Systems and methods for article location and retrieval are described. In one described method, the normal processing of an operating system call associated with a dialog control is interrupted, and a search dialog control is displayed. The search dialog control is associated with an index comprising a plurality of events. Each of the plurality of events may be associated with at least one of a plurality of client applications and at least some of the plurality of events can be captured in real time. Each event may be associated with one or more articles.