At the moment even I'm using Natty version of Ubuntu, my virtualbox machine auto change the UI of startmenu that I would find the searchbox any more.
I'm looking for way to search & execute applications quickly like I do in Windows 7 - rather than looking for it by nake-eye with the classic menu
Please help if you know how. Thank you.
Try to install Unity 2D:
It's similar to Unity but built on Qt and doesn't need compiz to run. So, you will never miss it.
Another way to fix things is to figure out what happened to 3D-support in your Virtual Box. Seems like it turned off and that's why you got GNOME2 desktop as fallback.
BTW, don't install Gnome Shell if you not sure what are you doing. All things in 11.04 built on top of GNOME 2 and it will be hard to get back to Unity or Unity 2D if you install GNOME 3. It's ok to use Gnome Shell in 11.10.
Try the Mint Linux startup menu, there is a search box and it looks like it will fit your needs
There is a PPA for nauty so you can just add it and install it using these commands on a terminal
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/mintmenu && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mintmenu
Credits got to webupd8.org for maintaining the PPA.
Both Gnome 3 and Unity provide a box with searching capability like that in Windows 7.
You also might try Alt + F2. Brings up a search box where you can enter either names of apllictions or exact paths. Woks in Gnome 2 by default
