Windows 7: Features

By Patrick Nelson

Windows 7 introduces OpenSearch protocol ‘federated search’ support.

Federated search lets users search remote data sources from within Windows Explorer and work with that remote data.

Windows Explorer in Windows 7 is the interface for both the search and for working with the data.

Federates search is a way for users to search for files and data from remote locations.

An example would be a SharePoint site or a network share.

The user chooses a search connector location in the navigation pane. They then enter a search query in a text box.

The resulting data appears local and the user can browse the results in Explorer.

Thumbnails and icons are carried over to the Windows 7 machine. Drag-and-drop works intuitively, as in a regular Windows Explorer interaction.

Added user functionality includes the ability for the user to go from Windows Explorer to the web site where the data is located for working data directly.

Common file dialog comes in to play, and users can search for and open documents remotely from any application that uses the common file dialog.

Federated search woks using search connectors, which are XML files. The XML file contains the information Windows 7 needs to connect to the remote site.

The Windows 7 machine queries the remote site and the results come back as Atom or RSS feeds.
Windows Explorer interprets the results and displays the feed as if it was a local file system item. On of the advantages of this is that network traffic is reduced--the files never get moved until the user wants to open one.

Microsoft’s TechNet has more detail on how to get your data store connected to Windows 7.

Security is built on the Windows authentication stack and consequently has firewall-friendly features. Federated search works seamlessly with DirectAccess in Windows 7.

DirectAccess is Microsoft’s Virtual Private Network (VPN) killer, which can be used to connect remote machines to a corporate network without using cumbersome VPNs.

Search connectors are easy to deploy. Opening a search connector file places a shortcut in the user’s favorites in Windows Explorer.

Group Policy can be utilized to pin search connectors to the Start Menu once the search connectors are on the client’s machine.

It won’t work the other way around. You can’t set Group Policy and then deploy a file—the pinned link will fail.

Microsoft has a guide to Windows 7 Federated Search implementation.

It explains how to build a basic web search service that works with the Windows OpenSearch provider for federated search. You can read it here.