I’ve decided to compile the information I’ve found useful when reading about the MSN Toolbar Suite beta.
NEW 7/13/2005 - If you're just stumbling upon my blog, a lot has happened since this post:
1) I've been hired by MS.
2) We have released the MSN Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search
3) We've released an SDK!
Tips and Tricks:
· Installing on Windows Server 2003 THIS IS NOW SUPPORTED IN THE CURRENT RELEASE. PLEASE UPGRADE BY VISITING HTTP://desktop.msn.com
o Run “MSNToolbarSuiteSetup_en-us.exe /c” to unpack and then
“msiexec /i MsnToolbarSuite.msi TBSDEVCODE=1“
THIS IS UNSUPPORTED, and though it installs, you may encounter problems. There, you're warned ;) Numerous reports have been that it works fine, however.
I'm hoping to hear from the MSN DS team soon about whether the next release will address this issue, and when we'll get a 64-bit version.
· Don’t like the buttons on the DeskBar?
o Open Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSN Apps\DB
Next, add a DWORD value with the name of "Buttons" and change the value of "Buttons" to "1". On your toolbar, uncheck the MSN Deskbar to clear it from your toolbar then re-check it to add it again without the buttons.
· Keyboard shorcuts. If you set the shortcut to “Shift+S” you can use “Windows Key + S” to open the deskbar. Same for any other letter.
· Type “=” followed by a “run” command to execute it (ie. “=cmd” will open a command prompt).
· Type “@” in the bar to see some information about shortcuts you can add.
o If you type “@cmd,=cmd” you can create a shortcut that will open a command prompt when you type “cmd” and press enter.
o You can use the “$w” parameter to specify an input field for your shortcut. For an example, see below.
· You can add UNC paths to the index list. Thusly, you can search any anonymously accessible network shares, such as \\jonscomputer\music
Custom Searches:
As I said above, the $w parameter allows you to make custom search queries. For instance, you can type @google,http://www.google.com/search?q=$w to create a google query. Then, when you want to run a google search, just type google something to search google for “something”.
Furthermore, you can see a list of your current shortcuts by looking in the \Documents and Settings\YourName\Application Data directory for the file MsnDeskbarShortcuts.ini.
· Here are some of mine:
NEW
ra==runas /user:administrator $w
rc==runas /user:administrator cmd
word= =winword
cmd= =cmd
d=http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=$w
g=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=$w
kb=http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;$w
m=http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$w
rl=http://411.com/search/Reverse_Phone?phone=$w
gg=http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=$w
If you find those useful, you can paste them right in to your MsnDeskbarShortcuts.ini file (you may have to reload the toolbar to make them work, not sure).
Links
MSN Search Blog
Channel 9 interview + demo with the Silicon Valley MSN Search team – Very cool.
Channel 9 interview + demo with the Redmond MSN Search Team – haven’t watched this one yet.
DeskbarShortcuts.com
Full listing of advanced search syntax
Gary Boone on using the DeskBar to launch custom scripts! Cool Samples included!
Channel 9's list of Desktop Search Hacks - VERY nice list.