Internet Explorer has this feature that lets you add search commands to the address bar. For example, with some registry hacks you can make it so that typing "imdb Lord of the Rings" will do an IMDB search. The registry schema is described in more detail here and here and here and probably many other places...

Well, it turns out the search box in the Start menu for Windows Vista Beta 1 has a similar feature. So now you can just hit the Windows key, and then type (for example) "msdn IShellFolder" + <Enter> to do an MSDN search for IShellFolder. In Beta 1, the registry key for programming this is different from the one used for IE, but look for these two be unified in Beta 2. Care of my colleague Bret who owns the start menu search box -- one of my favorite Windows Vista features -- here are some that we've been using: 

//
// Note, this schema will not be supported in Beta 2, instead
//  it will be unified with the IE schema for doing this.
//
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
                 CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage\Alias]
"msdn"="http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?
                            qu=%s&View=msdn"
"msn"="http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=%s"
"stock"="http://moneycentral.msn.com/scripts/webquote.dll?Symbol=%s"
"urban"="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%s"
"imdb"="http://us.imdb.com/find?q=%s"
"wiki"="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s&go=Go"