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By default, when I type a search query into the Instant Search box in Outlook 2007, it searches the contents of the current folder only. So if I'm reading emails in my Inbox and I type the word "test" in the search box, the search results will display any emails in my Inbox that have the word "test" in the subject, in the From field, or in the message body.

What if I want to find such messages in any message folder and not just my current folder? If I only need to do this occasionally then the simplest way to do this is to type "test" in the search box, wait a moment for the search results to appear, and then scroll down to the bottom of these results and click the "Try searching again in All Mail Items" link that is displayed at the bottom of your search results. Or if you don't like scrolling, you can do it this way instead: start by clicking the down arrow at the right of the search box and select "Search all mail items" from the menu that appears, then type "test" to get your results.

But what if you want to always search all mail folders instead of just your current folder? In that case, you must configure Instant
Search to default to searching all folders instead of the current folder. To do this, click the down arrow at the right of the search box and select "Search Options" to open the Search Options dialog box. At the bottom of this box, where it says "When searching, show results from" select the "All folders" option instead of the "Only the currently selected folder" option. Now whenever you type something into your search box, Outlook will search all your message folders instead of just the current folder.

Why would you want to do search all folders anyways instead of some specific folder? Well, if you're like me, you've probably created a tree of folders and subfolders under Personal Folders for storing different kinds of messages you receive. And if you're like me, you are probably bad at dragging messages into the appropriate folder and as a result your wonderfully planned organizational scheme becomes all mucked up. So because I'm procrastinator, and careless, I usually find it easier to search for a message I received from "Susan" at Company X about an "Invoice" I had sent her by searching all folders for "from:Susan subject:Invoice" than by browsing or searching my Personal Folders\Company X\Invoices folder where such messages are supposed to be (but often aren't) saved by me.



And by the way, if you haven't discovered Advance Query Syntax for Windows Desktop Search yet, go to here where you'll find a quick summary of available commands with examples.

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