It's easy to forget that Google is not the only player in the search business, even if it has become a verb as far as the Oxford Dictionary. If you feel the need for a desktop search engine it is also worth considering the Windows Desktop Search from Microsoft.

Vista of course has the new search tool built into the Start Menu and it is genuinely very good. Writing a feature on the subject gave me the opportunity to get to know the search tool and it is worth the time getting used to it.

A good place is the Vista Team Blog who wrote a very helpful article on the subject of search.

Windows XP users can add some of the searching ability to their computers with the Windows Desktop Search. It's not quite as fast as the Vista search but does look through documents and Outlook emails.