The search omnibox lives at the center of Home. It searches your local PC and your Microsoft 365 files at the same time and shows the results together.
Starting a search
Click the omnibox — the big search pill hinting “Find a file, or ask me to organize your workspace…” — and start typing. You can also focus it from anywhere on the dashboard with Alt + S.
Results appear as you type. Dockli waits a beat after each keystroke before searching, so fast typing never spams the service, and a ✕ clears the box.
What it searches
Dockli runs a federated search: every query fans out across both the local Windows index and Microsoft Graph, and the results come back grouped by where they live. Cloud sources are listed first, each capped at five results so a chatty source can’t crowd the list:
| Section | What it covers |
|---|---|
| OneDrive | Your personal OneDrive for Business. |
| SharePoint | SharePoint sites you can access. |
| Teams | The libraries behind your Microsoft Teams. |
| This PC | Local files from the Windows Search index. |
Only sections with hits are shown. Filename matches rank first, then the newest items.
Local results need the Windows indexer
The This PC section relies on the Windows Search indexer. If it’s turned off or a folder isn’t indexed, local files won’t appear — cloud results are unaffected. See Troubleshooting files and seats.
Opening a result
Each result shows its file-type icon, name, and a subtitle with its path (and size, when known). Clicking a result opens it the smartest way for what it is:
| Result | What happens |
|---|---|
| Local file | Opens in its default Windows app, in the foreground. |
| Local folder | Opens in File Explorer. |
| Cloud folder | Drills into it right inside Dockli — no browser. |
| Cloud Office document | Opens in the desktop app (Word / Excel / PowerPoint) in co-authoring mode. |
| Other cloud file | Opens as-is (for example a PDF in your browser). |
Everything opens through Windows directly, so there’s no browser “Do you want to open this app?” prompt.
Empty, loading, and zero states
- Before you type — a hint reads “Type to search files across this PC and Microsoft 365.”
- While searching — subtle skeleton rows fill the dropdown so it doesn’t jump.
- No matches — Dockli shows “No results found for “
query”.”
Voice input
The omnibox has a microphone for dictation, so you can speak your search instead of typing. In plain search it just dictates into the box as you speak. See Voice dictation.
Search versus Ask Dockli
The omnibox is for finding files. Flip on the ✦ AI Mode toggle and the same box becomes a conversation with the assistant, which can organize your workspace, not just search it. That’s a different mode entirely — see Ask Dockli overview and Using the assistant.
Where to go next
- Talk to the assistant → Using the assistant
- Dictate instead of type → Voice dictation