Insider build comes with new search preview feature

May 10, 2018 09:59 GMT  ·  By

It’s not a secret that the Windows 10 search feature hasn’t been exactly, well, flawless, but Microsoft is working on refining it with insider builds ahead of the public launch of Redstone 5.

One of the features that Microsoft is testing right now is called search previews, and it technically comes down to previews for the searches that you perform on the desktop.

Microsoft first started exploring the idea of adding previews for Windows 10 searches last year with support for web links, and with Windows 10 build 17666, this approach is being expanded to apps, documents, and others.

As you can see in the screenshots here, search previews let you perform certain tasks substantially faster. Searching for a browser, for instance, enables you to launch the app, open an incognito tab, run it as administrator, or even remove the app completely. Some of these options are available in the live tile context menu, but with search previews, you can do everything faster.

Searching info on the web

But this feature isn’t all about finding apps on the system. Search previews use the power of Bing to find quick answers from the web, such as locations, dates, and so much more. This doesn’t mean everything’s flawless already. As you can see in the example below, we tried to search for “president’s day 2019,” but the preview instead displayed the date for year 2017.

Microsoft says it’ll continue to improve search previews in Windows 10 with the upcoming builds, but you can try it already if you’re part of the Fast or Skip Ahead rings. Don’t expect perfect performance, however, but this is the kind of feature that grows on you the more you use it.

The Redstone 5 update is projected to launch in the fall, with the current schedule pointing to the RTM to be finalized in September, ahead of the debut in October.

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Windows 10 Search Preview in Redstone 5
Windows 10 Search Preview in Redstone 5Windows 10 Search Preview in Redstone 5
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