Searching and Organizing One interesting new feature in Windows 7's Explorer is called "libraries." Essentially it's a way of making like content scattered in various folders easily accessible-something akin to Vista's virtual folders. The OS will ship with several predefined libraries-for documents, music, pictures, and video-but you can create your own based on whatever criteria you choose, such as file type, date created, music genre, and so on.

Libraries figure actively in Windows 7's improved search: Results are orgaŹnized based on libraries rather than on file locations. And with the new federated searches capability, you might, for example, search for pictures across the photo libraries of all the computers that are in your HomeGroup.