14 DAY TRIAL // The search feature that is bundled with Windows 10 has long been criticized by adopters of the operating system for various reasons, including the web search that comes baked in and which sometimes causes more harm than good.
And while Microsoft refines the search experience with minor improvements in new Windows 10 feature updates, a developer has decided to take matters into their own hands and build a search experience inspired by the one in macOS.
The search app, called SpotlightX and maintained as part of this project on GitHub, looks similar to the search feature that Microsoft has recently added to PowerToys, although it does come with a few extras, as the developer themselves explains.
Microsoft working on its own search app
For example, you can autocomplete searches by pressing Tab (if you press the key several times you can cycle through suggestions) and search the web without using Bing or Microsoft Edge.
“I've recently been getting annoyed at the useless W10 search as half the time it doesn't even do what I want it to, or autocomplete correctly, or search with the search engine and browser I want,” the developer explains.
“So, inspired heavily by the simplistic MacOS bar-style search that pops up on your screen, I've made this. You can activate it using Alt+S (though I might change this at a later date), and it'll pop up and disappear whenever you click off or enter the command, with no hassle or slow response in between at all.”
Without a doubt, this is a welcome app, but at the same time, the good news is that Microsoft is also working on something similar as part of PowerToys. Of course, we shouldn’t expect the company to make this or the PowerToy the default search experience in Windows 10, or at least not anytime soon, but this new app expands the available choices to replace the default search in the OS.