This message discusses the usefulness of the Start Menu Search.  It is my strong impression that most people don't use it nearly to its advantage.

I may not have said this here before but for those who dislike ribbons in Windows, you may well never have to use them.  It may be that the only settings you will want to change will be in what used to be called folder options and I believe is now called File Explorer Options.

The usefulness of using the start menu search is something that should be really emphasized but I almost never see it discussed.  Windows usually has more than one way to do something and this is an example.

Rather than opening the ribbons and looking for how to open File Explorer Options, you can very quickly and conveniently open it from the start menu search.
Open start menu search, type file options and File Explorer options will be the result you are on. 
Press enter and the familiar dialog will come up that you've worked with in Windows going far back.  Find folder options in the same way in the dialog as you did in many earlier versions of Windows. 

You can find all sorts of things very conveniently with start menu search. 

Suppose I want to open programs and features.  I can search for that or I can search for uninstall program or uninstall a program or something you thing will show Programs And Features in the results.  The start menu search is designed to find something many times even if you don't know the proper name but search for what you want to do.

If I want to find Windows Updates, I search for  Windows updates.  Often, people give many steps to get to something, open settings with Windows key i, find and open this, then find and open something else, and maybe more steps.  I see this all over.

You can often find what you want by typing what you want to find.  You may not but you may often enough to try that before the longer procedure.

Gene

The start menu search in modern Windows is really indispensable once you use it, and I can honestly say that there was a time when I did not.

I barely use desktop shortcuts anymore because it's so much quicker to hit the Windows Key and start typing the first several characters of whatever program it is I'm looking to fire up (or Windows feature I'm trying to locate and work with).

It has far more power than even you have implied (which is not a criticism - it has so many ways it can be used and options to fine-tune searches that there is no way to cover them all and still be brief).

And as you so accurately pointed out, "fuzzy search logic" which allows you to enter what you think something is called, or should be called, but having what it actually is turn up is just amazing.  That same feature is also built in to the Windows Settings search as well.

And none of these things existed in their current forms prior to Windows 8.1, some not prior to Windows 10.  They can and do take a lot of the tedium out of trying to find exactly what it is you're looking for.  There are also many, many tutorials out there on the many features of the Windows Search.
--

Brian - Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

   ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

This message discusses the usefulness of the Start Menu Search. It is
my strong impression that most people don't use it nearly to its advantage.

I may not have said this here before but for those who dislike ribbons
in Windows, you may well never have to use them. It may be that the
only settings you will want to change will be in what used to be called
folder options and I believe is now called File Explorer Options.

The usefulness of using the start menu search is something that should
be really emphasized but I almost never see it discussed. Windows
usually has more than one way to do something and this is an example.

Rather than opening the ribbons and looking for how to open File
Explorer Options, you can very quickly and conveniently open it from the
start menu search.
Open start menu search, type file options and File Explorer options will
be the result you are on.
Press enter and the familiar dialog will come up that you've worked with
in Windows going far back. Find folder options in the same way in the
dialog as you did in many earlier versions of Windows.

You can find all sorts of things very conveniently with start menu search.

Suppose I want to open programs and features. I can search for that or
I can search for uninstall program or uninstall a program or something
you thing will show Programs And Features in the results. The start menu
search is designed to find something many times even if you don't know
the proper name but search for what you want to do.

If I want to find Windows Updates, I search for Windows updates. Often,
people give many steps to get to something, open settings with Windows
key i, find and open this, then find and open something else, and maybe
more steps. I see this all over.

You can often find what you want by typing what you want to find. You
may not but you may often enough to try that before the longer procedure.

Gene

The start menu search in modern Windows is really indispensable once you use it, and I can honestly say that there was a time when I did not.

I barely use desktop shortcuts anymore because it's so much quicker to hit the Windows Key and start typing the first several characters of whatever program it is I'm looking to fire up (or Windows feature I'm trying to locate and work with).

It has far more power than even you have implied (which is not a criticism - it has so many ways it can be used and options to fine-tune searches that there is no way to cover them all and still be brief).

And as you so accurately pointed out, "fuzzy search logic" which allows you to enter what you think something is called, or should be called, but having what it actually is turn up is just amazing.  That same feature is also built in to the Windows Settings search as well.

And none of these things existed in their current forms prior to Windows 8.1, some not prior to Windows 10.  They can and do take a lot of the tedium out of trying to find exactly what it is you're looking for.  There are also many, many tutorials out there on the many features of the Windows Search.
--

Brian - Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

   ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gene,

No argument from me.  I still use desktop shortcuts, just not to the extent that I once did.  

As a sighted user, even after all these years dealing with creating keyboard shortcuts for others, I do not tend to use these myself.  I "point and click" a lot more than using a keyboard shortcut.  But, and this is why I use fewer desktop shortcuts overall, is that it takes me more time to get to the desktop then point and click than it does to hit the windows key and type, and it usually doesn't take even 5 keystrokes after the Windows key to get exactly what I want as the first search result.

But, as in all things, Windows gives many different ways to achieve the same end.  The mix that's right for any one of us may be just awful (or perhaps just not liked as much) by others.

Windows has given many more proverbial "roads to Rome" in the Windows 10 and Windows 11 era and some of them, like Windows Search, are like little miracles once you explore them.  Many users have no idea that any of these new roads to old destinations even exist.  They are missing something, even if they decide one of them is not for me after trying it (more than for 2 seconds, too - a fair trial is required).

I hated the WinKey and type method of invoking Windows Search (as opposed to using the search box or search button on the taskbar) for quite a while, "on principle," until I started to use it.  Then my principles changed.  I was seduced.
--

Brian - Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

   ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.