Advanced Search Options

The advanced search provides powerful search options to produce a more specific result set, depending on your requirements. After providing a search query, you can select any other advanced options that you want and then click the arrow to start your search.
The product and any other search options you change are saved in a session cookie and retained during the session you are connected the Microsoft Support site.

Search Product: Click the Specify a product or version link to select the appropriate Microsoft product that you want to search on, or accept the default All Products option.

For: This is a required field. Type the words you expect to find in the pages that contain your answer. Do not use noise words such as “the,” “in,” or “on.” Use words that describe the problem or exact error message. After you have provided the search query, select any other advanced the options that you want, and then click the arrow to start your search.

For a list of frequent used keywords and query words, view the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article 242450, “How to query the Microsoft Knowledge Base by using Keywords and query words.”

Search In: International Help and Support site users may see the Search In option. This option allows the user to select the language of the Knowledge Base (KB) articles that they want to search.

Show results for: The Show results for option appears when you select a specific product to search. This option allows you to select how you want the search result list to appear. The options are "This product only" or "This product first".

"This product only" means that only articles that match the product you selected will be searched. "This product first" means that all product articles will be searched, but those that match the product selected, will appear first. The default product filter option is “This product only” .

“This product first” is useful when a user may not be if a problem is related to an application or the operating system they are using. If multiple applications are running, the problem or error may be unclear about the product that the underlying issue is associated with. For example, an Outlook user receives an error. That error may appear to be related to the Outlook client but might actually be caused by the underlying operating system, or even by Exchange Server.

Search Type: You can use search more efficiently by selecting different types of search depending on your requirements.

• Full Text is the default search type, and this will search the whole article for the search words entered.
• Title Only will match the search words in an article title. The title words do not have to be in the exact order, and the article body will not be searched. This should result in faster search performance.
• Article ID will match the specific KB article ID number. If Article ID is selected, the number entered a must be a valid Knowledge Base article number, for example type 235678 in the For field and select Article ID. If an article ID exists for the entered number, that article will be returned, regardless of the products that you may have selected.
• Error Message will match words in an error message. If you select Error Message in the Search Type box, type all or part of the error message to find articles that reference the error. If you type the error message, the Using field is ignored in the search.

Using: The Using options specify how the search program will search for words in the search query. Select one of the following options:

• All of the words entered (default) shows pages that contain all the words in the For box. For example, if you type “sound volume” in the For box, the search results will be pages that contain both sound and volume.
• Any of the words entered shows pages that contain one for more of the words typed, in any order. For example, if you type “sound volume” in the For box and select this option, the search results will be articles that contain either sound or volume.
• The exact phrase entered shows pages that contain all the words entered, in the exact order typed.Boolean (text contains AND/OR) customizes your search to include or exclude words or groups of words by using Boolean expressions:
• AND shows pages that contain both of the words specified.
• OR shows pages that contain either of the words specified.
• AND NOT shows pages that do not contain the word specified.

Note that if you do not use text containing AND, OR, or AND NOT, the Boolean search results will show pages matching all words specified in any order (AND).

Modified: The Modified options specify a date range that the articles were modified. This can focus your search results. The default is AnyTime.

Results: The Results options specify how the search results will appear. By default, all Results are enabled. The following result options are as follows:

• Show Categorized Results If this option is selected, and it is enabled by default, the search results will appear in groups specified in the Categories section.
• Community Solutions When the Community Solutions check box is selected, articles written by customers and Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) will be included in your search results. See more details about Community Solutions. These articles will appear with the Community Solutions icon.
• Show Automated Translations This option will be available for some international Help and Support sites. When the Automated Translations check box is selected, articles that have been automatically translated will appear your result set. These items will appear with an automated translation icon.

Categories: If you select categorized results, you can select or clear all the categories that you want to be included (or excluded) in your search results. By default, all categories are enabled. Categories may vary between countries/regions. The primary categories are:

• Troubleshooting category results show KB articles that describe how to fix a problem or have information about a virus.
• Tips and How Tos category results show KB articles that describe a feature or describe how to perform a task.
• Downloads category results show KB articles that contain content that links to the Download Center, the Office Update site, or the Windows Update site. It also includes hotfix or security bulletin information.
• MSDN Content category provides in-depth technical content, including references, technical articles, downloads, and code samples, for all developer-related Microsoft product and technologies.
• TechNet Content category provides content that is geared toward IT Professionals. It provides information about technology issues, security and virus information, IT Solutions, and community resources.

When search results are categorized, the five most relevant articles in each category will be returned. If there are more then five results, a More link will be listed after the fifth article that will go to a page with all hits for the search query.

Note If you clear all the Categories check boxes, your results will display with all categories, effectively resetting the default of all the categories selected.