Thursdays in the business section.

The new toolbar with beta desktop search is available at toolbar.msn.com.