Brandon Paddock, who works on Search on the Windows dev team, took some time away from the office to develop a very useful add-on to Windows Vista’s already amazing search capabilities. In Windows Desktop Search for Windows XP, there was a functionality called “Deskbar Shortcuts� that allowed you to associate words and phrases with commands or searches you executed on a regular basis. Brandon has brought that functionality to Windows Vista with his Start++ tool.

For instance, using Start++, Windows Vista’s Start Menu Search Bar becomes an internet search tool wherein you input pre-assigned keywords or phrases and your search terms, then have it conduct a search using engines like Wikipedia, Live Search, or even the Internet Movie Database. I can configure Start++ so that when I type “w Windows Vista� into the Start Menu Search Bar when Start++ is running, it will open up a browser window in Wikipedia with the search results for “Windows Vista�.

Start++ can also serve as a command line interface to open specific applications or perform other tasks. For example, you might use it to initiate playback of specific songs or artists in Windows Media Player. I can configure it so that typing “play switchfoot� puts all corresponding tracks on my system into an .m3u playlist and opens Windows Media Player with the tracks ready for playback.

Start++ comes with a configuration guide to that to get you started customizing it. You can of course can add your own shortcuts and commands as well.

Download: Latest release of Start++

Vista Blog

Microsoft, Windows Vista, Start++, Add-on, Software